BOSTON — The Legislature is set to begin negotiations over additional funding and reforms to the state’s beleaguered emergency shelter system, which has been overwhelmed by a historic surge of asylum seekers.
Both the state House of Representatives and Senate have approved supplemental budget bills that include money for migrant housing and proposed changes to the rules for staying in emergency shelters. But differences between the bills need to be worked out by a six-member conference committee before they head to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk.
On Monday, the House named its three-member negotiating team to the panel, which includes state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester. The Senate is expected to name its negotiators later this week. The panel, which would likely meet behind closed doors, will hammer out a final bill for an up-or-down vote in the Legislature.
House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-Quincy, acknowledges that there are differences between the two bills that need to be worked out, but said both chambers are “rowing in basically the same direction” on the need to reform the emergency housing program.
“We understand the crisis that this is going to put on our budget, and on our service providers and everyone else that is involved in dealing with the huge influx of immigrants,” Mariano told reporters Monday. “We’ll continue to talk. … And as long as we keep moving in the same direction we’ll be able to navigate this.”
A major sticking point in the negotiations is expected to be proposals to set time limits on stays in emergency shelters.
The House version of the bill limits the amount of time families can spend in state-run shelters to nine months for single adults or a year for most families. But the Senate bill allows multiple three-month extensions for housing if migrants have applied for a work permit, if they are a veteran, or a single parent of a child with a disability.
Both sides will also need to agree on a figure for additional funding to keep the state’s emergency shelter system running. The House bill calls for $245 million over the next year, while the Senate version would allocate about $800 million over the next two years.
The Healey administration says the state needs additional funding for the emergency shelter system by “early spring,” but hasn’t set a specific deadline when the program would run out of money.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Aaron Michlewitz — a member of the committee that will work out differences between the bills — said while the state’s fiscal outlook is relatively strong, the cost of caring for thousands of newly arrived migrants is the biggest current financial challenge.
“Massachusetts is also seeing a migrant crisis like no other state in the nation, one that has put our emergency family shelter system and our budget at a breaking point at the moment,” he said in live-streamed remarks on Monday.
Democrats who pushed the spending bills through both chambers on largely partisan votes argue that the additional funding and reforms are aimed at preventing a collapse of the state’s beleaguered shelter system.
Republicans have argued that record spending on emergency shelter will crowd out education spending and other priorities in the upcoming budget, with the state’s revenue benchmarks coming in below projections for several months.
On Monday, Healey took steps to set new restrictions on migrants and other homeless families who are being housed at large-scale “overflow” sites that were set up in response to the shortage of beds in state-run shelters.
Under the new rules, which go into effect May 1, migrant families staying in those sites will be required to document every month that they are searching for work and permanent housing or risk being denied shelter
But the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy coalition said it is “deeply concerned” about the plan and that “forcing families to reapply for emergency shelter each month will create unnecessary red tape, sow confusion, and ultimately, place more families on the street.”
“Implementing deadlines will solve little when immigrants are already striving to leave the emergency shelter system and provide for themselves and their families as quickly as possible,” Elizabeth Sweet, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement.
She said state and federal leaders should “focus on providing community service organizations the resources they need to support arrivals in pursuing work authorization, long-term housing, and case management services.”
But Healey said the restrictions are necessary as the state continues to grapple with an ongoing influx of asylum seekers who have pushed the emergency housing system to the brink, and with little help coming from the federal government.
“I think it’s an appropriate and responsible measure,” Healey told reporters Monday. “It’s necessary to set requirements and ensure that people are fulfilling those requirements to continue to be allowed to stay in these safety net sites.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.