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MGH Community News |
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MGH Community News |
| December 2023 | Volume 27 • Issue 12 |
Highlights
Sections Social Service staff may direct resource questions to the Community Resource Center, Hannah Perry, 617-726-8182. Questions, comments about the newsletter? Contact Ellen Forman, 617-726-5807. |
Family Shelter Updates
In response to the ongoing family shelter crisis, the MA legislature has passed a supplemental budget proposal provisions of which require $50M to be spent for overflow shelters for families on the wait list for Emergency Assistance family shelter and that no other funds from the reserve account can be used until the overflow site(s) are operational. As of Monday there were 310 families on the waitlist. There are now three overflow shelter sites, but they are not able to accommodate the majority of those on the ever-increasing waitlist. And they are all in the Greater Boston area. Families access these sites from the waitlist. The state has closed overnight shelter site it set up inside the state’s transportation building in Boston and transitioned operations” to a site at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, where state officials had been screening families for eligibility to enter the system and previously set up a so-called family welcome center to connect newly arrived migrants with services. The latest overflow shelter – scheduled to open today, is in a former courthouse in Cambridge What we know about the Cambridge courshouse shelter:
(Thanks to Fiona Danaher for sharing this information)
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The state also plans a new site in Revere, where officials can conduct clinical assessments of families who’ve applied for the state’s emergency shelter program. Welcome Centers Status and to Apply The Quincy Family Welcome Center will accept EA/Family shelter referrals, but only Monday- Friday and families must arrive by 4; referral required. The Allston/Brazilian Worker Center no longer places families in shelter. Quincy Family Welcome Center Brazilian Worker Center Families may also apply for EA by phone 866-584-0653, Mon to Fri 8-4 In Person - at select offices. Please see website for offices and hours (note some are not open every weekday): mass.gov/how-to/find-emergency-family-shelter \ - Sources and for more information
New State SNAP Funding Will Allow Additional Legal Immigrants to Qualify – Those Eligible Should Apply Now! The Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey this month quietly restored a policy to offer state-funded food benefits for immigrants who are in the U.S. with legal status, but who are not citizens. The benefits expansion authorized in a $3.1 billion spending bill will cost about $6 million, which advocates say will last roughly seven months. These state SNAP benefits - which will be available toward the end of January - are for low-income legally present immigrants not eligible for federal SNAP due to their immigrant status, such as:
This includes many of the new immigrants coming into Massachusetts from Central and South America, who are here with permission from the federal government, Pat Baker of Mass Law Reform Institute said. While details are still being finalized, those newly eligible are encouraged to apply now. They should expect to get denied until the state program goes “live” in January, but the case then will likely be reopened and benefits will be retroactive to the date of application. The Supp Budget includes only $6M, and is intended to cover the cost of state-funded SNAP for 7 months (December 2023 thru June of 2024). And it does not include Legal Permanent Residents age 18+ who may be subject to the 5 year waiting period, but there are exceptions to that federal rule. Massachusetts used to be one of six states that offered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to all immigrants with legal status who met the program's income requirements. The state halted funding for the program after five years in 2002. In addition, Ukrainian refugees' immigration status is being changed from humanitarian parolees to "temporary protected status," meaning they will go from qualifying for federal SNAP to no longer being able to access the benefits, Baker said. In Massachusetts, the maximum SNAP payment for one person is $291 per month, $535 for two people, and $766 for a family of three, according to MLRI. "We've had this really historic, long-standing gap in access to basic food and SNAP benefits since 1996 when the Welfare Reform Law came through, and it just slashed and burned federal programs, including SNAP and cash benefits. And then we had the Massachusetts benefits for five years, and that picked up a lot of these populations," Baker said. She added, "Congress has not kept up with making sure certain populations we're welcoming to the country can also survive the transition period. And the Biden administration authorized humanitarian parole for many new arrivals, but they don't get work authorization so they can't support themselves, and at the same time they can't get benefits." The number of people in the Emergency Assistance shelter system has more than doubled since this time last year, with over half of the new entrants coming from other countries legally under federal immigration laws. What next? As Commissioner McCue noted at a recent SNAP Coalition meeting, DTA is in the throes of working on implementation details so that families currently receiving SNAP for some, but not all, family members will see an increase in their SNAP and DTA will also be accepting SNAP applications from immigrants not currently connected to SNAP but who meet the criteria. - See the full WBUR story with additional material from Breaking news!! State-Funded SNAP benefits for Legal Immigrants in Massachusetts! Pat Baker, MLRI, December 7, 2023.
