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On Monday, October 25, the Commonwealth’s House Ways and Means (HWM) Committee released a bill that details how the state will spend the billions of dollars that Massachusetts received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). In total, the Commonwealth received $8.7 billion from the federal government, with $5.3 billion allocated to the state and $3.4 billion designated for municipalities.

Unfortunately, some key priorities that will help the most vulnerable of the state’s residents — those who this funding is supposed to help — were left out of the HWM bill. The bill includes no support for Right to Counsel, despite the fact that the COVID Eviction Legal Help Program (CELHP) has been successful in preventing evictions. There is also no increase in grants for children living in deep poverty.

President Biden and Congress made their priorities clear when they passed ARPA this past spring.  These funds are meant to help the most vulnerable, the people struggling to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, and have access to health care.  This current iteration of the bill is a good start, but does not go far enough in meeting those goals and investing in the Commonwealth’s human capital.

Governor Baker Signs Law that Will Ensure More Children Have Access to Free Lunches at School and Curtail Practice of Shaming Children with Meal Debt

Boston, Mass. (October 14, 2021) – The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) is celebrating the enactment of new legislation that addresses the challenge that children and families living in poverty face when it comes to unpaid school meal debt.  Governor Charlie Baker signed today the new law called An Act Promoting Student Nutrition, which was championed by State Senator Cynthia Stone Creem and State Representative Andy Vargas.

“We are grateful to Governor Baker and the Massachusetts legislature for taking seriously the need to change the meal debt practices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Georgia Katsoulomitis, MLRI’s executive director.  “No child should be made to feel uncomfortable at school because their family is unable to afford a school lunch. This new law will ensure that more children have access to free lunches at school and will put limits on how meal debt is collected.”

Today, the Massachusetts Senate passed H. 3999, An Act to Promote School Nutrition, which will address the challenge that children and families living in poverty face when it comes to unpaid school meal debt. You can learn more about this legislation on the MLRI blog or in Commonwealth Magazine.

“We are very pleased that the Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously passed this important Legislation. Children should never be caught in the middle of school meal debt, denied hot meals or prevented from participating in extracurricular activities or graduation due to unpaid meal debt,” said Patricia Baker, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute’s food security expert.

On September 4th, the pandemic-related unemployment benefits offered by the federal government ended. Those included:

• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), for many left out of traditional unemployment;
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which extended the weeks for regular unemployment;
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), an additional $300 a week for all claimants; and
• Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), an additional $100 to certain workers.

It’s a loss for so many vulnerable individuals and families struggling to put food on the table. In Massachusetts alone, more than 300,000 people have been impacted. There are many reasons individuals who lost unemployment are not able to access work right now – including child care barriers, lack of access to remote work jobs for those who are immunocompromised, concerns regarding the Delta variant of COVID-19, and more. For those who are able to access work, the hours or pay may not be consistent or pay a living wage. Benefits from the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) are a critical tool to ensure individuals and families can put food on the table.

So now what?

In July 2021, Massachusetts made further progress towards Lifting Kids Out of Deep Poverty with a 9.1 percent increase in cash assistance grants for families with children, elders, and people with disabilities. Thanks to the incredible advocacy and leadership of Senator Sal DiDomenico and Representative Marjorie Decker, together with 121 legislative co-sponsors of the Act to Lift Kids Out of Deep Poverty, the FY 2022 budget in July 2021 included this significant step forward.

MLRI is proud to lead, along with Greater Boston Legal Services, the Lift Our Kids Coalition, a group comprised of 147 organizations throughout Massachusetts committed to Lifting Kids Out of Deep Poverty in Massachusetts.

People living below half the poverty level – currently $915 a month for a family of three – are considered to be in Deep Poverty. In January 2021, the Legislature took a historic first step with a 10 percent increase in cash assistance grants, raising the maximum benefit for three from $593 a month to $652 a month. This was the first increase in two decades.

Twenty-five years ago this week, President Clinton signed “The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act” – better known as the Welfare Reform Act – into law. The bill was controversial at the time, especially among anti-poverty advocates who worried that the law’s impact on people living in poverty would be significant and significantly harmful.

Turns out our fears were very much founded.

The results of the law have been devastating. Income inequality has grown exponentially in the last thirty years. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, “the best survey data show that the share of wealth held by the top 1 percent rose from 30 percent in 1989 to 39 percent in 2016, while the share held by the bottom 90 percent fell from 33 percent to 23 percent.” There are many structural reasons for the concentration of wealth, not the least of which is the fact that sometime in the 1970s, wages and productivity decoupled, meaning that while people were working longer hours, that hasn’t been reflected in their paycheck. But it’s also not difficult to imagine that our porous social safety net has also played a role.

As inequality becomes more prevalent in our society and poverty ever more punitive, we all realize that the time has come to rebuild our safety net. It’s time to reform welfare reform.

Last week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed An Act Promoting School Nutrition (H.3999), which will address the challenge that children and families living in poverty face when it comes to unpaid school meal debt. That legislation, championed in the House by State Reps. Andres X. Vargas of Haverhill and Sean Garballey of Arlington, will both ensure that more students have access to free school meals and prevent school business practices that effectively punish or embarrass students when their families incur meal debt. The Senate is pending action on a similar bill filed by Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem, S. 298.

Patricia Baker, MLRI’s food security expert, noted:

“This legislation represents a major step by the Massachusetts House of Representatives toward boosting federal nutrition dollars for local schools and reducing the burden of school meal debt on families with children. In addition to requiring more schools with high numbers of low-income students to provide universal free meals, this legislation prevents schools from involving or punishing students for meal debt. As we work toward universal school meals for all, we deeply appreciate Speaker Mariano and House leadership in passing Rep Vargas’ bill.”

In 2018, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute issued a report that looked at unpaid school meal policies in 154 Massachusetts school districts and how they can become punitive towards children in low-income households. We also looked at how some other states across the nation were addressing this practice, a summary of which you can find in this opinion piece at WBUR.

On July 31st, the federal eviction moratorium, put in place as the pandemic took hold in 2020 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, expired. On August 3rd, the Biden Administration announced a moratorium that is similar but does not presently cover all Massachusetts residents – but it will give the Commonwealth time to act on the COVID Housing Equity bill, which we at MLRI are working diligently to see passed.

The reality is that even today tenants across Massachusetts continue to be at risk of eviction during this escalating public health crisis. Advocates fear confusion around the CDC order will result in displacement, and its expiration will bring a new wave of eviction cases. It’s worth noting that when the state allowed its moratorium to expire last fall, more than 19,000 people were sued for eviction and thousands of pending cases that were on hold resumed making their way through the court system.

At MLRI, we are urging tenants not to panic, not to move out, and to seek rental assistance and legal aid. The silver lining to this very dark cloud is that there are unprecedented amounts of federal funds available to help with rent and mortgage payments, utility assistance, and moving expenses. Tenants should apply immediately for assistance. There are also free legal services lawyers available to provide advice and representation, and community organizations to offer support and information.