Amendment #789 to H4600

Improvements to Emergency Assistance for Children and Families

Ms. Decker of Cambridge moves to amend the bill in section 2, in item 7004-0101, in line 184 by inserting after the words “withdrawal of the application” the following: “or placement on the waiting list”; and in said item in line 198 by adding the following: “(Q) the average, minimum, and maximum time families are on the waiting list before receiving a placement in a traditional shelter, hotel, or motel, broken out by priority status;” and in said item by adding at the end thereof the following: “; provided further, that there shall be established an ombudsperson unit within the executive office of housing and livable communities to liaise between families and the executive office; provided further, that the ombudsperson unit shall be directed towards the emergency assistance shelter program and related short-term housing transition programs as provided in Chapter 4 of the Acts of 2009 and Chapter 23, and any successor programs; provided further, that the ombudsperson shall mediate between any applicant or participant and the executive office when conflicts or misunderstandings arise; provided further, that the ombudsperson shall advocate for any applicant or participant when such applicant or participant requests such services in order to review a denial or termination of services; provided further, that for applicants, the ombudsperson shall advocate in instances including but not limited to extraneous document requests, inability to contact the department by telephone, delays in placement, and denials; provided further, that the ombudsperson unit shall have access to all initiated, partially completed, and completed applications in order to assess applicants’ and participants’ requests; provided further the ombudsperson shall have access to all submitted documentation as well as case information in the All Service Integrated System Tracker (ASIST) database and any successor database as well as shelter provider notes, department of children and families and domestic violence assessments, and sub-contracted provider notes; provided further, that the ombudsperson unit shall annually develop a report describing: (1) the number of requests received in the preceding 12-month period; (2) the number of such requests that pertained to the emergency assistance program; (3) the number of such requests that pertained to the Massachusetts short-term housing transition program; (4) the number of such requests that pertained to issues arising during the application process; (5) the number of such requests that pertained to participants’ experiences at any time after initial approval for the program in question, broken down by program and waiting list status, or issues that result as part of programmatic participation; (6) the nature of all such requests; (7) the resolution of all such requests; (8) the race and ethnicity of each requestor; and (9) the length of time to resolve requests for each program and identifies whether the request involved application issues or program participation issues; provided further, that this report shall be filed with the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate, and shall be filed with the joint committee on housing and the house and senate committees on ways and means, on or before the first of February of each year; provided further, that a person shall not be denied assistance under this section based wholly or in part on the amount of the person’s assets; and provided further, however, that any income generated by such assets may be treated as countable income”

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #789 to H4600

Improvements to Emergency Assistance for Children and Families