Drafting group for H.91 narrows language on regional needs assessments, hotels-as-shelter and advisory committee makeup

A legislative drafting group working on H.91 agreed on edits to sections of the draft bill that assign statewide planning responsibility, require community action agencies to prepare regional needs assessments, set rules for use of hotel and motel rooms as emergency shelter, and change the membership and duties of the bill’s advisory committee.

The committee removed the word “jointly” from a provision on regional needs assessments and rewrote the section so that the Agency of Human Services, working with the Department for Children and Families, “shall have statewide responsibility for meeting the intent of this chapter, including statewide planning and system development.” Community action agencies will “develop a regional needs assessment and planning process in collaboration with community and state partners,” the group agreed.

Those edits were offered as part of a broader effort to ensure state departments — including, the drafter said, Department of Mental Health and other state partners — are explicitly involved in planning and not siloed in advisory roles. Members emphasized that the planning process should include input from “people with lived experience.”

On reporting, committee members added language requiring that plans report household participation rates in coordinated-entry processes and in case-management services, to give the department a sense…