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Benefits Available To People Regardless Of Immigration Status

MLRI
The programs on the linked spreadshett are available to all Massachusetts residents regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Additional benefits are available to US citizens and non-citizens with an eligible immigration status. NOTE that none of the benefits that are available regardless…

OLGT 2020-29: Cross Programs: Temporary Waiver of Certain SNAP Application Interviews

DTA
Staff must make all efforts to process SNAP applications quickly and accurately using the best information available for purposes of verifying program eligibility. In response to the increased volume of SNAP applications stemming from the COVID-19 state of emergency, effective immediately, the…

Immigration updates in light of COVID-19

MLRI
Click the "go to website" link below to access a google document maintained by Mass Law Reform Institute with the latest information for attorneys and advocates.

SNAP Time Limit for Able-bodied Adults without Dependents (ABAWDs): Advocacy Tools

MLRI
*As of 4/1/20 the SNAP time limit is suspended due to COVID-19*  See a flier MLRI created on COVID-19 and the time limit, along with MassLegalservices.org/DTA-COVID-19 for more information.   

Immigrant Eligibility for Public Programs During COVID-19

Protecting Immigrant Families
This table provides a general overview of some of the federal public programs available to support individuals and families during the COVID-19 crisis under existing law, as well as the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and…

D-SNAP Benefits (Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Program)

MLRI
When the President has declared a federal disaster as a result of severe weather or other federal emergency, USDA and local state SNAP agencies, including DTA, work together to provide “D-SNAP benefits.”  D-SNAP are special SNAP benefits to non-SNAP households needing immediate food…

OLGT 2020-27A: Temporary Emergency Operations Due to COVID-19

DTA
On March 10, 2020 a State of Emergency was declared by Governor Baker to support the Commonwealth’s response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). DTA is taking steps to ensure that active clients do not experience a disruption in benefits and prioritizes new applications.  The…

Remote Legal Support Guide: A Best Practices Manual for Nonprofit and Pro Bono Innovation

Pro Bono Net, Immigration Advocates Network
Complete with an interactive appendix, this manual will help organizations learn about and explore opportunities to build their own remote legal support projects.

Earned Sick Time Law in Massachusetts

MLRI
Fact sheet on the earned sick time law in Massachusetts. Learn more on the Massachusetts Attorney General's website, 

Eviction Innovations website

Stanford and Yale law schools
Services, tech and policies to address the immigration crisis. This site profiles current initiatives to address the eviction crisis across the United States. It is aimed at policymakers, organizers, researchers, and others who are interested in what communities around the U.S. are doing.…

2020 Upper Income Levels for MassHealth & Other Health Programs

MLRI and EOHHS
Attached are updated income tables for 2020 showing the upper income limits in MassHealth and Other Health programs. One table is the MassHealth Desk Guide showing the annual and monthly amounts that correspond to different percentages of the federal poverty level used by MassHealth; the 5%…

Boston Housing Authority v. Y.A., 482 Mass. 240 (2019): SJC Clarifies VAWA Defenses in Eviction Cases

Julia Devanthery, Dan Daley, and Lisabeth Jorgensen
A discussion of Boston Housing Authority v. Y.A., which included guidance from the Supreme Judicial Court on the application of VAWA protections in summary process cases, including holding that a tenant may raise a VAWA defense to eviction at any time during an eviction proceeding, 

Moving Benefit for SSI Recipients: $150 Cash Payment from DTA

MLRI
The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) is in charge of issuing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients up to $150 for moving costs if they meet certain rules.                  Who is eligible for up to…

MassHealth Premium Assistance

MassHealth
Attached is a powerpoint presentation that MassHealth's Premium Assistance Unit presented at the Jan 2020 MassHealth Training Forums. Also attached is a MassHealth memo (still current in Feb 2020) describing & giving examples of how the amount of premium assistance is calculated.

New State Public Housing Authority Plans

MLRI
In 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will start to require public housing authorities with state public housing to submit yearly plans.  This presentation is a guide for residents and advocates about the planning process and the purpose of the plans.

