马萨诸塞州每月花费 7500 万美元用于庇护所，如果不注入现金可能会在 4 月份耗尽

【中美创新时报2024年3月23日讯】（记者温友平编译）马萨诸塞州每月在国营避难所上的支出约为 7500 万美元，由于州长莫拉·希利 (Maura Healey) 的政府预计在 4 月初至中旬将耗尽用于紧急服务的现金，而无需再次注入资金，因此支出大幅增加。随着时间的推移，众议院和参议院竞相制定新的住房支出计划。对此，《波士顿先驱报》记者克里斯·范·巴斯柯克作了下述报道。 

灯塔山立法者在新年的大部分时间里都在制定一项计划，以支付飙升的住房费用，而州收入一直低于预期，华盛顿没有提供任何帮助，对服务的需求继续维持在历史水平。

由于现金可能会在四月份的时间窗口之前耗尽，立法机关现在正陷入一项新支出计划的谈判，该计划可能会让希利在关键时刻获得美元。顶级预算编写者表示，他们有信心在时间耗尽之前找到妥协方案。

众议院筹款委员会主席亚伦·米赫勒维茨表示，他理解需要“尽快”就支出法案达成协议。

这位北端民主党人周五下午对《波士顿先驱报》表示：“我希望，一旦我们与同行进行讨论，我们将能够在资金耗尽的情况下，有时间拿出一些成果。”

行政和财务执行官发言人马特·墨菲没有透露希利政府是否有资金耗尽的工作日期。

“我们目前没有任何进一步的更新。我们对立法机关所取得的进展感到鼓舞，并期待与他们合作，尽快敲定补充预算，”他在一份声明中说。

参议院周四投票决定，允许希利在 2024 和 2025 财年获得最多 8.4 亿美元的资金用于支付住房费用，而众议院本月早些时候批准仅为本财年注资 2.45 亿美元。这两项法案都将在庇护所的时间限制为九个月，并且对于延长停留时间有不同的规则。

到目前为止，立法者已向希利政府在 2024 财年拨款 5.75 亿美元，以应对住房危机。因逃离本国危险环境的移民涌入而加剧的住房危机。

在上周发布的一份报告中，政府表示，截至 3 月 7 日，已在紧急避难服务上花费了 4.27 亿美元。预计下周将发布一份可能揭示最新财务数据的更新报告。

参议院筹款委员会主席迈克尔·罗德里格斯 (Michael Rodrigues) 表示，他对形势的“解读”是，资金可能会在 4 月的第一周或第二周枯竭，这一时间表使得众议院和参议院关于额外住房支出的审议变得很快。

“目前的支出速度确实不可持续，如果我们不采取行动，可能会进一步削弱我们解决联邦面临的时间敏感需求的能力。由于联邦政府未能在这场危机中采取行动提供援助，不幸的是，责任落到了我们英联邦的肩上。”他在周四的参议院会议上表示。

超过 7,500 个有儿童和孕妇的家庭居住在马萨诸塞州庞大的酒店、汽车旅馆和传统庇护所网络中。一半被认为是移民。

一些庇护所的客人可以获得一系列服务，从医疗保健到交通、食物到法律帮助。希利政府预计本财年将花费 9.32 亿美元，下财年将花费 9.15 亿美元用于紧急援助避难所。

罗德里格斯说，过去几年，正常的紧急避难所容量约为 4,100 个家庭，每月花费纳税人约 2,700 万美元。

2023 年 8 月，由于避难所很快就被填满，州长毛拉·希利 (Maura Healey) 宣布进入紧急状态，这一数字上升至每月 4500 万美元；而根据罗德里格斯的说法，随着新移民数量的不断增加，这一数字再次升至每月 7500 万美元。

马萨诸塞州纳税人基金会主席道格·豪盖特 (Doug Howgate) 表示，在 2024 财年，该州每月可能会发放高达 7800 万美元的住房需求，但控制危机的手段“只有这么多”。

豪盖特表示，立法者需要“高度关注”管理成本并将其降至更“可持续的水平”。

但豪盖特表示，如果要保持政府在 2024 和 2025 财年预计的约 9 亿美元的水平，“你就必须找到一种方法将其纳入（年度）预算。”

“我认为，如果你看看今年的预算，如果你必须立即将该行项目再增加 6 亿美元，这就是达到 900 美元所需的金额，你将面临 一些非常非常艰难的决定和一些非常糟糕的削减来做这样的事情，”他说。

