Mass. launches criminal record checks for shelter seekers

BOSTON — All adults seeking shelter in the state's emergency assistance program must receive a criminal background check before accessing benefits under new action by the Healey administration, which also lowered the system's maximum capacity.

Gov. Maura Healey's office on Friday rolled out regulations that execute many of the reforms in a shelter funding and safety bill she signed last month, including a requirement for adult shelter applicants to disclose their criminal histories and agree to a Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, check.

Effective Friday, an applicant who refuses a CORI check will be ineligible for emergency assistance shelter. The regulations also outline more than a dozen criminal convictions and charges that would disqualify shelter seekers, including murder, rape and sexual assault, firearms felonies or misdemeanors in the past six years, and drug trafficking in the past three years.

"These changes will empower our team to keep families, staff and communities safe by enhancing our criminal background check process and disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime," Healey said of the new regulations. "Additionally, we are making real progress when it comes to lowering the cost of this system to taxpayers — and we are on track to hit all of our goals by the end of the year. Massachusetts is managing this federal problem, but Congress needs to act on meaningful immigration reform instead of making Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill for their failures."

Applicants must verify their identities and familial relationships before being placed into the state-funded shelter system, Healey's office said.

Republicans voted against the bill before it landed on Healey's desk, arguing that Massachusetts CORI checks are not enough because they would not capture crimes committed in other states or countries.

The regulations landed about two weeks after Healey signed into law a bill that simultaneously provided the cash-strapped system with another $425 million to keep it afloat through June and implemented a range of temporary and permanent reforms, including a six-month limit on shelter stays.

Healey's office on Friday also announced changes to its prior emergency declaration "to reflect that the EA system's capacity is now at 5,800 families." The governor previously set a cap of 7,500 families, and in recent months the caseload has fallen to about 5,800, her office said.

With more families exiting the system, Healey's office said the administration is "on track to reduce caseload to 4,000 families and close all hotel shelters by the end of the year."

The mix of shelter seekers has shifted. About 75% of families seeking services are long-term Massachusetts families, a change from earlier in the crisis when about half were newly arriving migrants.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Massachusetts launches criminal record checks for shelter seekers