Massachusetts state lawmakers did not reach an agreement on their new spending bill by a deadline of midnight Thursday morning.
The bill would provide a significant boost in funding towards the state's emergency shelter system — impacting migrants entering the Bay State.
Lawmakers went back-and-forth for about 14 hours. But in the end, they could not all reach the same page on the nearly $3 billion supplemental budget, putting in limbo the status of migrant situation that with every passing day worsens.
In that budget was a spending bill that would've allocated $250 million to the state's emergency shelter crisis. A crisis that should be noted has already received $325 million thanks to the state's annual budget.
According to the Healey administration, the money is needed now more than ever with the state already at capacity and new arrivals being put on a waitlist, as they wait for shelter space to free up.
House and Senate lawmakers have agreed to appropriate the $250 million. But they're at odds over how it should be spent. The Senate wants to give Gov. Maura Healey leeway on how to spend the money from the supplemental budget. The House has stipulations.
"Both chambers want to be able to work on this issue. They understand the problem, and they want to lead on it," said Sen. Pavel Payano. "At the end of the day, we might have some differences on particulars. But at the end of the day, we all agree that we need to work on this."
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"Fundamentally, it's been about housing people in a system that, you know, as we have said for a while now, has really reached capacity," Healey said.
Service providers are struggling to find places to send people in need of shelter, some said Thursday.
Elizabeth Alfred, of the Greater Boston Legal Services, called these "unprecented times" that made it hard to advise clients, while Alexandra Weber, at the International Institute of New England, said, "I think everyone's at the point now where they don't really have a plan."
In Chelsea, staff at Lacolaborativa were starting to have difficult conversations with families in need of a place to stay. Over the weekend, the only option available for one family was staying the weekend at a church, said triage team supervisor Donna Mitria.
"Unfortunately, they had to leave Monday morning at 7 a.m.," she said.
Back at an office, they were put on a waitlist and told to expect a call in three to six months, Mitria said. "In the interim they did stay at the airport."
Asked about families sleeping at Logan airport with nowhere else to go, Massport, which operates the facility, a representative said in a statement, "the airport is not an appropriate place to house people nor has the adequate resources or expertise. State Police and airport staff coordinate transportation for these families to a welcome center or another appropriate location. We will continue to work with our partners in state government on other solutions."
Healey told NBC10's "@Issue," in an interview for Sunday's episode, that she's confident a solution will come.
"What I asked for in the supplemental budget request was money to help us continue to operate existing shelter through the course of the year," she said, adding, "I'm confident we'll get that because I know the Legislature recognizes that we've got to take care of our families here in Massachusetts."
The failure to complete a deal means Democrats will need to steer a final bill through the choppy waters of informal sessions. Legislative rules set Wednesday as the final day for formal sessions until Jan. 3, and for the next seven weeks, any single lawmaker's objection can delay a bill's passage.
Also, spending bills like the supplemental budget die on Jan. 2, 2024, the final day of the first "annual session" in the 2023-2024 lawmaking term. If lawmakers cannot achieve a deal by then, the entire process would need to restart from square one.
The shelter funding was not the only item on that nearly $3 billion supplemental budget. If passed, it also would have enabled the Kraft Group to build a New England Revolution soccer stadium in Everett.
The Legislature operates on a two-year session and the thousands of bills filed for consideration earlier this year remain in play through 2024, although the House and Senate are now expected to hold only light, twice-weekly informal sessions through December.
State House News Service contributed to this report.
