HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2413        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 141

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act requiring the Department of Transitional Assistance to track and report on the use of emergency shelter services by families..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Paragraph B of Section 2 of chapter 18 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding after clause (i) the following clause: -

(j)  Notwithstanding any other general or special law or rule or regulation, the department of transitional assistance shall report quarterly to the house and senate committees on ways and means on the number of families who apply for emergency assistance funded family shelter, the number of families approved for shelter, the number of families denied shelter along with reasons for denials, the home community of families receiving shelter, the number of families receiving shelter within each home community, the number of available shelter slots within each home community, the income level of families receiving shelter, the number of families receiving shelter who had previously accessed state-funded programs to reduce homelessness and the programs that had been accessed, the composition of families receiving shelter, the reason that the household is seeking emergency family shelter, the reasons that families exit  shelter, including reasons for voluntary departure and termination, exiting families' housing plans, including type of housing arrangement, subsidy status, monthly rent, and gross monthly income, and any other information that the department determines to be necessary in evaluating the operation of the emergency assistance family shelters program. The report shall also include information, by type of shelter, on average length of stay, average cost per household served, average number of shelter slots not used either as the result of no placement being made or of a placed family not making use of shelter, and an analysis of this data, including an analysis of causes relating to any significant differences in the data for each type of shelter. The report shall also provide a status report on the outcomes of  department-funded homeless prevention initiatives providing information on the nature and total cost of each such initiative, the number of families served by each such initiative, the average cost per family of each such initiative, the affordability and stability of  housing or alternative shelter placements for prevention program recipients including type of housing arrangement, subsidy status, monthly rent, and gross monthly income, and any other information that the department determines to be necessary in evaluating the operation of state-funded homeless prevention programs.”