MA PFML Maximum Benefit for 2024 As of January 1, 2024 the Mass. Paid and Family Medical Leave maximum weekly benefit will increase from $1,129.82 to $1,149.90 for new leaves. Those who have taken a leave in 2023 will continue to receive benefits based on their 2023 amount for the duration of their benefit year. Your benefit year is unique to you and is based on when you take time off through any leave program. Your benefit year starts the Sunday before your first day of leave and lasts for 52 consecutive weeks. The benefit year determines your benefit rate, which will stay the same for the entire benefit year even if you file multiple applications or take different types of leaves. Your benefit rate will only change when you start a new benefit year. Learn more.
SSI Advocacy Tips Justice in Aging recently held a webinar entitled Topics in SSI–Practical Tips on Recent SSI and Social Security Changes SSI 60-day Appeal Period for Benefit Continuation When appealing a denial or reduction of benefits, benefits should continue during the 60 day appeal period during some situations. The 60-day appeal period for benefit continuation only covers SSI non-disability issues (such as resource issues) and does not cover SSI disability issues such as a medical cessation decision. Does this apply to individuals who get only SSDI or SSI/SSDI combo?The 60-day appeal period for benefit continuation does not apply to individuals who get only SSDI. It does apply to individuals who get both SSI and SSDI but only if the specific issue they are appealing is an SSI non-disability issue. Do you have to specifically ask for benefit continuation?As long as you appeal within 60 days, benefit continuation is automatic and does not have to be specifically requested. What should advocates do if SSA claims that someone terminated for being over the SSI asset limit is not entitled to continuing benefits pending appeal until they can prove they are back within the asset limits?Elevate this issue within the local Social Security office, and to your Congressional representative or the Regional Communications Director (see below) if the local SSA office is unhelpful. SSI benefits stopping due to exceeding the resource limit is an SSI non-disability appeal with the right to continue benefits pending appeal. SSI Exclusion of Pandemic-Related Financial AssistanceHow is Social Security determining what money in someone’s checking account is the result of the stimulus payments when all that money goes into a lump sum in their account? For funds that were kept in a bank account, to show that the money left in the account is from the stimulus payments or other excluded pandemic-related financial assistance, the individual can provide bank statements to SSA, or they can give SSA permission to access those statements (SSA has a way to obtain the statements electronically). SSA will then review the bank statements to determine if the excluded funds remained in the person’s account from the time they came into the account until the present moment. For funds in a bank account that are commingled with non-excluded funds, SSA will assume that the excluded funds are the last out of the account. Therefore, if the account also contains non-excluded funds or funds that have a time-limited exclusions, those non-excluded or time-limited exclusion funds will be assumed to be withdrawn first, before these permanently excluded pandemic-related funds. If the bank account balance never goes below the amount of the excluded funds, the money should remain exempt. This rule explains how SSA will evaluate commingled funds: SI 01130.700 Identifying Excluded Funds That Have Been Commingled With Nonexcluded Funds Non-excluded funds include the monthly SSI payment, which is deposited on the 1st of each month. Note that the monthly SSI payment is excluded for the purpose of the resource determination. This means that when making the resource determination for a given month, SSA should exclude the monthly SSI payment. SI 01140.200 Checking and Savings Accounts (section D6) Use these rules if you are being told that stimulus payments or other excluded pandemic-related financial assistance are not excluded: EM 20014 REV 9 and EM 21050 REV 5 - See the full Justice in Aging FAQ
Undocumented Immigrants Face Issues Getting Driver’s Licenses in Mass. Despite New Law Sarah Takasaki is in a dimly lit classroom at South Congregational Church in downtown Springfield, sitting at a computer with a Spanish-speaking immigrant who’s undocumented. Takasaki is a staff member with the Pioneer Valley Workers’ Center, a nonprofit that helps immigrant workers. And on this day, she's helping translate instructions for the RMV's learner's permit test. The Workers’ Center partnered with another non-profit, the Pioneer Valley Project, to assist immigrants applying for driver’s licenses. “Since we have access to computers [and] laptops with cameras, we can give people that option to do the exam here instead of at the RMV — where it's also a little more stressful,” Takasaki said. “We just [give] them their own space where nobody’s gonna enter.” But even in a space with Wi-Fi, a private classroom, and a translator, logging onto the RMV’s website and navigating the platform is a challenge. “It's a little bit difficult because the whole platform of the RMV's website is all in English and it doesn't really translate. So just translating the whole process of how to go through that … and a lot of people don't have online accounts that they're very familiar with entering into,” Takasaki said. The test itself can be taken in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and several other languages, but first you have to get through the