The ruling sides with the state’s housing department, which argued through lawyers Tuesday that it had no more funds — and is on track to run into the red — to continue expanding shelter capacity in the face of surging demand partly fueled by the number of migrant arrivals this year and suffocating housing costs.

Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee handed down her ruling a day after the Healey administration issued emergency regulations that call for a waitlist once capacity is reached and potentially limit the amount of time families can stay in shelters.

In her ruling, Squires-Lee said the Healey administration did not violate a provision included in the state’s fiscal 2024 budget that calls for a 90-day notice to the Legislature before making any changes to emergency shelter eligibility requirements.

The notice, Squires-Lee wrote in court documents, is intended to afford the Legislature the opportunity to appropriate funding for the shelter program.

“The evidence before me, however, is clear — more than a month ago, the governor specifically requested additional appropriations for the emergency assistance program and the Legislature has failed to act,” the judge wrote. “In these circumstances, the predicate purpose of the 90-day proviso has been fulfilled; and, in all events, it is for the Legislature and not clients of the program to enforce any claimed non-compliance.”

The ruling all but guarantees uncertainty for families who apply for emergency shelter after the 7,500-family shelter cap is reached, something the administration has said could happen within days. There were 7,388 families in the system as of Tuesday, according to state data.

Lawyers for Civil Rights, the group behind the lawsuit, laid out a grim picture of what would happen if a temporary pause on the capacity plan was not put in place — migrants and homeless families could end up sleeping outside as cold weather sets in.

“Without an injunction, families, children, and pregnant women who are entitled to emergency shelter under the law will be denied a roof over their heads — forced to sleep on the streets, in cars, and in other unsafe situations. There is no other way to put it. That is the grim reality,” Attorney Oren Sellstrom wrote in court documents. “The harms that will befall them are harsh and irreparable.”

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said the department believes “an appropriate outcome was reached.”

“The state does not have enough space, service providers or funding to safely expand shelter capacity,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Attorneys on both sides of the issue spent much of the court hearing Tuesday focused on the 90-day requirement, which says the executive branch must provide notice to the Legislature that they are making any regulatory, administrative practice, or policy changes that would “alter the eligibility” of emergency shelter benefits.

Sellstrom said emergency regulations partially outlining what happens when the shelter cap is reached were “rushed” at the eleventh hour only after the Healey administration was sued to challenge their compliance.

“Defendants are rushing drastic and material changes to the state’s long standing emergency assistance program into place, disregarding well-established laws that require an orderly process — in particular, a mandate that requires defendants to give the Legislature a 90-day period to weigh in and potentially forestall the changes altogether,” Sellstrom wrote in court documents.

But Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office argued that provision “is not privately enforceable” into a 90-day delay of emergency measures to address budget shortfalls.

Squires-Lee sided with state lawyers, writing in her ruling that Lawyers for Civil Rights provided “no case in which a court has ever held that an agency that fails to comply with such a proviso may be barred from taking action within the ambit of its statutory and regulatory authority.”

Healey has requested additional funding for emergency shelters beyond the $325 million allocated to the program in the fiscal 2024 state budget. In a separate bill closing out the books on fiscal 2023, Healey asked lawmakers to approve $250 million in additional funding.

Squires-Lee points to that request in her ruling, and notes the Legislature has not moved forward the extra dollars.

“The failure to give notice has not injured plaintiffs where notice is intended to permit the Legislature to act or not act, and the Legislature, having actual notice of the fiscal crisis, has failed to act,” Squires-Lee wrote.

Squires-Lee also agreed with a state-backed argument that she does not have the power to force the Healey administration to spend money the Legislature has not appropriated.

“As much as I wish that I possessed the power to ensure that all families who need housing have it, and that all families who require safe emergency shelter are given it, I am persuaded that it would be inappropriate to order EOHLC to continue providing emergency shelter it does not have the resources appropriated by the Legislature to fund,” the judge wrote.

In a signed affidavit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, Administration and Finance Assistant Secretary Aditya Basheer laid out the projected cost as a judge weighed whether to put a hold on a plan to cap the number of families in emergency shelter, which has swelled this year partly because of a surge in migrant arrivals.

“If family shelter net caseload continues to expand at a rate consistent with the activity of the last several months, the state projects a shelter caseload of approximately 13,500 families by the end of (fiscal year 2024),” Basheer wrote. “This would represent a 187% increase over the caseload contemplated in the FY24 budget. This projected caseload would result in family shelter and associated programs costs of approximately $1.1 billion in FY24.”

Lawmakers on Beacon Hill shuttled $325 million to the emergency shelter program in the fiscal 2024 state budget to support 4,100 families, and Gov. Maura Healey has asked the Legislature for $250 million more in a budget that closes the books on the previous fiscal year.

But state lawyers have said the emergency shelter program has $535 million “in contract commitments” to shelter and other service providers through the end of fiscal 2024. The program is expected to quickly run out of money, and even into the red.

The state’s housing department is attempting to limit the number of families in emergency shelter to 7,500, a move that has drawn a legal challenge from Lawyers for Civil Rights, which argues the Healey administration did not follow proper procedures laid out in state law.

