State sued over Mass. rental assistance program’s paused third year
October 29, 2026
As demand for the state’s emergency shelter beds ballooned in early 2025, along with the strain on its homelessness prevention programs, the Healey administration asked lawmakers to provide funding for its rental subsidy program HomeBASE. The funds would cover two years for eligible families, with the possibility of a third year.
The Legislature agreed. Then, a week before the governor signed the annual state budget into law, her housing office announced an indefinite pause on all approvals for the third year of assistance.
Families who had been planning on the additional year got a fierce shock. And two single mothers facing imminent eviction are now suing the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which runs the program, to maintain the third year of coverage.
“Without that HomeBASE stabilization,” lawyers for a woman referred to as Jane Doe wrote, “[she] and her young son are at risk of eviction every month.”
HomeBASE, developed in 2011 to stabilize families in the state’s shelter system, provides case workers and financial assistance to low-income families in Massachusetts facing homelessness and determined to be emergency shelter eligible by the state. The program provides up to $30,000 in rental subsidies over two years, and lawmakers in 2023 added language to the budget line item stating that families that completed the two years and remained eligible could receive a third year of coverage of $15,000 or more.
Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Catherine Hyo-Kyung Ham on Wednesday heard from lawyers representing HomeBASE recipients Doe and Kinisha James. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction ordering the state to provide a third year of HomeBASE stabilization services, including the $15,000 in funding.
“We’re really trying to keep these two single mothers in their homes so they’re not evicted by Thanksgiving,” said Elizabeth Alfred with Greater Boston Legal Services, which is representing Doe and James.
The state housing office asked the court to dismiss the suits.
More Context
- Compassion and costs collide in shelter debate (February 2025)
- Holyoke’s unsheltered homeless count hits new record as threats to federal aid loom (February 2026)
Published by MassINC