English parts of the website. A representative from the Department of Transportation said the RMV offers instructions for how to navigate its website in 15 different languages. But organizers at these nonprofits say you still have to go through the website in English to get to the translated instructions, which further complicates an already difficult process. But before an applicant can even get approved to take the test, they have to present her documents at the RMV. That includes proof of Massachusetts residency, Social Security status, and a birth certificate, which needs a certified translation if written in any language other than English. Torres is in charge of translating birth certificates — a service these nonprofits do for free. “We have a list of different people who are getting a translation of their birth certificate or driver’s license from their country,” Torres said. “We’re only doing translations for people who have an appointment coming up.” Torres said recently more people have been getting denied at those appointments. He said that’s because some RMV service center employees don’t know the requirements needed for undocumented immigrants. “Sometimes it’s frustrating because we’re sending people in with the right paperwork, but when they get there one of them is not accepted,” Torres said. “The integrity of the identity process is very important to the Registry of Motor Vehicles, and employees are trained to look for documents with certain characteristics and the right kind of things," Ogilvie said. "But are there times that somebody may misjudge something? Certainly.” At each RMV service center counter, there are translator phone lines available for customers who may need interpretation assistance. But that translator phone service is really difficult for most people, according to Aina de Lapparent, who’s assisting undocumented immigrants in Pittsfield through Habitat for Humanity. “I talked about this to someone who was working there and they were like, ‘Yeah, but we don't really use it.’ I don't know if it's that they don't like it or that, you know, sometimes things can get very granular and it's hard to get your question across through a phone,” Lapparent said. Ogilvie said the RMV doesn’t have any plans for in-person translators to be hired in service centers across the state right now. But she said they do want to improve access to language services. The challenges don’t end there though. They still have to take the road test. “Part of the process is that people can either request an interpreter to be present during the road test or they can bring their own interpreter,” said Javier Luengo-Garrido, an organizer at the ACLU in Springfield. He said sometimes the presence of an interpreter makes the RMV driving examiner suspicious. “There are some instructions when you're taking the test, such as, 'Turn right at this corner,' that in English is a pretty concise and short sentence. In Spanish, it would be, ‘Por favor gira a la derecha en esta esquina.’ So, for somebody who is not necessarily fully bilingual or even proficient in the Spanish language, that larger sentence may create a false red flag — like this person is being coached,” Luengo-Garrido said. Garrido said he’s been in meetings with RMV officials about issues, such as this one, arising for undocumented immigrants in the driver’s license application process. The RMV is working on this issue, according to Ogilvie. Despite these challenges, organizers at the nonprofits said they’re happy this is an option for undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts. Emily Rodriguez with the Pioneer Valley Project said they’ve been working long hours to help as many applicants as they can. “We stay until like 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., if needed. But I know that a lot of people are relying on us to help them because otherwise they don't have anybody else here,” Rodriguez said. As they take the time to assist these new legal drivers, Rodriguez said, she hopes the RMV can streamline the process to make it easier for everybody. - See the full WBUR story.
Some Medicare Enrollees to Receive New Medicare Number Due to Data Breach The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is notifying additional Medicare enrollees who may have been impacted by a data breach at a CMS contractor, Maximus Federal Services, Inc. CMS mailed a letter to all potentially affected Medicare enrollees to notify them of the data breach and what steps CMS is taking to protect them. CMS is issuing potentially affected enrollees a new Medicare number and a new Medicare card. Legal assistance and aging and disability service providers may receive calls from clients or members of the community asking about this issue or about the letters. If and when an enrollee receives a new Medicare card, the enrollee will receive a letter asking them to begin using the new Medicare number on December 29th and to update their Medicare information with all of their health care providers and destroy the old card. Plans will receive the related enrollment codes alerting them about the Medicare number changes and will be processing the changes internally. It should be noted that this breach does not affect all Medicare enrollees—most are not affected. Nor does it mean that those enrollees who are affected will necessarily experience any harm. Affected enrollees should, however, monitor their bank accounts and other financial accounts, credit cards, and credit records, and report any suspicious activity to the relevant financial institution or credit agency immediately. - From Some Medicare Enrollees to Receive New Medicare Number Due to Data Breach, NCLER, December 20, 2023.
