AS DEMAND FOR the state’s emergency shelter beds ballooned in early 2025, along with the strain on its homelessness prevention programs, the Healey administration asked lawmakers to provide funding for its rental subsidy program HomeBASE. The funds would continue to cover two years for eligible families, with the possibility of a third year.
The Legislature agreed. Then, a week before the governor signed the annual state budget into law, her housing office announced an indefinite pause on all approvals for the third year of assistance.
Families who had been planning on the additional year got a fierce shock. And two single-mothers facing imminent eviction are now suing the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which runs the program, to maintain the third year of coverage…