There were 7,388 families in emergency shelters as of Tuesday, according to state data, with 3,687 in hotels and motels, 3,683 in traditional sites, and 63 in temporary shelters like Joint Base Cape Cod and a Quincy college dorm building.

Graphs included in Basheer’s affidavit also show the state expects about 1,000 families to enter emergency shelter each month through the end of fiscal 2024 — assuming the system was constantly expanded.

“Along with the explosive growth in shelter demand over the past year, there has been a widening gap between ‘entries’ (the number of families entering shelter each month) and ‘exits’ (the number of families exiting each month,” Basheer said. “This means that the current levels of pressure on the emergency assistance program are trending to be long-term in nature, with the families entering shelter today expected to remain until at least FY25.”

The Healey administration informed state lawmakers of that projection earlier this year in a series of meetings on migrant arrivals and the emergency shelter system.

Lawyers argued in court Tuesday over whether the state has enough money to continue funding shelter expansion — often through the use of hotels and motels — if a pause was put in place, with state attorneys pointing to the likelihood of a deficit.

“What they ask is not a preservation of the status quo, but, instead, the continued procurement of EA shelter placements to meet new entrants numbering between 20 and 50 additional families per day, despite insufficient appropriations to do so,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office wrote in court documents.

Lawyers for Civil Rights laid out a grim picture of what would happen if a temporary pause on the capacity plan was not put in place — migrants and homeless families sleeping outside as cold weather sets in.

“Without an injunction, families, children, and pregnant women who are entitled to emergency shelter under the law will be denied a roof over their heads — forced to sleep on the streets, in cars, and in other unsafe situations. There is no other way to put it. That is the grim reality,” the group wrote in court documents. “The harms that will befall them are harsh and irreparable.”

Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said the system’s expansion rate is “unsustainable” just as a judge was weighing whether to temporarily pause a Healey administration plan to cap the number of families in shelters at 7,500.

Low turnover rates and the push to find enough units to accommodate everyone is behind the high estimate, he added.

“At current rates of entries into and exits from emergency assistance shelter, the number of eligible families in shelter would continue to increase to more than 13,000 households in shelter by fiscal year end (if sufficient shelter units could be found to accommodate that many households),” Augustus wrote.

He added: “With the average length of stay growing each month (averaging 13.6 months as of the first quarter of fiscal year 2024), the pressure on the emergency assistance program will be long-term in nature, with the families entering shelter today expected to remain through fiscal year 2025.”

Demand for emergency assistance shelter is primarily driven by a surge in newly arrived migrant families, high cost and limited availability of housing, and reduced exists of families in long-term emergency shelters stays, Augustus wrote.

The situation has become so dire, the Healey administration has argued, that not only is funding drying up, but the emergency shelter system is projected to run into the red by roughly $210 million by the end of fiscal year 2024.

“This projected deficiency does not include additional resources needed for wraparound services, school supports, and community supports,” Augustus wrote.

Lawmakers and Healey allocated $325 million for the system in the fiscal 2024 state budget, which was expected to support 4,100 families and 4,700 housing units.

There were 7,389 families in the system as of Tuesday, with 3,671 in hotels and motels, 3,641 in traditional shelters, and 77 in temporary sites like Joint Base Cape Cod and a Quincy college dorm building.

“It is no longer possible to secure additional space that is suitable and safe for use as shelter beyond a capacity of 7,500 families,” Augustus wrote. “The commonwealth does not have enough space, service providers, or funds to safely expand shelter capacity any longer.”

Administration officials previously projected that 1,000 families could enter the emergency shelter system each month.

Suffolk County Judge Debra Squires-Lee did not make an immediate ruling on a request to temporarily halt Gov. Maura Healey’s shelter capacity plan, and is now weighing whether those seeking housing should be placed on a waitlist or if the state should temporarily be forced to spend money it argues it does not have to expand the system.

Squires-Lee said she expected to issue a decision Wednesday on Lawyers on the call for a preliminary injunction just as the state inched closer to Healey’s 7,500-family-limit. More than 7,330 migrant and homeless families were in the system as of Monday, according to state data.

Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit last week asking for the preliminary injunction as housing and homeless advocates rallied against the governor’s threshold and the administration moved to make the matter permanent through emergency regulations.

In court Tuesday, lawyers largely focused on a 90-day notice requirement in the fiscal 2024 state budget that directs the executive branch to produce a report for the Legislature before making any regulatory, administrative practice, or policy changes that would “alter the eligibility” of emergency shelter benefits.

The report needs to justify any changes, including with any determination that available funding “will be insufficient to meet projected expenses,” attorneys argued.

Lawyers for Civil Rights Attorney Jacob Love said the administration did not meet that requirement as it moved forward with the shelter capacity plan or when it issued emergency regulations only hours before the court hearing.

“In the absence of immediate intervention by this court in the form of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, homeless families with children will be denied immediate shelter placement and left out in the cold,” Love said. “At a minimum, we’re asking for a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo until the court can schedule a full preliminary injunction hearing.”