New Group Coming to Boston Will Provide Low-Interest Loans to People Returning from Prison The Fountain Fund, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit that has as its sole mission providing low-interest loans and financial counseling to the formerly incarcerated, will be opening a local office next year. When the office opens its doors, it will become Boston’s first loan fund that operates exclusively to support the financial needs of people returning from prison. “We are a bank, but we're more than a bank. We're a family,” Tolbert told GBH News on Wednesday. “A traditional bank is going to judge you on your background credit score, how you live, the complexion of your skin, all these different variables and challenges of the day and age. Well, we don't. We accept them, and we try to help.” The Fountain Fund’s model is to provide micro-loans but also a whole host of other services, including credit counseling, financial planning and connections to other organizations that can help with housing and employment. The group sees the financial assistance as simply a part of the “wraparound” services that a returning citizen needs. Executive Director Erika Viccellio said the fund does not have pre-designed programs or products. Instead, she said, “You tell us what success looks like for you and let us see if we can help make that happen through access to capital and ultimately through credit building.” The group provides loans ranging from $250 to $15,000 at 5% interest — or 3% for people who sign up to make direct payments from a bank account. And the loans can cover all kinds of expenses or costs. Viccellio says the relationships may be even more meaningful than the money. “The access to capital is important — the money is necessary,” she said. “But I think what's more important is having someone believe in you. I can't tell you how many people have said to us, ‘This is the first time someone said yes to me, or this is the first time someone believed in me.’ … Again and again and again. We hear that.” The Fountain Fund’s expansion to Boston is made possible by a $600,000 grant from the GreenLight Fund, a national nonprofit that helps communities identify and replicate programs that have succeeded elsewhere. - See the full WGBH story.
MassHealth Will Cover Doula Services – Expected in Spring MassHealth has announced that it will cover Doula services for up to eight hours of perinatal visits per perinatal period per member without prior authorization. Visits above these limits will require prior authorization. While the regulations are effective 12/8/23, Doulas will need to apply to become part of the network, so it is expected that it may be spring before Doula services are available to member. Criteria to request additional hours, above the 8 standard hours, via prior authorization include (not an exhaustive list): 1. Maternal physical health conditions that existed prior to pregnancy and/or developed or were exacerbated during the perinatal period including but not limited to: 2. Maternal behavioral health conditions that existed prior to pregnancy and/or developed or were exacerbated during the perinatal period including but not limited to:
3. Social risk factors that existed prior to pregnancy and/or developed or were exacerbated during the perinatal period including but not limited to:
4. Health conditions of the newborn/infant including but not limited to:
Noncoverage MassHealth does not consider additional perinatal visits to be medically necessary under certain circumstances. Examples of such circumstances include, but are not limited to, the following:
According to a June report published by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the rate of life-threatening pregnancy-related complications in Massachusetts nearly doubled from 2011 to 2020. Black patients experienced severe complications two and half times more often than white patients. Doulas have also been found reduce the number of cesarean and preterm birth and low birthweight infants in turn reducing state costs and some of the health inequities for women of color, according to a 2012 study by the American Journal of Public Health. “Doula care can mean the difference between having a cesarean section and not,” said Erika Laquer, a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator and co-lead for the Massachusetts Doula Coalition. In order for doulas to become a MassHealth doula provider, they will have to enroll in a almost four hour formal training, among other requirements. As part of being a MassHealth provider, doulas will have to submit claims for payment. Symmonds said many doulas haven’t worked with insurance before and it will be a “real learning curve for doulas” and for MassHealth to best understand how to support doulas. “The bill’s administrative requirements, while seemingly flexible, could add to our workload, which is a concern given that many doulas operate without administrative support,” said Asenso, who is a doula. Will Supply and Pay be Adequate? MassHealth is planning to offer doulas up to $1700 per member per perinatal period — $900 for labor and delivery support and $800 for perinatal visits. The $1700 is $200 more than the proposed amount by MassHealth in September and higher than any other state that covers doula services through Medicaid, according to MassHealth. The rate doesn’t include travel time which Symmonds said makes it more difficult to reach more rural clients who are in “maternity