House faces tough decision on human service wages

BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)–Dealing with a historic workforce crisis magnified by the state’s housing affordability problems, dozens of human services providers and employers gathered Wednesday to show their support for Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed rate increases while also pushing lawmakers to keep pursuing more wage hikes.

While tax revenue growth has stalled out, raising concerns about state spending levels, Healey wants to spend $390 million on Chapter 257 provider rate increases in fiscal 2025, an increase of $217 million compared to fiscal 2024, according to budget briefs from the administration. Preserving Healey’s major funding boost is critical to recruiting and retaining direct care workers who serve vulnerable Bay Staters, leaders from the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers said during a forum.

“Due to the inability to hire staff, there are approximately 2,700 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities on waitlists who are unable to access day services,” Ellen Attaliades, ADDP’s CEO, said. “As in past years, ADDP’s top budget priority for FY ’25 is to ensure the community-based human service organizations receive fair and adequate raises, which among other things, enables them to provide competitive salaries to recruit and retain staff.”

Attaliades said the sector had an “alarming” staff vacancy rate of 26 percent for direct support professionals in the fall, based on a survey of ADDP members. The survey found staff vacancy rates of 33 percent for licensed practical nurses, 14 percent for registered nurses and 18 percent for clinicians, she said.

ADDP said Healey’s recommended rate increase, based on a benchmark at the 53rd percentile of the Bureau of Labor Statistics median wages, makes progress for the coming fiscal year. But in the longer term, the association that represents 134 human service organizations across Massachusetts wants all salaries benchmarked to at least the 75th percentile, Attaliades said.

Rep. Jay Livingstone, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, expressed support for the Chapter 257 funding. But he cautioned that declining revenue collections could make an impact on the final budget.

“That is a huge line item, and over the last few years, the House, the Senate and the governor have provided hundreds of millions of dollars into that line item. And I know Gov. Healey in House 2 has proposed to do the same, and my colleagues here and myself will be advocating for that to continue to happen,” Livingstone said. “And for the budget, it’s really going to depend on the revenue side.”

Senate President Karen Spilka, who served as the legal guardian for her sister with Down syndrome, spoke about the importance of ensuring full integration and self-sufficiency for people with disabilities. Spilka said the memory of her sister helps her work toward goals like improving the quality of life for workers.

“I know how important the salaries are, the benefits are — that we cannot outsource those jobs. We need to keep improving,” Spilka said, as she invoked her past advocacy for increasing Chapter 257 rates and praised ADDP’s feedback to the Legislature. “It’s really important the work that you do, and I just want to say you really do make a difference, a positive difference, in people’s lives and families’ lives.”

The state’s high housing costs are also hampering the human service workforce and delivery of care to people with disabilities, said Alexis Hill, ADDP’s public policy director.

“The human service workforce crisis is inextricably linked to the housing crisis. When your human service professionals can afford housing, more stay in the profession, and more will enter the profession,” Hill said. “Less people will have to stay home with family members, who are waiting for services — those people who have been forgoing paid work can then re-enter the paid workforce economy.”

Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus touted Healey’s $4.1 billion Affordable Homes Act, which could create more than 40,000 new housing units, and preserve or rehabilitate tens of thousands of units. The policy-heavy bill recommends allowing accessory dwelling units by right in single-family zoning districts and a local-option real estate transfer fee.

“ADUs as a right, accessory dwelling units, particularly for a lot of the folks that you work with, this could be a game-changer for folks. Often families would like to keep loved ones closer if they have the ability, the space, the unit to do that — this is an opportunity to do that,” Augustus said.

The secretary framed the housing bond bill as part of a broader strategy to spur housing production when paired with the MBTA Communities Act and last year’s tax cut package, which raised the low-income housing tax credit and injected new money into the Housing Development Incentive Program.

“Those three things in concert with each other, we strongly believe, will move the needle on the housing crisis,” Augustus said. He added those tools “restore some of the power dynamic that currently is so disproportionately disadvantageous to first-time homebuyers or low-wage folks who are trying to rent a decent place to live.”