But Healey and the state’s housing department argued Massachusetts has neither the funds, capacity, nor personnel to keep expanding the emergency shelter system with migrant arrivals still surging and housing costs pressuring local residents.

Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Parr said “there is no money” to expand the system and there is debate “about whether or not the notice provision applies in these circumstances.”

“To start with the facts on the ground, this is no surprise to the Legislature or the people in Massachusetts. The executive branch has emphasized the financial constraints and the acute spike in shelter demand many times in recent months and weeks,” Parr said.

Squires-Lee questioned Parr on how long it would take for the administration to fully run out of money for emergency shelters “if we were to put a short stay in place, for example, to allow the plaintiffs to deal with this … emergency regulation” and bring forward other arguments.

Parr said she could not estimate the timeline but “what we can say is, any delay in implementing these measures will drive the line item further into deficiency.”

“It may seem as though, put a pause on this, wait another week or two,” Parr said. “But given the number of people who are entering the shelter system each day, which seems to be between 20 or 50 families each day, that’ll add up very quickly. And it’s very expensive to find these units, and to shelter these families.”

The fiscal 2024 budget allocated $325 million for the emergency shelter system, and Healey asked earlier this fall for an additional $250 million to help maintain services. But lawmakers have so far sat idle on the spending bill that includes those shelter dollars.

In their lawsuit, Lawyers for Civil Rights argued the Healey administration planned to “artificially cap” the emergency shelter system, place families on a waitlist rather than find them accommodations, and prioritize families with “certain yet-to-be-defined ‘health and safety risks,’” the lawsuit said.

“These changes will necessarily delay the provision of benefits to shelter-eligible families, such as plaintiffs and those similarly situated, thereby denying them shelter and perpetuating the myriad harms caused by homelessness,” the lawsuit said.

The court hearing concluded what had become a busy afternoon by the time lawyers filed into the Suffolk County Superior Courthouse. Only hours before, the Healey administration released emergency regulations that outlined the process for implementing an emergency shelter cap.

The regulations called for a written declaration that identifies the maximum capacity for the emergency shelter system, which Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus released shortly after the rules were on file with the secretary of state’s office.

Augustus said the emergency shelter system had $535 million in “commitments” to pay through the end of the fiscal year, which would bring it into the red by about $210 million if it did not receive a cash infusion.

“The current rate of expansion in the emergency assistance program is unsustainable,” Augustus wrote.

The regulations were filed with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, according to a Galvin spokesperson.

The proposed update adds a new section to emergency shelter regulations that details what would happen if the “shelter system is unable to serve all eligible families,” according to a copy provided to the Herald.

The suggested rules change call for a “written declaration” that “in light of legislative appropriations, the shelter system is no longer able to meet all current and projected demand for shelter from eligible families considering the facts and circumstances then existing in the commonwealth.”

The declaration would need to identify a maximum program emergency shelter system capacity “which the director (the secretary) determines the shelter system can attain and that the shelter system shall not be required to exceed during the term of the declaration.”

“The declaration shall have an initial time limit of 120 days after it is issued but may be extended for additional periods of up to 120 days if the Director (the Secretary) determines that the shelter system is still unable to meet all current and projected demand for shelter from eligible families in light of legislative appropriations,” the proposed regulations said.

The regulations also outline the process of administering and maintaining a waitlist for families looking to access emergency shelter.

The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities filed the regulations only hours before lawyers were scheduled to attend a court hearing where a judge could rule on a request to temporarily pause a plan to limit capacity in the emergency shelter system.

Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit last week and requested a preliminary injunction on the self-imposed emergency shelter capacity limit, a move that riled homeless and housing advocates who say it will force some families to live outside as colder weather sets in.

But Gov. Maura Healey and the state’s housing department argue Massachusetts has neither the funds, capacity, nor personnel to keep expanding the emergency shelter system through a sweeping network of hotels and motels. State officials projected capacity could be reached as early as Wednesday.

During a radio interview, Healey said her administration filed emergency regulations Wednesday pertaining to the waitlist and emergency shelter operations, an apparent move to combat arguments from Lawyers for Civil Rights who said the state did not follow proper procedures to change emergency shelter rules.

“I continue to call for relief from the federal government. We need help with staffing. We need help with funding. And again, it’s a federal problem that we’re having to deal with as states,” Healey said on WBUR.

Some shelter providers have backed the emergency shelter cap, saying a system designed to handle about 3,000 families each year has been pushed to its limits by a surge of migrant arrivals from other counties.

Healey said earlier this month the shelter system can handle no more than 7,500 families, and those who apply for temporary housing after the cap is reached will be placed on a waitlist. She has petitioned the Legislature for an extra $250 million for the emergency shelter system, a request House lawmakers have put on hold as they seek more data.

This is a developing story…

Massachusetts had the steepest fall from last year in the nation, dropping 12 spots to 46th for overall taxation in the 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index, a ranking published by the Tax Foundation that compares state tax systems.