deserts.” Kate Symmonds, staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said while the rate of pay that MassHealth is offering may be what some doulas are currently charging in the Commonwealth for their care, it’s not enough to ensure the long term stability and success of MassHealth’s program. She said doulas work long and unpredictable hours at low pay with no benefits in order to serve their clients and individuals in need. “Doulas have been historically marginalized and undervalued so what doulas are currently charging just isn’t a good measure of what is needed to build a robust and sustainable doula workforce,” Symmonds said. “What we don’t want to see is continuing that trend of undervaluing. Doula work and putting the doula workforce in a position where they’re unable to meet the demand. I think if we’re really serious about expanding access to doula services, we need to get serious about investing in the doula workforce and appropriately valuing doula work.” Given the fact that Medicaid covered 41% of all births across the country in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Symmonds said there won’t be enough doulas to meaningfully cover the number of MassHealth clients who might need a doula. “The supply of doulas is going to be entirely inadequate, without additional meaningful investment in the workforce,” Symmonds said. - See the full MassLive article and the state websites: https://www.mass.gov/lists/masshealth-guidelines-for-medical-necessity-determination and https://www.mass.gov/doc/ds-1-new-provider-manual/download
Clinic Helped Over 1,700 Migrants with Getting Work Permits A work permit clinic at a National Guard facility has helped more than 1,700 recently arrived migrants take initial steps toward getting jobs and potentially moving out of the state’s shelter system, officials said late last month. State and federal officials stood up the clinic at Camp Curtis Guild in Reading to help eligible migrants living in shelters more quickly navigate the complex slog of becoming authorized to work in the United States. State emergency assistance director Lt. Gen. Scott Rice said the clinic, with its 500-plus volunteers, has in some cases shortened a process that could otherwise take months into less than “There are so many unfilled jobs across the state, it's unbelievable,” Rice said. The Healey administration and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security first launched the work authorization clinic in mid-November as one tool to help people move out of the overextended emergency shelter network. The clinic has closed, Rice said, though officials are considering options for another iteration in the future. The clinic also offered other services to interested newcomers. Rice said more than 900 adults and children have received seasonal vaccinations, nearly 650 people have registered with the MassHire career center and more than 170 families have started applications for child care financial assistance. Dan Koh, deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, said the clinic is “an example of that kind of collaboration that we're trying to replicate across the country.”
48 Million Americans Live With Addiction - How to Get Them Help That Works More than 48 million Americans are living with a substance use disorder right now, according to the best estimates of the nation’s premier health agencies. Only about 5 percent of them are getting any kind of help for the condition. It’s easy to shrug off such dismal statistics — to assume, as many people do, that addiction is untreatable or that if effective therapies exist, most people with addictions have no interest in trying them. But both of those assumptions rest on fallacies. In fact a growing roster of treatments (medications, behavioral therapies, counseling and other supports) have proved just as effective at managing addiction as statins are at managing cholesterol or aspirin is at preventing heart attacks. Experience suggests that many more people would make use of these treatments if only they were easier to access: In other countries and in many U.S. states, when the barriers to addiction treatment have been lowered, treatment uptake has increased, and overdose rates have fallen. Still, a vast chasm exists between effective addiction medicine and the people who most need it. It’s no mystery why. Most medical professionals are still not comfortable or even familiar with the basics of addiction medicine. Neither are the judges, probation officers or wardens who often hold sway over the fates of people with use disorders. The centers that do focus on treating addiction have been hobbled by work force shortages and inadequate funding and are often ill equipped to make use of the latest scientific evidence about what does and does not work. As a result, people with substance use disorders pass frequently through hospitals, courts, jails, prisons and even rehabs without ever being offered the kind of help that could save their lives. For many of them, it remains easier to buy illicit substances on the street or to be lured by charlatans into snake oil programs than it is to receive quality care for addiction from a trained professional. Closing the addiction treatment gap would be the most fiscally responsible way to manage the nation’s opioid addiction and overdose crises, which cost upward of a trillion dollars each year in lost productivity, criminal justice, emergency medicine and more. In many