Next week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives will debate and decide their proposed FY2027 state budget.
This is the time to ask them to co-sponsor our Network’s priority budget amendments to prevent and end homelessness in our region.
Please copy and paste here or below into an email and send to your State Representative (find their contact info here), with a simple request to “please co-sponsor” these Network’s priorities.
ALSO: please take one minute to sign-on to:
Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless Action ; and
CHAPA’s Action, both of which that reflect the Network’s priorities as well.
The more cosponsors there are for a budget amendment, the more likely House leadership is to act on it. Your state representative ‘s co-sponsorship builds critical momentum.
Thanks for taking action by Friday, April 24 or at the latest Monday, April 27. Let’s go!
Western MA Network to End Homelessness Amendment Co-sponsorship Requests
- #352 – Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness (Rep. Sabadosa): $125,000 to facilitate regional coordination across Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties to prevent and end homelessness with a Housing First approach that centers racial equity
- #1707 – Upstream Homelessness Prevention (Rep. Decker): Increases RAFT benefit cap to $10,000/year and removes the requirement of having a notice to quit to qualify for assistance
- #1183 – Housing First Responders HCEC Restoration (Rep. Consalvo): Restores funding to the Housing Consumer Education centers to the FY2025 level of $8.974 million to provide critical support for people experiencing a range of housing challenges
- #1694 – Access to Emergency Shelter (Rep. Decker): Strikes the requirement for homeless families to present all necessary paperwork prior to entering shelter and expands length of stay to 9 months
- #35 – Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) (Rep. A. Ramos): Increases funding to $300 million for approximately 1,000 new vouchers
- #542 – Improvements to HomeBASE (Rep. Barber): Increases the cap on benefits to $50,000 per family over the first two years and up to $25,000 in subsequent years and makes other programmatic improvements to create long-term housing stability
- #1419 – Access to Counsel (Rep. D. Rogers): Provides a modest increase from $3 million to $4 million to provide low-income tenants and owner-occupants full legal representation in eviction proceedings
- #1291 – Access to Counsel Outside Section (Rep. Day) – Includes language from the bill to build a stable statewide access to counsel program that can grow incrementally subject to appropriation
- #709 – Department of Mental Health Rental Subsidy Program (Rep. Garballey): Increases funding to $23.5 million to preserve more than 2,500 vouchers
- #1671 – Rental Bridge Subsidies for Older Adults (Rep. Arriaga and Rep. Uyterhoeven): Creates a new short-term housing bridge subsidy program for lower-income older adults at risk of homelessness and adds $7.5 million to fund the expansion
- #812 – Housing and Services for Unaccompanied Youth Experiencing Homelessness (Rep. O’Day): Increases funding for youth homelessness to $12 million
- #1614 – Supportive Housing Flex Pool (Rep. Mendes): Seeds the Supportive Housing Pool Fund with $5 million to streamline and expand the production of housing for people who would otherwise experience homelessness
- #448 – Bridge to Prosperity Pilot (Reps. Arriaga and Duffy): $550,000 for the Economic Development Council to extend the Cliff Effects Pilot Program
- #456 – MA Healthy Homes Program (Rep. Arriaga): Provides $1 million to address issues such as mold, lead and asbestos to keep people in their homes
