It’s the season of giving, but don’t tell that to Massachusetts’ homeless. With a huge budget gap to fill, acting Governor Jane Swift and state legislators are cutting huge gashes into funding for the state’s homeless shelters, according to the Associated Press, exacerbating an already serious homeless crisis in the city of Boston and the rest of the state. Though budgetary pressures may call for cuts, Swift, Governor-elect Mitt Romney and the state’s lawmakers must look hard to find funding for the state’s homeless shelters and programs, and all Massachusetts citizens must dedicate themselves to helping the state’s needy, especially during the cold holiday months.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s proposal is a good place to start. Menino yesterday asked the state legislature to authorize a $35 million bond bill, the proceeds of which would go toward shelter and homeless services improvements statewide, according to The Boston Globe. Five million dollars would go to Boston to improve the city’s own homeless facilities and services, which have taken a severe beating in recent months. According to the Associated Press, the state was forced to house 531 families in hotels and motels because its 4,100 shelter openings were filled. The Department of Transitional Assistance also announced last week plans to cut shelter programs by five percent. In other words, the situation is dire and getting worse.
State legislators and citizens must put pressure on Swift and Romney to save the state’s homeless programs from even more extreme cuts than they have already sustained. Romney’s campaign pledges to trim the state bureaucracy and avoid tax increases may sound painless and effective, but voters must stick up for the most needy and make sure his cuts do not disproportionately victimize already bare-bones homeless services.
Homelessness must be a top state priority, especially for a state with such cold winter months and such a high standard of living. It is unconscionable that so many people can’t find affordable places to live, and there must be deeper solutions than simply more sufficient funding the state’s shelters. Not only must the state’s lawmakers and public activists find solutions to the city and state’s lack of affordable housing, they must find other long-term solutions to the chronic homeless problem that plagues all cities in the United States.
This season of giving should be the start to a larger effort to solve one of the country’s most serious problems. Massachusetts can and should take the lead in finding solutions to a problem that is an embarrassment to a society as wealthy as America.
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