ways, addiction is like any other chronic medical condition. It involves periods of remission and relapse, it can be fatal, and it is often manageable with the right support. Several unique barriers, however, make substance use disorders more difficult to treat. Some people cannot see that they have a problem. Others recognize the trouble they’re in but are too ashamed or afraid to ask for help. The fear is understandable. Even when they are in recovery, people who admit to struggling with drugs or alcohol or who take medications to manage addiction can lose jobs, lose housing, lose custody of their children. They can be denied care in nursing homes, be denied nutritional assistance, be denied organ transplants. They can be judged, be shamed and, perhaps worst of all, be ostracized by friends and family members whose support they desperately need. “These are problems that most other illnesses do not face,” said Richard Frank, a health economist and the director of the initiative on health policy at the Brookings Institution. They are also a feature of the current system, not a bug. For most of the modern era, medical professionals and policymakers have viewed addiction not as a health condition but as a matter for the criminal justice system to handle. That thinking has shifted in recent decades, but the addiction treatment system and the culture that undergirds it have yet to shift in tandem. “It’s quite popular to talk about addiction as a health issue now,” said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, the senior medical director for substance use disorders at Mass General Brigham. “But our policies and our clinical models still reflect this notion that really, it’s a bad behavior that people need to be punished for.” One such punishment seems to be withholding care. Dr. Wakeman, who treats addiction in some of Boston’s hardest-hit communities (and whose own clinics take a different approach), said that among other indignities, patients are often made to jump through pointless hoops to “prove their commitment to treatment” and are frequently expelled from programs for the pettiest of infractions. “I have one patient who was kicked out of a residential program for talking to a member of the opposite sex on a Tuesday, because that was only allowed on, like, Thursdays or something,” she said. “We would never, ever do that to someone with diabetes or cancer or any other health condition.” It’s easy to blame drug users for their poor choices, but sensible options can be scarce in a broken system — and not just for people who are addicted. In Massachusetts, for example, desperate families often turn to a law known as Section 35, which enables them to have a loved one treated involuntarily for up to 90 days. It’s a Hail Mary move that has helped shepherd some people into recovery, but Dr. Wakeman, Ms. Mcmahan and others I spoke with said that in far too many cases, it has done more harm than good. “I truly empathize with families who feel driven to this point,” Dr. Wakeman said. “But what they often don’t realize is that the person is not necessarily being connected to treatment. Sometimes they are just held for a week or two in a setting similar to a prison and then released without any support.” Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but doctors, recovery coaches and people who use drugs have said that, anecdotally, at least, quick relapses are not uncommon after a Section 35 commitment. Neither are overdoses. Or deaths. The first step to solving these problems is clear: Instead of making good treatment difficult to obtain, policymakers and providers should strive to make it as easy and straightforward as possible. Clinics should welcome walk-ins. Medication should be cheap or free. Above all, patients should be met with acceptance instead of judgment. Even relapses should be treated as part of the recovery process, not cause for punishment. Treatment should be voluntary, not coercive, but providers shouldn’t necessarily wait for patients to come knocking on the clinic door. “There’s no telling how many more people you could reach if you made the effort to identify and engage them,” Dr. Frank said. “But as a system, we’re terrible at outreach. Our entire paradigm is built on doctors sitting at their desks waiting for patients to come to them.” In the early 2010s, Dr. Wakeman and her colleagues started a program — now known as the Bridge Clinic, for its focus on bridging the gap between addiction and the rest of medicine — meant to employ exactly these principles. Their approach has been to address addiction head-on and with radical empathy, not only welcoming patients in all stages of use and recovery but also seeking them out in emergency rooms, community centers and the streets, where they often congregate and sometimes live. The solutions to America’s addiction and overdose crises are not new. Think tanks, advocacy groups, academic institutions, scientific bodies and media outlets have spent decades laying out the same ones, over and over. Progress has been made in recent years. Some of the strictures that impede access to buprenorphine and methadone have been lifted, others are being legally challenged, and programs like the one Dr. Wakeman and her colleagues have built in Boston are emerging in other communities across the country. But with overdose deaths at an all-time high, the gap between knowledge and action is still unacceptably vast. - See the full New York Times in depth series.
