Tag: Massachusetts
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Pilot Plan Begins in MA to Rate Addiction-Treatment Centers
Massachusetts will be the first state to participate in a new, national system to rate addiction-treatment programs. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has approved being part of a pilot program developed by Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization. Substance-use treatment programs will work with the health department and other state agencies on the pilot, which…
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Massachusetts has highest increase in homeless population in the country
The homeless population of Massachusetts has increased by 14 percent in the last year, according to a recent report from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to the report, there are 20,068 homeless persons in the Commonwealth this year, up from 17,565 in 2017. This was the highest increase in the country…
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Most Mass. communities fall short of state affordable housing goal
The Comprehensive Permit Act, usually called 40B, set a goal for Massachusetts towns and cities nearly five decades ago: develop at least 10 percent of local housing to be affordable in the long term for low or middle income residents. As of a late 2017 Department of Housing and Community Development report, just 67 of…
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Treat Homelessness Like the Health Issue It Is
Last spring a group of students, led by their Professor Dr. Debra Harkins, came up with Bill H.3933, which is based on an idea out of Hawaii that says homelessness should be treated as a medical condition; this could allow doctors to write prescriptions for housing. I know, it sounds far fetched, but when you…
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Bay State Takes a Step Toward Single Payer
State senators have approved an amendment to a bill that could help pave the way to a single-payer health-care system in Massachusetts. The amendment, now attached to a larger health-care reform bill in the legislature, directs the state’s nonpartisan Health Policy Commission to compare three years of actual health care costs in the state to…
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Protesters ‘Take a Knee’ One Year After Fatal Shooting by Boston Police
On Saturday, Oct. 29, protesters knelt in front of the State House calling on State Attorney Maura Healy to reopen the cases of police brutality in Massachusetts. “We’re demanding that Attorney General Maura Healy reopen the cases,” said Brock Satter of Mass Action Against Police Brutality, the group that organized the Boston Takes a Knee…
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Rule Aims to Protect Mass. Residents From Payday Loan Abuses
Consumer advocates are praising a new rule issued on Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that requires payday lenders to start verifying a borrower’s ability to repay the loan before rolling it over into a new loan. The rule aims to stop lenders from taking advantage of desperate people who want to borrow more…