BOSTON — Just days after two federal actions rattled disability advocates, the administration of Gov. Maura Healey on Monday celebrated its first year of expanding efforts to help people leave nursing homes and live independently in their communities.
The administration released its first annual Community Living Initiative report at an event touting early progress toward an eight-year goal of helping 2,400 people with disabilities transition from nursing facilities into community settings. The celebration unfolded against a federal backdrop that advocates warned could threaten the legal foundation of community living and the workforce needed to sustain it.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidance arguing that states are not legally required to provide home and community-based services under the Supreme Court’s landmark Olmstead v. L.C. decision, a decades-old civil rights precedent that guarantees services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Days later, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals, potentially affecting thousands of Massachusetts healthcare workers.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah opened the report by emphasizing that Massachusetts remains committed to community-based care.
“The Community Living Initiative expands opportunities for people with disabilities and older adults to live with dignity, independence, and choice within the communities they call home,” Mahaniah said. “This work is grounded in the promise of the Supreme Court’s landmark civil rights decision Olmstead v. L.C., which affirmed the rights of individuals to live in and receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.”
Maura Sullivan, executive director of The Arc of Massachusetts, said she left the event encouraged by Mahaniah’s message, saying the administration’s commitment to community living “regardless of what’s coming down federally” offered reassurance as advocates brace for potential federal policy changes. “Thank goodness we’re here in Massachusetts,” she said.
The report details the initiative’s first-year accomplishments, including expanded outreach inside nursing facilities, additional behavioral health coordination for residents with serious mental illness, investments in accessible housing, rental subsidies and home modifications, and hundreds of successful transitions into community settings.
According to the report, 391 people who had lived in nursing facilities for at least 60 days successfully transitioned back into the community during the program’s first year. The administration’s long-term goal is at least 2,400 transitions over eight years.
The report points to expanded outreach inside nursing facilities as a driver of the initiative’s early progress. State staff made more than 1,300 in-person visits to Medicaid-participating nursing facilities statewide, resulting in 1,247 residents enrolling in transition programs.
The administration also highlighted investments to make community living possible after discharge, including 100 home modification projects averaging $21,250 each for accessibility improvements such as ramps, accessible bathrooms and widened doorways, and the addition of 451 rental subsidies through the Department of Mental Health and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.
Mahaniah said those investments reflect a coordinated effort across health, housing and human services agencies to “remove barriers, expand capacity, and ensure that people have real choices about where and how they live.”
Advocates attending the event said the encouraging state numbers now face uncertainty from Washington.
Sullivan called last week’s Justice Department memo “horrendous.”
She said the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to revoke TPS protections for Haitians could deepen an already severe workforce shortage in disability and long-term care services.
“We have up to 30% of our workforce that relies on Haitians who are on Temporary Protected Status, who are legal immigrants here,” she said. “We’re already in a workforce shortage, it’s a crisis … and now we’re seeing this potential additional cut into our workforce.”
She added, “My son is lucky to be in a group home and I can’t imagine if we lose some of those workers, it’ll be heartbreaking. They have incredible bonds.”
Massachusetts officials estimated last year that more than 45,000 Haitian TPS holders live in the state, many working in healthcare, home care and long-term care. Last summer, state officials and providers also warned that changing federal immigration policies were already disrupting the personal care attendant workforce, which supports more than 50,000 Massachusetts residents living at home.
Rep. Thomas Stanley, House chair of the Joint Committee on Aging and Independence, said maintaining an adequate home care workforce will become increasingly difficult if Haitian workers lose work authorization.
“We could lose 2,000 home care workers from the Haitian community, and that’s got to be devastating,” he said.
The administration’s report outlines priorities for the initiative’s second year, including improving referral pathways, expanding data sharing among agencies and piloting strategies to connect more nursing facility residents with serious mental illness to Department of Mental Health clubhouse services before they transition into community settings.
Despite uncertainty over federal disability policy and immigration enforcement, state officials stressed Monday that Massachusetts intends to continue investing in community living.
“Behind the numbers are real stories of independence restored, connections renewed, and lives reshaped,” Mahaniah wrote in the report. “They reflect the dedication of frontline staff, the collaboration of state agencies, and the resilience of the people we serve.”
Sam Drysdale is a reporter for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach her at [email protected].
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