Opinion: Tenants Facing Eviction Need Lawyers Massachusetts can save millions of dollars, prevent homelessness and help struggling low-income families – both tenants and owner-occupant landlords – keep a roof over their heads by providing legal representation during the eviction process. Beyond economics, it is simply a matter of fairness. Last year, Massachusetts Trial Court data showed that nine out of 10 tenants facing eviction in court did not have a lawyer – and almost always faced off against landlords armed with experienced housing attorneys. Since last year, it has gotten worse. In 2023, as evictions increased beyond pre-pandemic levels, the Trial Court reports that only 2 percent to 3 percent of tenants facing eviction for non-payment have legal representation, while 90 percent of landlords have lawyers. Anyone who spends time in Housing Court has seen unrepresented tenants – often single mothers – consumed by fear and attempting to keep up as complex legalese is thrown at them rapid fire. Cases move quickly, housing law is complicated, and tenants face pressure to sign agreements that are not fully understood and too often impossible to achieve, but if broken will result in immediate eviction. New data paints a disturbing picture of who faces the upheaval and trauma of eviction. Most at risk are children under the age of five. Black children are disproportionately impacted with one out of four Black children under five facing eviction in a given year. Evictions tear children and their families away from not only their home, but their neighbors and schools, turning them into human tumbleweeds who too often land in overcrowded shelters, unsafe conditions, or, in many cases, on the street or in a car. It is a destabilizing trauma that can have a life-long impact on a person’s mental health, according to the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health – a supporter of Access to Counsel. Attorney General Andrea Campbell and more than 240 organizations, including WinnCompanies and Beacon Communities who, combined, manage 27,000 apartments, are all advocating for a statewide access to counsel program in Massachusetts that can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Attorneys for tenants can help families reach workable, fair results that can keep them housed. As the Commonwealth faces one of the most challenging housing crises in our history, Access to Counsel is a critical part of a comprehensive response. As access to council bills – S864 and H1730 – filed by Sen. Sal DiDomenico and Reps. Dave Rogers and Mike Day are considered by the Judiciary and Housing Committees and the governor’s bond bill moves through the chambers, the Access to Counsel Coalition is also requesting that the governor include in her FY2025 budget $7 million to start to phase in an access to counsel program. That line item will ramp up over five years to $26 million at full implementation – a cost which is more than covered by savings on emergency shelter and health care, according to a study by the Boston Bar Association. Finally, these bills also provide badly-needed free legal help to small owner-occupied landlords who otherwise cannot afford lawyers and – like so many tenants – find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of the housing court. For years, the Volunteer Lawyers Project has provided legal help to owner-occupant landlords and turned around difficult cases where the owner relies on the rent to pay their mortgage and in some cases both the landlord and the tenant’s housing is stabilized. Landlords and tenants, organizations fighting homelessness, healthcare leaders, faith-based organizations, and mayors all agree it is time Massachusetts stepped in with legal help for those facing the trauma of eviction. - From Tenants facing eviction need lawyers - CommonWealth Beacon
Company that Runs Healthcare at Mass. Prisons Under Scrutiny as Contract Nears Renewal Long waits for care, service denials, and staffing gaps — those are just a few of the complaints lodged against the company that manages healthcare across Massachusetts’ state prison system. And now, two federal lawmakers are pressing for answers. Those queries include whether Wellpath, which took over healthcare services in 2018, plans to cut its healthcare operational costs even as the state’s prison population grows older and sicker; the percentage of required staffing it’s provided to meet those needs, and even whether — and how much — the company has donated to county sheriff races across the state. “In addition to the issues surrounding Wellpath’s healthcare nationally, we are also deeply concerned about Wellpath’s operations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in particular,” the lawmakers continued. “We write to raise concerns about the inadequacy of Wellpath’s healthcare provided to individuals incarcerated in Massachusetts state prisons and to seek answers to questions about these problems. National ScrutinyWellpath found itself the center of national scrutiny earlier this year when The Appeal, a website that covers criminal justice reform issues, revealed that incarcerated people in the state’s prison system “had to wait years” for Wellpath to provide them with dentures or other basic dental care. In their letter to Wellpath, Warren and Markey raised similar concerns, noting that some of the most serious complaints against the company include allegations that time-sensitive care was delayed; that some requests for care were denied outright, and that staff failed to follow physicians’ treatment plans or the company’s own policies, as well as claims that the company inappropriately used restraints and solitary confinement to deal with people with mental health needs. - See the full MassLive article.
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