Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Public Comments on Proposed Amendments to Emergency Assistance Shelter Regulations
Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
5-16-2025
Language
en-US
Abstract
The undersigned are attorneys and a postgraduate fellow from four Boston University School of Law clinical legal programs: the Antiracism and Community Lawyering Practicum, the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program, the Criminal Law Clinical Program, and the Civil Litigation and Justice Program. We submit these comments regarding the proposed amendments to regulation 760 CMR 67.02, which governs eligibility for Emergency Assistance (EA). These amendments were adopted by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) on March 14, 2025, and April 11, 2025. We urge EOHLC to revise these proposed amendments, which are not only arbitrary and capricious, but will also import racial biases from the criminal legal system into the family shelter system. The proposed amendments would require EA shelter applications to consent to a criminal records check and would automatically exclude a person over the age of 18 from EA benefits if that person has been convicted of certain enumerated offenses. The proposed amendments rest on the false premise that a person’s criminal record is indicative of their propensity towards dangerousness. On the contrary, criminal records reflect a variety of factors—including racially biased policing and prosecution practices and other structural inequities—that are wholly unrelated to community safety. Moreover, the proposed amendments pose a particular risk of arbitrarily excluding survivors of domestic violence, abuse, and trafficking from emergency shelters, which is especially concerning where survivors require such shelter as a means of escaping violence. While the legislature has required EOHLC to incorporate CORI checks as part of its EA shelter application process, EOHLC’s proposed amendments include minimal opportunities for applicants to present mitigating evidence and go even further than the legislature requires by automatically excluding applicants with certain enumerated prior convictions. These provisions are contrary to any legitimate state interest and we urge you to withdraw them.
Recommended Citation
Caitlin Glass, Julie A. Dahlstrom, Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, Karen Pita Loor, Shira M. Diner, Angelo Petrigh & Naomi M. Mann,
Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Public Comments on Proposed Amendments to Emergency Assistance Shelter Regulations
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/shorter_works/313
