Representatives have about three dozen amendments to consider Thursday afternoon when they take up the first substantive legislation of the term, a $425 million mini-budget meant to both fund the emergency shelter program and make large-scale changes to the state’s response to family homelessness.
The outlay, which would come on top of the roughly half a billion dollars already approved for shelter spending this fiscal year, would keep the maxed-out system that ran out of cash last week afloat through June, ahead of fiscal year 2026 when policymakers are hoping to see fewer people in shelters and less state spending.
The House bill would impose a new six-month limit on how long families can stay in shelters as well as a rigid cap on the number of families the state will serve in 2026 — no more than 4,000 at a time, a one-third cut from the caseload as of Jan. 30 (6,012 families)…