“That means we are overtaxing our employers and our residents, both,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “To be in the bottom five states, it’s not a good sign to either our tax-paying families or to employers, current or prospective. We’ve got to work on this.”

A driver behind the nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

The crumbling tax system should not be a surprise, said Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax. He called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney said in a statement.

Hurst, whose organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state, told the Herald on Friday that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

Massachusetts is the fourth worst state in the country when it comes to out-migration, behind only California, New York and Illinois, according to data gathered earlier this year by Pioneer Institute, an economic policy think tank.

The Millionaire’s Tax has exacerbated the years-long problem, and former Celtics player Grant Williams used it as motivation to sign a four-year, $54-million contract with the Dallas Mavericks over the summer. If he stayed in Boston, the surtax would’ve reduced that amount to $48 million over the four years, he told The Athletic.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th best state for individual taxes to the sixth worst.

Two glaring challenges facing small businesses across the Bay State, Hurst said, are its high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.

Hurst is calling on state lawmakers to create more flexibility for small businesses on health insurance instead of imposing mandates and restrictions so they can be competitive with “big, self-insured businesses.”

Gov. Maura Healey signed a $1 billion-a-year tax relief bill earlier this month that Hurst believes will only go so far.

The package cuts the short-term capital gains tax from 12% to 8.5%, a business-backed move that has riled progressives who argue it gives a break to the wealthy. The compromise will cost the state $561 million in fiscal year 2023 and $1 billion a year starting in fiscal year 2027.

It also includes boosts to the rental deduction cap, a tax credit for a dependent child, disabled adult, or senior, and the statewide cap for a housing production program. The bill excludes estates valued up to $2 million from the estate tax by allowing for a uniform credit of $99,600.

“It’s going to help,” Hurst said, “but frankly, I think it’s a down payment on more action that has to come to make Massachusetts welcoming to investment, welcoming to entrepreneurs and to make sure that small businesses and consumers alike can be prosperous in the Commonwealth.”

That’s how ex-pols are often described at the State House after they leave elective office. But after checking out the latest Beacon Hill lobbying reports, that old saw needs to be updated.

Forgotten, but not gone – and filthy rich!

It is astonishing to see how much some of these ancient shiftless hacks are grabbing, especially when you consider how long it’s been since any of them ever won an election.

Let’s start with 79-year-old ex-Lt. Gov. Tommy O’Neill – “Thomas P. O’Neill da Turd” as the sergeant-at-arms used to describe him when he entered the House chambers for the annual State of the State address.

Da Turd is the son of ex-House speaker Tip O’Neill, and he was dragged into office twice on the bottom of the Democrat gubernatorial ticket. But on his own Tipleet won just a single election – as a state rep in Cambridge, in 1972.

No problem, though. For the first six months of the year, his firm, O’Neill and Associates, collected $1.89 million from 59 clients. And here I was wondering how he was paying for that swell new waterside mansion in Harwich Port, with the smart Mercedes sports coupe parked outside. Hi Tommy – see ya next summer, pal!

State House hacks usually make their millions the old-fashioned way – with the kiss in the mail. Like Billy Bulger, the Corrupt Midget. Now 89, the CM has been pocketing a pension that is now $273,759 a year for more than 20 years.

At the State House, one of Bulger’s stooges was Chester Greenough Atkins – “Billy Bulger’s butler,” as he was known. Fat and entitled (he was born in Switzerland) Chet served briefly in Congress until he retired due to ill health – the voters got sick of him.

A four-term incumbent, he lost the Democrat primary in 1992, with a miserable 35 percent of the vote. It may have been the worst Congressional primary drubbing ever until Liz Cheney last year in Wyoming.

But no problem – at age 75, Billy Bulger’s butler is now a “partner” in something called Tremont Strategies. According to the State House News Service, Atkins’ crew took in $2.04 million in the first six months of the year.

Another lobbyist in that outfit is one Jason Aluia. He used to be a coat holder for Sal DiMasi, the former House speaker, convicted felon and jailbird.

Given the fact that Sal can list his Bureau of Prisons number – 27371-038 – as a resume enhancer, you’d think he too would be making the big bucks in his post-prison career as a lobbyist. But Sal, at age 78, is not rolling in the dough, maybe because his former street soldiers are cutting in on the take.

Not just Aluia, but Aaron Michlewitz, who went from skipper of Sal’s staff to being current Speaker Ron Mariano’s elected consigliere as Ways and Means chairman. Poor Sal – his payroll Charlies are putting him to shame in the lobbying grift.

Speaking of the Boston boys, how about the East Boston crew? Bobby Travaglini, who’s a young whippersnapper in this mob at a mere 71 years old, made his bones in the 1970s as a precinct captain working for guys named Dee Dee Coviello and Sonny Buttiglieri.

Now Trav, who became Senate president, paid himself $445,000 in the first six months of the year. Trav, you’ve come a long way from Junior’s Trolley!

According to Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s records, Trav is tied for highest-paid lobbyist with another Ward 1 ward heeler – Carlo Basile, the ex-state rep who went to work for then-Gov. Charlie Parker as patronage boss. Now Carlo made just under half a million a year in the first six months of the year.

