This bill will improve access to existing services for homeless people and collect data to better understand the homelessness problem in the Commonwealth.

Homelessness is a serious problem in Massachusetts. While the Commonwealth is the 15th most populated state, we contain America’s sixth largest homeless population. households, 985 were veterans, and 2,122 were experiencing chronic homelessness.

The situation has been made more difficult by a lack of interagency coordination and insufficient data on the housing insecure population and the effectiveness of our anti-homelessness programs like HomeBASE.

The bill directs key state agencies to cooperatively write and release a report compiling data on homelessness as well as prevention efforts. The report would be required to include: the number of client households that have been identified as homeless and at risk of homelessness by each agency; the numbers of households receiving emergency assistance and also receiving benefits and services from a number of other social programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the transitional aid for families with dependent children program; data on the effectiveness of the HomeBASE program in reducing chronic homelessness; and other essential data.

Further, this bill also requires the state to establish a single joint telephone hotline for people to receive information and assistance on resources, eligibility and application processes for benefit and assistance programs. Additionally, the legislation requires the state agencies concerned with homelessness and housing insecurity (including the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development) to post on their website information on their benefit programs as well as how to access a benefits calculator.

This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to provide emergency housing assistance to families who, on the date of their application for emergency assistance, have an immediate need for help and who would otherwise be spending 1 night in a public or private place not designed as a regular sleeping accommodation (ex: car, park, abandoned building, medical facility, bus or train station, camp ground).

It would also require DHCD and the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to enter into a service agreement that would allow all department staff to access the BEACON Database (a database used for family’s documents) to ensure that all department staff working on a family’s eligibility would have access to all necessary data in an organized and clear location.

This legislation also recognizes the stressful nature of obtaining emergency housing, especially during times of emergency in the state. Because of that, it would allow during the COVID-19 pandemic or any subsequent state emergency for applicants to self-certify their documentation for eligibility so that there wouldn’t be any processing delays with staff located the proper documents and data. During a state of emergency it would also require DHCD to cease from terminating all emergency housing assistance program benefits and would waive the existing 12 month ban on re-entering emergency housing assistance for any family that meets other eligibility requirements.

Lastly, this bill would establish an ombudsperson unit within the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) to act as a liaison between families and the two programs within the DHCD. This ombudsperson would be a mediator and advocate for all applicants and participants in the emergency assistance shelter program, the related short-term housing transition program, and all emergency assistance and Massachusetts short-term housing programs.

The Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP) at Suffolk University Law School, in partnership with Analysis Group, recently completed a study measuring discrimination in the rental housing market in the Greater Boston area. It found that brokers show white prospective tenants twice as many apartments as Black prospective tenants, and that brokers screen out housing voucher holders 85% of the time.

Currently, only the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) may make a referral to the Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salespeople (BRREBS) seeking license suspension of a broker who engages in discriminatory practices. This bill would authorize any fair housing enforcement agency to make a referral to BRREBS. This bill would also make such a referral mandatory, instead of leaving it to the agency’s discretion.

This bill significantly raises penalties for brokers found to violate fair housing laws. It increases the penalty for a first offense from a 60-day license suspension to 180 days. A second violation occurring within four years would result in a one-year license suspension (vs. 90-day suspension under current law for a second violation occurring within two years of the initial violation).

Numerous other provisions in this legislation aim to impact the rampant discrimination uncovered through this study that exists in the Massachusetts housing and rental market.

To combat the impacts of unnecessary foreclosures in our communities, this bill would allow former homeowners to remain in their foreclosed homes as tenants, in limited circumstances. Reducing vacancies in foreclosed homes will mitigate homelessness and ensure property values do not decrease so that municipal tax bases are maintained. This bill would not only work to keep families in their homes, but also ensure local economic growth and success.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the Commonwealth was already experiencing a slight decline in home foreclosure sales. Today, those foreclosures have increased and are bound to continue to do so, as working households experiencing unemployment struggle to make ends meet. BIPOC individuals, like the BIPOC community in the City of Springfield, will be disproportionately impacted by the rise of foreclosures as the pandemic experiences an uptick in cases with new COVID-19 variants.

Since 2018, 351 homeowners have faced post foreclosure eviction cases. And, since 2018, 3,208 properties have been in danger of foreclosure with the bulk of those foreclosures occurring here in Springfield. It is inevitable that as the foreclosures increase so will vacancies of those foreclosed properties. Vacant homes resulting from foreclosures pose a major problem for communities, as these homes suffer from neglect, constitute a public safety hazard and cause local property values to decrease.