The residency requirements could effectively end the law as it’s currently applied, meaning newly arrived immigrants could be ineligible for beds.
Governor Maura Healey is asking the state legislature to dramatically change the state’s unique right-to-shelter law as critics double down on safety concerns at shelters across Massachusetts.
Healey, a first-term Democrat, proposed a slew of changes to the law, which was passed in 1983 to guarantee emergency housing assistance for families and pregnant women. Right now, it’s overburdened by the “waves and waves of people” who have arrived in the state recently, Healey said last week.
The changes include a residency requirement for families and stronger criminal backgrounds checks, which is especially timely following Healey’s admittance that while she ordered full criminal backgrounds checks months ago, they were never done…