在周四关于参议院避难所资金法案的辩论中，罗德里格斯表示，该州每月为每个家庭在避难所花费约 10,000 美元。

“持续不断的寻求庇护的移民潮不会很快消失，并且给我们的社区带来了巨大的挑战。目前，该州紧急避难所计划的预计成本处于不可持续的轨道上，”他说。

马萨诸塞州无家可归者联盟副主任凯利·特利 (Kelly Turley) 表示，这种计算可能过于简单化了每月的费用，“更加细致入微”。

“有资金用于其他服务，”她周五表示。 “我认为每月 7500 万美元是正确的，但不一定适合每个家庭，因为……这包括用于接待中心、国民警卫队、临床评估站点以及溢出站点的资金。”

题图：马萨诸塞州每月花费约 7500 万美元用于为当地家庭和移民提供庇护所，照片中他们睡在洛根机场。（Matt Stone/Boston Herald）

附原英文报道：

Massachusetts spending $75 million a month on shelters, cash could run out in April without infusion

House and Senate racing toward new shelter spending plan as clock ticks

By CHRIS VAN BUSKIRK | Boston Herald PUBLISHED: March 22, 2024

Massachusetts is spending about $75 million each month on state-run shelters, a massive jump in expenses that comes as Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is expected to run out of cash for emergency services in early to mid-April without another financial infusion.

Beacon Hill lawmakers have spent most of the new year putting together a plan to pay soaring shelter bills just as state revenues have consistently come in below expectations, Washington has offered no help, and demand on services continues to persist at historic levels.

With cash likely running out ahead of an April time window, the Legislature is now locked in negotiations over a new spending plan that could allow Healey to access dollars at a critical moment. Top budget writers say they are confident they can find a compromise before time runs out.

House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said he understands the need to produce a deal on a spending bill “as quickly as possible.”

“I’m hopeful that once we get into this discussion with our counterparts that we’ll be able to produce something with time to spare in terms of any funding running out,” the North End Democrat told the Herald Friday afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Executive of Administration and Finance, Matt Murphy, did not say if the Healey administration has a working date for when money could run out.

“We don’t have any further updates at this time. We are encouraged by the progress the Legislature has made and look forward to working with them to finalize the supplemental budget as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.

The Senate voted Thursday to give Healey access to up to $840 million over fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to pay for shelter costs while the House approved earlier this month a $245 million injection only for this fiscal year. Both bills cap time in shelters at nine months, with different rules for extending stays.

Lawmakers have so far handed the Healey administration $575 million in fiscal year 2024 to deal with a shelter crisis that has been exacerbated by an influx of migrants fleeing dangerous conditions in their home countries.

In a report released last week, the administration said it had already spent $427 million on emergency shelter services as of March 7. An updated report that could shed light on the latest financial figures is expected to be released next week.

Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said his “read” of the situation is money could dry up in the first or second week of April, a timetable that puts a quickly ticking clock on House-Senate deliberations on additional shelter spending.

“This current rate of spending is truly unsustainable, and it may further hamper our ability to address time-sensitive needs facing the commonwealth if we don’t act. With the failure of a federal government to act in aid in this crisis, the responsibility unfortunately falls upon our shoulders here in the commonwealth,” he said during a Thursday Senate session.

More than 7,500 families with children and pregnant women are living in a sprawling network of hotels, motels, and traditional shelters across Massachusetts. Half are considered to be migrants.

Some shelter guests receive a range of services from health care to transportation and food to legal help. The Healey administration has projected it will spend $932 million this fiscal year and $915 million next fiscal year on emergency assistance shelters.

In years past, normal emergency shelter capacity hovered around 4,100 families and cost taxpayers about $27 million per month, Rodrigues said.

That escalated to $45 million a month in August 2023, when Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency as shelters were quickly filling up, and, according to Rodrigues, again to $75 million a month as the stem of new arrivals kept up.

The state could be doling out as much as $78 million per month on shelter needs in fiscal year 2024 and there are “only so many levers” to control the crisis, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Howgate said lawmakers need to be “laser-focused” on managing costs and getting them back down to a more “sustainable level.”

But if they were to stay at the roughly $900 million rate the administration expects for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, Howgate said, “You’d have to figure out a way to build that into the (annual) budget.”

“I think if you look at the budget this year, if you had to just immediately increase that line item by a further $600 million, which is what it would take to get up to the $900 (million), you’d be faced with some really, really tough decisions and some really bad cuts to do something like that,” he said.

During the Thursday debate on the Senate’s shelter funding bill, Rodrigues said the state is spending roughly $10,000 per family in shelter each month.

“This continued wave of migrants seeking shelter is not going away anytime soon, and presents immense challenges for our communities. Currently, the projected cost of the state’s emergency shelter program is on an unsustainable trajectory,” he said.

Kelly Turley, associate director at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said that calculation may be an oversimplification of monthly costs that are “a little more nuanced.”

“There’s money going to other services,” she said Friday. “I think $75 million a month is right but not necessarily for each family because … that’s including money for welcome centers, the National Guard, clinical assessment sites, then the overflow sites.”