It’s amazing how well these Eastie guys are doing, especially considering the ruination of Ward 1. In the old days, Eastie pols were strictly small timers, like Pixie Palladino, who definitely wasn’t a pixie, or James Coffey, who was known as “I’ll Take a Buck.” The name said it all.

Carlo is in the same firm with ex-Rep. Mike Costello. Costello is a second-generation State House hack. His father was another Bulger stooge in the Senate – Nick Costello. Now the son has figured out the racket, and their firm raked in $2.72 million in the first six months of the year. Costello pocketed $335,000 in the first six months of the year.

Another erstwhile Eastie pol living large in his golden years is Dennis Kearney. He last won an election in 1982, and is now 74 years old. Kearney’s lobbying firm collected $1.42 million in the first six months of 2023.

Obviously, even a dunce can make big bucks in the lobbying racket. Consider ex-Rep. Brian Dempsey. He got his B.A. from UMass – Lowell – at age 32.

Like Sal DiMasi, he has what you would consider a stellar State House curriculum vitae. Not only has he been lugged for drunk driving, but Dempsey was also taken into protective custody by the local cops for getting into a brawl with his brother in his mom’s parlor – on Mother’s Day.

Dempsey now has the third highest-grossing lobbying firm in the hackerama. He personally made $300,000 in the first six months of the year.

Then there’s Phil Johnston – talk about forgotten but not gone. He was first elected to the legislature back in the days of the old 240-member House, which was abolished in 1978. Mike Dukakis gave him a hack job in 1984, and Bill Delahunt stole a US House seat from him in a primary recount – in 1996.

But living well is the best revenge, and now, at the ripe old age of 79, Phil Johnston just pocketed $269,600 from his lobbying firm. That is what his old boss Mike Dukakis used to call a “good job at a good wage.”

How ecstatic do you think all the above were last week when Ron Mariano announced he’d run for yet another term as Speaker next year?

He’s from Quincy, which so many of these glad-handers have ties as well. So the gravy train will keep on trucking for a while longer.

And why can’t Mr. Speaker just keep running and running and running? After all, he’s still a young man. Ron doesn’t turn 77 until Tuesday – Halloween.

No wonder he gets along so splendidly with all his fellow ancient hacks.

They’ve all spent a lifetime together – slurping happily at the public trough.

Trick or treat, taxpayers!

(Order Howie’s new book, “Paper Boy: Read All About It!” at howiecarrshow.com or amazon.com.)

An attorney for the family, Sammy Nabulsi of Rose Law Partners, said attempts to cross the Gaza-Egypt border over the weekend were unsuccessful even after the U.S. State Department told Abood Okal and Wafaa Abuzayda a crossing would open for United States citizens at 10 a.m. local time Saturday.

Okal said he is “stranded” in Gaza with his wife and one-year-old son, Yousef. The family traveled to the area for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents, Nabulsi previously told the Herald.

“We’ve been trying to stay strong, but it hasn’t been easy. Airstrikes have intensified the last few days, and especially last night. It’s become constant all night and most of the day, My son was not able to sleep, Yousef, not until one o’clock in the morning and then he was up again by five o’clock in the morning,” Okal said in an audio message recorded Wednesday and shared with the Herald.

Okal, Abuzayda, and their son are staying 10 minutes away from the Rafah Crossing, a checkpoint between Egypt and Gaza where aid trucks have entered in the past week to deliver crucial supplies.

But United States citizens trapped in the country have not managed to escape as Israel prepares to launch an expected ground invasion. The war started more than two weeks ago in response to a surprise terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.

United States officials have estimated 500 to 600 Americans are in Gaza without a way to exit.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said David Satterfield, recently appointed envoy for humanitarian issues in the Mideast, was in Israel Tuesday engaged in negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to get Rafah to open for U.S. citizens, other dual nationals, and employees of international organizations.

Miller blamed Hamas Monday for delays U.S. citizens are encountering in their attempt to escape Gaza.

“We do believe that Egypt is ready to process American citizens if they can make it to Egyptian authorities,” he told reporters. “Hamas just has to stop blocking their exit.”

Okal said airstrikes are becoming more frequent, intense, and closer to where they are staying in Southern Gaza, which Israeli previously declared a “safe zone” after warning residents in the north to evacuate.

One airstrike hit Wednesday roughly 900 feet away from the home Okal, Abuzayda, and their son were staying, Nabulsi said.

“All it takes is one missile, one airstrike to miss its target or be too close to where you are, and that has happened before where we’re staying, and that would be it,” Okal said in the audio message. “And time of an essence, time is of an essence as well because of the ground invasion, which is supposed to happen any minute now. And we cannot even think of the destruction that would bring upon us.”

The family, Okal said, ran out of milk for their one-year-old.

“We opened the last box and basically tonight, we would be completely out. It would be his first night ever, in his entire life, to go to sleep without having milk. So we’re hopeful that that will not be too bad of a night,” he said.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.

