By David Abel, Globe Staff, 11/20/2003

After years of pumping millions into the emergency shelter system, a safety net for thousands of homeless residents, Massachusetts should shift its efforts to produce more low-income housing and provide programs to prevent evictions, according to a state report set for release today.

The long-awaited report urges Governor Mitt Romney to provide emergency-assistance dollars to temporarily subsidize housing, develop an early warning system to prevent evictions, and pay landlords directly from a tenant's welfare checks to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. In addition, it recommends the appointment of senior officials to a permanent "interagency council" that would seek to eliminate homelessness.

"We must go beyond providing shelter for the most destitute among us," said Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, in a statement. "We are taking the bold step of moving from a `shelter-first' system to a transitional `housing-first' model."

The report from the Governor's Executive Commission for Homeless Services Coordination is short on concrete plans. Despite months of input from top officials in 14 state agencies, advocates for the homeless, and prominent business people, the report proposes few specific changes and avoids discussion of how to pay for them.

"It sounds great, but the devil's in the details," said Leslie Lawrence, associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, who worries shifting money into housing may leave little for shelter programs. "People in emergency shelters have nowhere else to go. The question is: Where's the money going to come from?"

The state's homeless population has reached record numbers. Last winter, the City of Boston counted 6,200 homeless people, more than ever. At the same time, a survey of 80 shelters throughout the state -- there were fewer than a half-dozen in the early 1980s -- found their capacity exceeded by an average of 26 percent, more than the previous year. State shelters have exceeded capacity for much of the past five years.

Moreover, an increasing number of families -- nearly 1,600 -- are homeless, including about 550 families whom the state houses in motels. In 1999, the state had no families in motels.

The rising homeless population has taken a toll on the budget. Overall, officials say, the state now pays about $250 million annually for homeless programs, including more than $70 million for families, twice as much as in 1999.

"Given the very generous amounts the Commonwealth already spends on homelessness, the commission has looked at how we can spend it more efficiently and effectively," said John Wagner, commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance, which oversees many state homeless programs.

The long-term goals, the report says, include boosting affordable housing for residents with the lowest incomes, promoting programs to prevent homelessness, coordinating services among agencies to better serve the homeless, and improving the collection of data about those using the shelter system.

The report, however, provides few details about how the state should accomplish those goals. The specifics will come, officials said, with the creation of the interagency council, which they expect the lieutenant governor to chair.

"Historically, people in responsible positions have shied away from the homeless problem," said Dick Powers, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. "Now, each agency has a share in the accountability program, and it's putting a lot of heads on the chopping block."

Off the table, for now, is more money, which some advocates argue remains crucial to building housing and offsetting the rent of the needy.

"There are ways of spending more efficiently, but it's not just about reallocating existing resources -- it's about finding new resources," said Eliza Greenberg, director of Boston's Emergency Shelter Commission. "If that's not part of the discussion, I don't know how hopeful that leaves me."

Joe Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, welcomed the report as a "vision statement." Ending homelessness is "not a wild-eyed utopian vision," he said.

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