Human Services Committee approves amended H.91 (version 7.1) on emergency shelters

The Human Services Committee voted to approve version 7.1 of H.91, described in committee as a bill “creating Behar,” after a preliminary straw poll on amendments and a formal roll call. The committee conducted a straw poll on the proposed amendment that was recorded as 10–0–1, then approved the amended bill in a roll-call vote recorded as eight yes, two no and one absence.

The bill, as amended in version 7.1, makes several substantive changes to existing shelter and homelessness-related language and program requirements. Committee members said the amendments collapse prior references to “transitional” and “temporary” shelter into a single term, “emergency shelter”; add the word “resources” after “funds” in the purpose section; and expand the definition of “at-risk homelessness” to include the phrase “precariously housed.” The amended draft also adds a statewide organization serving households experiencing or having experienced domestic violence and restructures some paragraphs and numbering (including a renumbering of subsection C). The committee…