The Health Ministry said airstrikes killed more than 750 people over the past 24 hours, without saying how many were militants. Death tolls from Hamas could not be immediately verified, which the group says it collects from hospital directors.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage. Israel’s military on Wednesday raised the number of remaining hostages in Gaza to 222 people, including foreigners believed captured by Hamas during the incursion. Four hostages have been released.

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.

The report, authored by Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer’s Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, outlines 39 actions to deal with rising global temperatures, which have reached 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and more extreme weather events across the world, including the Bay State.

“Massachusetts, like other state and local governments, must play a leading role in climate policy and implementation, spurring innovation in technology, climate finance, and resilience,” the report said.

State law requires Massachusetts to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, an effort that will require “substantial” investments, the report said. The costs of not making those investments “will be even greater.”

But the state, the report points out, lacks a plan to finance the investments needed to reach those goals.

Hoffer’s office recommends preparing an economic analysis of the investments needed to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, including the 2050 net zero mandate, by December 2024.

“New federal funding for climate action … can be anticipated to mobilize between 8-30% of total decarbonization investment,” according to the report. “The commonwealth should conduct economic analyses of the total investment required to meet our 2050 net zero mandate and resilience needs, and develop specific funding strategies for both.”

Massachusetts will start publishing an annual report card starting this fall to track the state’s progress towards reaching climate goals mandated by state law. A design for the report is due by Nov. 1 and the document will be published by Dec. 1, the report said.

“Because building and transportation fossil fuel combustion jointly account for 72% of the commonwealth’s emissions, efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in those two sectors through electrification will feature prominently in the Climate Report Card,” the report said.

A 2022 statewide climate change assessment identified climate-drive in-migration from other regions in the United States and migrations from other areas of the world to the Northeast “as an urgent concern with a major level of consequence.”

The Northeast, the Wednesday report from Hoffer’s office said, is projected to “receive significant migration,” something the state should begin planning for immediately.

“Planning for costs in the form of additional services and additional demands for housing (which can affect regional housing markets) should begin now. There are also economic development opportunities as this migration may help reverse trends in regional population decline,” the report said.

The report also calls for a statewide plan to electrify all state-owned vehicles and equipment fleets and to consider creating a single entity or agency to coordinate the installation of charging infrastructure.

An executive order signed by former Gov. Charlie Baker called on the state fleet to consist of 5% zero emission vehicles in 2025, 20% in 2030, 75% in 2040, and 100% in 2050. Baker also required Massachusetts to have 350 electric vehicle charging stations on state property in 2025 and 500 in 2030, among other targets.

“Despite these targets, the Commonwealth is facing significant challenges in its efforts to electrify its vehicle fleet,” the Healey administration’s report said. “There are varying reasons for the challenges in electrifying the fleet, including the lack of sufficient charging infrastructure at state-owned facilities and of well-resourced operations and maintenance plans for the charging infrastructure.”

The 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord — the first armed conflict of the American Revolution — is anticipated to draw much larger crowds, and officials from both towns say they need state support to ensure a safe and memorable celebration.

State lawmakers are considering a bill that looks to create a special fund to help Lexington and Concord cover security protections and operational expenses for anniversary celebrations in 2025 and 2026 — the semiquincentennial of the battle and America’s birthday.

Henry Dane, chairman of the Concord Select Board, is helping organize the 250th anniversary of the battle in town. He anticipates the celebration to be similar to major remembrances held in the past, but the number of attendees and costs to be “substantially greater because of higher expectations.”

The professional management needed to ensure the event lives up to those expectations, Dane said, is “well beyond the resources of any town of some 16,000 residents, no matter how, apparently, affluent it is.”

The organizing committee, Concord250, has prepared a detailed budget which indicates the cost to soar over $2 million, Dane said. It has raised less than half of that so far from local resources, he said.

“At present, we have no other recourse than to ask the Legislature to make a significant contribution so that we can pay due respect to those who gave their lives and limbs so that we may live together as free men and women,” he told the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development last week.

State Reps. Michelle Ciccolo and Simon Cataldo, from Lexington and Concord, filed the bill jointly, asking for creation of a special fund that doesn’t expire until after 2026 since preparations for the events will take longer than a year, and security operations recurring over several years.

If the bill is approved, Ciccolo said, it would pave the way for “very major fundraising from potentially foundations and corporations,” and money raised would go into the state fund.

A coalition of organizers from Arlington, Lexington, Concord and Lincoln has been meeting regularly to work out the logistics and prepare, Ciccolo said. For the bicentennial in 1975, streets closed down and shuttles were used to get from place to place, she recalled.

“This is something that small towns are not necessarily used to doing on a regular basis,” she said.

Reenactments and parades are planned for 2025 and 2026, but the anniversaries are also expected to include lectures, exhibitions, concerts and other family friendly events, said Doug Lucente, a member of the Lexington Select Board.

“We expand the scope of activities in Lexington and integrate the vision of Concord partners, the financial calculus becomes glaringly obvious,” he said. “Adequate funding is crucial.”

