Massachusetts House leaders on Tuesday unveiled a $2.7 billion spending proposal that would delay Governor Maura Healey’s plan to limit the number of families in the state’s emergency shelter system if state officials don’t quickly stand up an overflow site to house those who land on a newly created waitlist for shelter.
House Democrats tied the restrictions to $250 million in new funding that would go toward managing the surge of homeless and migrant families that officials say have pushed the state’s shelter system to the brink.
L. Scott Rice, a retired US Air Force lieutenant general whom Healey appointed to lead the state’s response, said he expects the shelter system to hit a state-imposed 7,500-family limit Wednesday or Thursday. At that point, state officials will prioritize some homeless families over others for housing and move those not approved for shelter to a waitlist to idle for an unknown period of time.
There were 7,456 families in the system as of Tuesday, according to state data.
The Healey administration said Tuesday it also plans to use $5 million in federal funds to create a new grant program, run by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, to seed faith-based groups and other local organizations with money to set up overnight sites for those not given immediate shelter. Those could include community centers, schools buildings, or churches, state officials said.
But it was unclear Tuesday when those sites could be ready, and Rice said he did not know how many sites the funding could support, or how far the money could stretch.
The House signaled it’s prepared to fund even more options. The $250 million it proposed Tuesday matches what Healey first requested nearly two months ago, but it comes with several caveats. House leaders, for example, specified that $50 million must go toward creating a state-funded overflow site for those who land on the waitlist.
The House bill would also require that any overflow sites must open within 30 days. Should the state not do so, the 7,500-family limit would be “revoked” until the sites are stood up, according to the bill.
Healey said last week she also is considering limiting how long homeless families can remain in Massachusetts emergency shelters, a move that would be similar to new caps New York City put on homeless families there earlier this year.
But House leaders want tighter controls on that plan, too. New regulations Healey filed last week would allow state officials, with 30 days notice, to limit a family’s length of stay in the system; the House wants at least 60-days notice on any such change.
The proposal marks legislative leaders’ most forceful foray into the crisis that’s consumed the state shelter system and spurred calls from Healey for more federal help from the Biden administration and Congress.
Legislative officials have, to date, been circumspect in releasing more funds; they’ve pressed Healey for more information on the scope of the crisis and have echoed the need for federal assistance. The House’s funding proposal would also require her administration to provide monthly reports on how much the state is spending and how many migrant families are staying in state-subsidized hotels and motels.
“We can’t afford to fund this in perpetuity,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said Monday.
The Massachusetts House is expected to vote on the spending proposal on Wednesday, after which it would move to the state Senate.
A Healey spokesperson said the governor, who did not have any public events scheduled Tuesday, would review the bill should it reach her desk.
Rachel Heller, an affordable housing advocate and chief executive of Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, praised the House for seeking to expand the safety net for homeless families. But she also stressed policy makers need to remain focused on ways to help people exit shelters — without a mandated cutoff.
“The administration is struggling. They do not have the funds, and they are working very hard to help people find places to go,” she said. “But the more we focus on [simply] reducing the numbers rather than what it is needed to reduce the numbers we’re not necessarily getting the outcomes we need.”
Rice said Tuesday the state also plans to call up 75 more members of the National Guard to help staff hotels where homeless families are staying, pushing the total number of available Guard members to 375.
The effort with the United Way aims to create an option for families who don’t have one. Bob Giannino, president and chief executive of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, said the organization has begun identifying potential groups to stand up sites with the hopes of sheltering “thousands” on a short-term basis — though how many remains to be seen.
“It’s certainly going to be a heavy lift,” Giannino said. But, he added, it’s important to “get something in place as soon as possible as the colder temperatures arrive.”
For decades, homeless families have been guaranteed a roof over their heads under a 1980s-era law in Massachusetts, the only state in the country with a so-called right-to-shelter requirement. But the current statute makes the mandate “subject to appropriation” — in other words, the state is required to follow it only as long as it has enough funding.
Healey framed her decision to limit the system to 7,500 families as a difficult but necessary step to ease the burden on a new system that is running out of space, personnel, and money. Her plans survived a legal challenge last week, when a judge rejected a request from Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston advocacy group, to temporarily block her administration from capping the number of families allowed into shelters.
At the current pace, state officials estimate nearly 13,500 families could be in the shelter system by the end of June, a volume that would balloon the cost of the program to $1.1 billion this year. And, Healey administration officials said, if the state does not set a limit on how many families could enter the system — and it receives no other funding — the state would exhaust its current shelter budget by Jan. 13.
The newly proposed House funding was included in a wide-ranging spending bill that’s also designed to close the books on the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Lawmakers are expected to quickly pass it. They’re scheduled to end formal sessions for the year on Nov. 15, meaning the state Senate could vote on its own version of the spending bill by next week.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.