The Racist Roots of Work Requirements

Elisa Minoff, Center for the Study of Social Policy
This report traces policies that take away basic assistance from families for not meeting work requirements back to practices that coerced and exploited the labor of Black families, going back to slavery.  To this day, racist myths underlie assumptions that people do not want to work, and need…

Links about identity theft and identity fraud

MLRI
The following links contain information about what to do if you have been a victim of identity theft: Identity Theft Materials (Federal Trade Commission) Guide for Assisting Identity Theft Victims (Federal Trade Commission)  Identity theft and your social security…

Impact of Legal Aid - a Client's Perpective

At the 2020 Walk to the Hill gathering, a client shared how civil legal aid helped change her life, and the lives of her four children. She is a survivor of domestic violence and her legal aid attorneys helped her with multiple issues including restraining orders, a divorce, and enforcing the…

How National School Lunch Program and SNAP Treat Income Differently

MLRI
See Flier Attached: How National School Lunch Program (NLSP) and SNAP (Food Stamps) Treat Income Differently

MassHealth & Temporary Census Earnings

Vicky Pulos
Temporary census work is currently available but MassHealth members may have concerns that the added income will jeopardize their continued eligibility for MassHealth.  This Q & A for providers & advocates describes how MassHealth treats temporary census earnings for individuals…

Scientists Are Discovering How Trauma Can Be Inherited

Dana G Smith
Scientists and therapists are now trying to understand how trauma — broadly defined as severe psychological distress following a terrible or life-threatening event — is shared across generations, whether the connection is biological or psychological, and how best to stop the legacy of…

Governor's FY 2021 Budget Proposal: MLRI's Preliminary Analysis of Selected Issues

MLRI
The Governor’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal: Preliminary Analysis of Selected Cash and Nutrition Assistance, Child Welfare, Health Care, Homelessness Services, Housing and Legal Services Items On January 22, 2020, Governor Baker released his budget proposal for fiscal…

Figuring Out FEMA

Center for Urban Pedagogy
Experiencing a natural disaster is a difficult and traumatic experience. In addition to the emotional process of recovery, impacted individuals need to also navigate complex legal processes to repair their homes and replace their belongings. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides…

Creating an Affordability Agenda

Jonathan Sallet
Cost is the primary reason that people do not subscribe to broadband. Current research suggests that low-income people can only afford to pay about $10 per month for broadband. One set of participants told researchers that affording $20 per month would be difficult; even at $10-15/month, low-income…

Six changes affecting MassHealth on Jan 1, 2020

Vicky Pulos
Six changes affecting MassHealth on Jan 1, 2020: Primary Care Providers Joining New ACOs Jan 1 MassHealth notified 37,000 members whose primary care provider joined a new ACO that they would be assigned to that ACO on Jan. 1, 2020. The list of providers changing plans is…

Earned Income Tax Credit

CBPP
A brochure in 21 languages explaining the federal EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) is available at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website at: http://www.eitcoutreach.org/outreach-strategies/materials/flyers/  Other outreach tools and materials, as well as general…

Free Volunteer Tax Filing Resources

IRS
Click the "Go to Website" link below to find out how to find a free tax preparation site.  This free tax preparation locator search is maintained by the Internal Revenue Service. To find a Massachusetts site, you can also use this…

Medicare Savings Program Expansion eff Jan 1, 2020

EOHHS
There are 3 Medicare Savings Programs (MSP/Buy-In): the Senior Buy-In also called QMB that pays for Medicare Pt B premiums ($144.60 in 2020) and cost-sharing for Medicare Parts A & B, and the Buy-In programs also called SLMB or QI that only cover the Medicare Part B premiums. (Despite…

Guidelines for Attorneys in Massachusetts: Representing Sexual Assault Survivors with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Victim Rights Law Center
These Guidelines are a framework for attorneys representing victims with I/DD. The Guidelines aim to address the needs of survivors with I/DD, and to encourage attorneys to use the skills they already possess to serve all survivors. While these Guidelines are admittedly only a starting point, they…

Special Education Placement Options

Federation for Children with Special Needs
Information on placement options for students and deciding on the type of placement student needs.  This website provides easily accessible, accurate information about how to identify the appropriate educational placement for a child.  For some families, this includes when private day or…

Best Practices for Collecting Demographic Data

Emily Withnall
Collecting demographic data can be necessary and beneficial, whether it’s to ensure a broad representation of applicants in a publication or on a board, or for a fellowship offered to underserved artists who are also parents. However, the labels people use to self-identify change rapidly.…

A Quick and Easy Method of Screening for Medicaid Eligibility under the Pickle Amendment

Gordon Bonnyman
The Pickle Amendment, named after its congressional sponsor and enacted in 1977, requires that an individual is to be deemed a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient (which in most states means automatic Medicaid eligibility) if the individual1 was simultaneously entitled to receive both…

Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization

Crossroads Ministry
A chart with steps in the continuum for becoming an anti-racist, multicultural organization.