“There’s just too many people for too few units. And that, too, has been exacerbated because of the migrant influx,” he said in an interview. “We’re dealing with an immigration crisis as a shelter system. We’re not built for that. We’re built to house families.”

An influx of migrants over the past year has pushed a shelter system built to handle about 3,000 families each year to its limits, forcing providers across the state to scramble to find additional housing units for the thousands of new arrivals that have made their way to Massachusetts.

More than 1,500 families have entered the emergency shelter system since Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency at the start of August. The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities reported 7,089 families in the system as of Friday, with 3,624 at traditional sites, 3,376 living in hotels and motels, and 89 at temporary sites.

Many, including Healey, other providers, and advocates, have described the scenario as unsustainable without assistance from the federal government and as costing the state tens of millions in taxpayer dollars, at least, each month.

It led Healey this week to limit the number of families that can stay in the system to 7,500, a move that will surely test the boundaries of Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter law, which requires the state to temporarily house homeless families with children and pregnant women. Healey argued the state has neither the money, space, nor personnel to keep expanding the system.

For a handful of shelter providers who say they were feeling strained months ago, putting a cap on the number of families in the emergency shelter system was inevitable. Still, others are worried what will happen to those who arrive in the state once all the space is taken up.

“We are grateful for the administration’s all-hands-on-deck approach to the (emergency assistance) shelter crisis since taking office, but fear that the announced changes may result in children and families being unable to access shelter when it is needed the most,” a trio of housing policy and law groups said in a Friday statement.

The logistics of housing a never ending stream of migrants arriving in states across the country — most who fled unstable and dangerous conditions at home and made a treacherous journey to reach the United States — have vexed Democratic governors and mayors this year in places like New York City and Chicago.

Healey is no exception.

What started as an apparent political stunt with tens of migrants landing on Martha’s Vineyard last year at the behest of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, just before Healey took office, has turned into a very real problem for Massachusetts and emerged as one of the first tests of the Healey administration.

The Healey administration and some providers say part of the answer to reducing the number of families in the system is access to work training and federal authorizations that will allow them to secure jobs.

The Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, a service provider based in Worcester, was at capacity in July and has doubled shelter capacity since November 2022, said Executive Director Leah Bradley.

The organization continues to hire staff “and do the things that we need to do, but we just can’t keep up,” Bradley said.

“It’s really a federal issue that needs some federal intervention,” Bradley said in an interview. “The folks that are coming here are lawfully here, and the federal government has said that they’re allowed to be here so it really is something that we just need the federal government to partner with us on this.”

It is anybody’s guess as to whether the federal government will send more direct aid to Massachusetts, though the Biden administration has said it is attempting to reduce the time it takes to process applications for work authorizations and sent a Department of Homeland Security team to Boston this month.

Healey on Friday applauded a $1.4 billion funding request for a shelter and services program run by the Department of Homeland Security, which handed Boston and the state $1.9 million earlier this year to expand shelter and transportation services for migrants.

“More funds from the state government, and particularly the federal government, will enable us to provide job training, (English as a second language) training, and provide the opportunity for people to move out of the emergency shelter system, out of motels into apartments so they can become a part of our thriving economy,” said Cindy Rowe, president and CEO of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action.

But money alone will not fix the issues Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system faces, said DeJoie, the head of Lynn-based Centerboard, Inc. The problem is lack of space and ability for migrant families to quickly find work, build a source of income, and exit the system, he said.

“Quite frankly, the people that are here, we could use them,” DeJoie said. “I would hire some of the people that are living in our shelter just because the skills that they have, the translation services, the cooking abilities they have. But I can’t.”

The dashboard, updated daily Monday through Friday, showed 7,089 families were in the system as of Thursday, which is propped up by a network of hotels and motels across the state to deal with an influx of migrants from other countries.

Forty-four families enrolled in the emergency shelter system Wednesday into Thursday, which was the latest available data on the dashboard. More than 3,600 families were staying in traditional shelters, more than 3,300 were hotels and motels, and 89 were in temporary shelters, according to the dashboard.

“This is a new look for a dashboard that previously existed on the site. It provides a more holistic view of the emergency shelter system,” a spokesman for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said in a statement to the Herald.

The look of the dashboard was updated around Sept. 30, the spokesman said, and it is run by an “Incident Command,” a cross-government group Healey said she set up to respond to an overburdened and strained emergency shelter system.

The dashboard is updated with information “from various platforms that the state uses to operate the shelter system and to support families,” the spokesman said.

Healey said Monday the state is limiting the number of families in the emergency shelter system to 7,500, arguing Massachusetts does not have enough funding, serving providers, or space to keep expanding the system.

Healey said Monday the state will limit the number of families in the shelter system to 7,500 and place those who cannot fit onto a waiting list, raising the possibility that some could end up without a place to sleep as colder weather starts to set in. The state could hit that limit by the end of the month, Healey said.

The state’s right-to-shelter law requires officials to provide temporary housing to families with children and pregnant women, including migrants who arrive in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association said the state “must continue to uphold that right.”

