FOR 40 YEARS, Massachusetts has had a right-to-shelter law, which requires the state to provide shelter to families with children as well as pregnant women. The law is attracting a lot of attention right now because the number of families seeking shelter has more than tripled since the start of the year, the cost to the state is up to $45 million a month, and Gov. Maura Healey recently declared a state of emergency, urging the federal government to address immigration reform and to streamline the process for obtaining work permits.

Rep. Peter Durant, a Republican from Spencer who is running for a seat in the state Senate, and Evan Horowitz, the executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, outlined very different perspectives on right to shelter on The Codcast but agreed that the state needs to do a much better job gathering information on the impact of the law, its cost, and the role of migrants in the recent crisis.

“We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the people of Massachusetts, especially those looking for housing. We owe it to them to understand this problem,” Durant said. “And we need to understand it in minute detail because this is costing us – we hear $45 million a month but the costs are exponentially more than that. That may be what you’re paying for some hotel rooms, and I would still argue that that is a very low number. We are also feeding them three meals a day. We’re giving them EBT cards. They’re eligible for MassHealth. There’s an enormous amount of money going out the door and we have no idea how much it is.”

Durant hedged a bit, but ultimately called for the repeal of the right-to-shelter law. “At least it starts the conversation on what we’re spending and how we can fix it,” he said.

The representative said one fix could be to make the right to shelter available only to US citizens. He said that would address the issue of migrants coming into the state.

Does Durant think the right-to-shelter law is the legal equivalent of a neon sign beckoning immigrants to Massachusetts?

“That’s kind of an interesting way to put it — a neon sign — but I do think for lack of a better term it is,” he said. “We have seen this over the years with our generous welfare state here in Massachusetts. You are seeing this in some of the cities that would be considered sanctuary cities. They are magnets.”

Horowitz doesn’t see it the same way.  

“If we have hung out a neon sign, that sign has been up for 40 years and it’s weird that we’re experiencing an acute problem right now,” he said. “There’s very little evidence that the promise of shelter for families is pulling people into the state.”

Horowitz said the law’s underlying goal of right to shelter is to prevent children from ending up on the street with no place to stay. “The idea is for children,” he said.

“If you’re going to make the claim that our right-to-shelter law is increasing immigration into our state, you would have to say relative to other states nearby,” Horowitz said. “But you know what? Lots of other states are seeing their shelter systems overwhelmed, are seeing rises in homelessness. That’s not unique to Massachusetts. We’re one of many states in the northeast and border states.”

Horowitz said immigrant asylum claims are up because more people are crossing into the US and many leaders in border states have started transporting the new arrivals to other states, including Massachusetts.

“That has changed the dynamic. But is right to shelter central to this? I don’t think so,” Horowitz said. He believes the housing crisis in Massachusetts is the primary driver of the rise in people seeking emergency shelter. He said more data on the problem are needed to verify the root causes, but he thinks the issue of homelessness in general is instructive.

“The evidence is really clear that the best predictor of homelessness rates is housing prices,” he said. “When housing prices are high, homelessness goes up.“

Durant agrees that the state is facing a housing shortage and more housing needs to be built. But he thinks the right-to-shelter law is exacerbating the problem and putting too great a burden on state taxpayers.

“I think those people that are coming across the border, coming across illegally, it’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s a crisis for our country,” he said. “I can’t help but think about human nature. When we provide free housing, free food, free medical care, who wouldn’t want to do that? It’s just logic that’s going to drive this population to find those things.”

He said Healey’s proposal to speed up the issuance of immigrant work permits could help address the problem, but worries that easing those rules could also take jobs away from US citizens. In the meantime, he said more people keep arriving in Massachusetts without the means to support themselves. “There seems to be no end in sight or a desire for an end in sight,” he said.

BRUCE MOHL

 

FROM COMMONWEALTH

 

Managed retreat: Communities in Massachusetts are starting to think seriously about “managed retreat” from the shoreline in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. Typically, the strategy starts with efforts to slow the pace of beach erosion and flooding but communities are coming to the long-term realization that more drastic action to move back from the shoreline will be necessary. Read more.

OPINION

Safeguarding democracy: Former US senator Timothy E. Wirth warns that Americans must prepare for what could come after the next presidential election – to make sure democracy survives. Read more.

 

FROM AROUND THE WEB

 

BEACON HILL

Rep. Michael Finn of West Springfield files legislation limiting how many migrants can be housed in one community’s hotel/motel rooms to distribute the burden around the state. (Gloucester Times)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was mugged as she paid a visit Saturday night to the Mass. and Cass area to get first-hand look at the troubled area. (Boston Globe) 

Yarmouth’s proposed open space and recreation draft plan, which will guide the town’s approach to preserving and improving natural assets, is available for public input. (Cape Cod Times)

Northborough has hired a second interim administrator, North Attleborough Assistant Town Manager Michael Gallagher, to replace the current interim administrator while its search for a permanent town administrator continues. (MetroWest Daily News)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

New rules that end a longtime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood were set in motion by a conversation eight years ago between Rochelle Walensky, then an infectious disease physician at Mass. General who went on to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Robbie Goldstein, a gay doctor she was mentoring, who is now the state’s public health commissioner. (Boston Globe) 

EDUCATION

Officials say the newly permanent free school lunch program should lessen stigma around food insecurity. (MassLive)

Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez discusses administration staffing numbers, staff resignations, refugee students, and more in a conversation with the Worcester Telegram before the new school year kicks off. 

Westport schools will introduce new programming, aimed at technical job training, into the curriculum this year. (New Bedford Standard-Times)

Yale University settles a lawsuit alleging the school pressured students with mental health issues to withdraw. (Associated Press)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Federal regulators are eyeing new, stricter safety standards for natural gas pipelines, rules that might have prevented the 2018 explosion in the Merrimack Valley caused by overpressurization. (Boston Globe)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Four people are facing gun charges after eight people were shot and wounded during the early morning hours celebration of the Caribbean “J’ouvert” carnival in Dorchester. (Boston Globe)

A double shooting shut down Worcester’s Caribbean American Carnival festivities, where two men exchanged gunfire and struck two bystanders. (Worcester Telegram)