Why Latinx? Using Language to define a multi-continental Diaspora

Latixx4Social Movement
We use language to categorize groups, often failing to effectively — linguistically — describe the people we’re referring to in a single word. People contain multitudes. No one phrase is truly adequate to represent millions of people, especially when so many distinct cultures are…

Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans

Jamila Taylor, The Century Foundation
The American health care system in beset with inequalities that have a disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. These inequalities contribute to gaps in health insurance coverage, uneven access to services, and poorer health outcomes among certain populations.…

Race and Poverty Bias in the Child Welfare System: Strategies for Child Welfare Practitioners

Krista Ellis
Race and socioeconomic status often impact decisions in every stage of the child welfare system from reporting, to foster care placements, to termination of parental rights decisions. A look at bias, why it matters and how to address it.

4 I's of Racism and Racial Equity

All Aces, Inc.
An overview, description, and explanation of the impact of the four levels of racism, race equity and resilience - ideological, internalized, interpersonal, and institutional.  

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. How Is It Different From PTSD?

Dr. Joy DeGruy
5 minute video in which Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation.

Text Messages as Evidence: a How-To Overview

MLRI, et al
Text messaging leaves an electronic record of dialogue that can be entered as evidence in court. Like other forms of written evidence, text messages must be authenticated in order to be admitted (see this article on admissibility by Steve Good). A defendant’s name on a text message is not…

October 2019 Health Update: Open Enrollment & More

Vicky Pulos

Open Enrollment 2020 & ConnectorCare

Vicky Pulos
Open enrollment for 2020 coverage is from Nov. 1, 2019 to Jan. 23, 2020. People enrolled in ConnectorCare in 2019, should check to see if they will be enrolled in the right plan for them in 2020 or whether they need to take action to update information in their account and/or select a different…

Mass Vet Benefit Calculator

Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School
The tool helps veterans, their families and service providers determine potential eligibility for the Massachusetts Veterans’ Services Benefits Program – known as Chapter 115 – which provides monthly financial assistance to low-income veterans across Massachusetts. This benefit can…

Shifting Neighborhoods: Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities

Jason Richardson, Bruce Mitchell PhD, and Juan Franco
A large number of Blacks and Hispanics were displaced following gentrification. Gentrification has led to the displacement of 20,000 Black residents in Washington, DC.

Plain English and inclusive language: Publications Style Guide

The University of Technology Sydney
Guide provides examples of better ways to communicate.  Writing in plain English means using simpler, more direct language. 

Plain English and inclusive language: Publications Style Guide

The University of Technology Sydney
Guide provides examples of better ways to communicate.  Writing in plain English means using simpler, more direct language. 

Key Equity Terms & Concepts: A Glossary for Shared Understanding

Center for the Study of Social Policy
From the introduction: Developing a shared language for thoughtful discussion about equity is critical for all of our work. This glossary of key terms includes many words and concepts that are foundational and relevant to CSSP's work. This is a living document. Just as our work has evolved…

A New Opportunity for Seniors and People with Disabilities Enrolled in MassHealth Home & Community Based Waivers & PACE To Maintain Eligibility After an Increase in Income

MLRI
Memo on a new policy on "post-eligibility treatment of income" for people already enrolled in a HCBS who experience an increase in income. Update: October 1, 2019 MassHealth Eligibility Operations Memo, Post-Eligibility Treatment of Income (PETI) for Home- and Community-Based…

Washington Pro Bono Equity Training Guide: Race Equity & Cultural Competency Curriculum for Volunteer Lawyers

Washington Race Equity and Justice Initiative & JustLead Washington
From the introduction: The following resource is designed for programs working with pro bono attorneys and legal advocates in Washington State. Our goal is to provide a starting point for volunteers seeking to understand and practice key concepts related to race equity and anti-bias work. The…

Children's Clothing Allowance Fall 2019 Update

GBLS, MLRI
The TAFDC (welfare) clothing allowance this fall is $350 per child. The Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) will deposit $350 on or close to August 30 for every child receiving TAFDC on August 30. You can apply for TAFDC in September and get the clothing allowance plus a regular…

Terms and Definitions

yw Boston
Definitions of common racial justice terms.