The Senate Ways and Means Committee released its proposed FY22 budget yesterday. Stay tuned for a complete report on how our housing priorities fared, but for now, I wanted to share the fantastic news on our pursuit for more Safe Havens beds in Hampshire and Franklin Counties: the request was fully funded!
Safe Havens is a housing-first model that provides a supervised housing option for
extremely vulnerable individuals who are unable to access current support due to their disability and
may be living outdoors, or in other places not suitable for habitation (see more info here). There are currently no Safe Havens beds in Hampshire and Franklin Counties (with 7 beds in Hampden County). Our Network partners have identified this gap as a highest priority for meeting the needs for our most vulnerable residents.
A huge thanks to our Western MA Hampshire and Franklin County Senators Comerford, Gobi, Hinds and Velis for their push for this resource. And thanks to to our regional Representatives Sabadosa, Blais, Carey, Domb, Mark and Whipps for their support as well. We are so fortunate to have such champions in the State House!
Next up: Senators will file Amendments this week, we will seek co-sponsors for our priority amendments over the next week (stay tuned), and debate will happen the following week. We’ll have more analysis and action for you soon. For now, a pause to say GREAT WORK everyone and let’s make this happen!