“We are particularly worried that the Healey-Driscoll administration’s plan to create a waiting list for emergency assistance shelter will limit the right to shelter, leave families with children with no safe alternatives, and place additional pressure on service providers, nonprofit agencies, and municipalities,” the three organizations wrote in a statement.

Once the shelter system reaches 7,500 families, Healey said, the state will not guarantee temporary housing to families who arrive in the state. There were 7,089 families in the system as of Thursday, with 3,624 at traditional sites, 3,376 in hotels and motels, and 89 in temporary sites, according to a state dashboard that is updated daily.

But what happens to families after that point is unclear and some have raised legal questions about whether the administration cannot guarantee placement, including House Speaker Ronald Mariano.

A Healey spokesperson said Tuesday the state is not ending the right-to-shelter law and “will continue to place eligible families into shelter as units become available.”

“We are making clear that our system has reached capacity and we do not have enough shelter space, service providers or funding to continue to safely or responsibly expand. We also continue to advocate for federal funding,” spokesperson Karissa Hand said in a statement.

Healey has for months called on the federal government to provide more funding for Massachusetts to pay for shelter services.

Healey applauded President Joe Biden Friday for including a $1.4 billion request for the Department of Homeland Security’s Shelter and Services Program, which Boston and the state received $1.9 million from earlier this year to expand shelter and transportation services for newly-arrived migrant families.

“President Biden’s $1.4 billion request for the DHS Shelter and Services Program is urgently needed for states like Massachusetts that are experiencing historic surges in migrant arrivals, and we appreciate the Biden Administration’s acknowledgement that these funds need to be distributed more equitably. Congress must pass this supplemental funding in full as quickly as possible,” Healey said in a statement.

The three organizations said they “fear” ceasing efforts to expand capacity and limiting shelter entries “may result in children and families being unable to access shelter when it is needed the most.”

“We know that shelter expansion cannot be the only response. Next week, we will share a broad set of recommendations that we believe can ease the current crisis, uphold the safety and dignity of people in the greatest need, and provide long-term housing solutions to alleviate the housing crisis,” the organizations said.

Those recommendations, the groups said, will touch on helping families move out of temporary shelter programs and into permanent, affordable housing; strengthening homelessness prevention resources; expanding services for newly-arrived migrant families; and bringing “key stakeholders to the table and uplift the experiences and expertise of families and communities most affected by the crisis.”

The number of families living in emergency shelters is more than twice the amount the state was sheltering a year ago, Healey said Monday. That includes 23,000 people spread out across 90 cities and towns at hundreds of locations like traditional shelters, hotels and motels, college dorms, and a military base.

Lynn, Boston, Worcester, and Springfield were the only cities in Massachusetts with more than 200 families enrolled in emergency shelter programs as of Thursday, according to the state dashboard.

Healey said the state neither has the space, service providers, nor funds “to safely expand beyond 7,500 families.”

“But especially with winter approaching, we need everyone to understand that we are entering a new phase of this challenge. We can no longer guarantee shelter placement for families who are sent here,” Healey said Monday as she outlined new programs she argued would help people transition out of temporary housing.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Mariano questioned whether Healey has the authority to place a capacity limit on the emergency shelter system.

“What happens if someone shows up? What does she do? We haven’t got a clear answer for that. If there is no place to put them, where do they go?” he said.

The issue extends far beyond what was previously known and the MBTA made public this fall. Eng said half of the Union Square branch and 80% of the Medford-Tufts branch require repairs only a week after the MBTA said it had cleared slow zones that forced trains to run at walking speeds in some areas.

“That does not mean that the trains are running today unsafely,” Eng said. “It means that we’re going to have the GLX Constructors re-guage the track to bring it back to what the project called for. And once we have a plan in place, we’ll share that with the public. And the goal is to make sure that we do that in the least impactful way, the most efficient way and put this behind us.”

Gov. Maura Healey said she was frustrated and disappointed by the revelation that “senior MBTA officials under the previous administration knew about issues with the Green Line Extension tracks years ago and did not disclose them to our administration or address them on their watch.”

“The people of Massachusetts deserve better. I applaud GM Eng for uncovering this and taking swift action to hold people accountable and demand a work plan from the contractor to fix the narrow gauges on their own dime,” Healey said in a statement.

Jim Conroy, a political spokesperson for former Gov. Charlie Baker, said the governor’s office was “never informed” of the track issues with the Green Line Extension.

“Gov. Baker hopes the MBTA and the contractors involved will address these issues as soon as possible. The Green Line Extension project was on track to never get built when the Baker-Polito Administration first took office and while these setbacks are massively inconvenient for riders, the project itself will deliver enormous benefits for the greater Boston area for decades to come,” Conroy said in a statement to the Herald.

Asked if he thought the Baker administration kept issues with the Green Line Extension quiet for political reasons, Eng said he does “not have any indication of that.”

“All I know is that I believe the team could have been more proactive and should have been more proactive,” he said.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said two agency officials with “senior roles” in the GLX project “are no longer employed” with the agency as of Thursday.

A public dashboard first showed multiple slow zones last month on brand-new tracks where trains were running at 3 mph, the average walking speed of any given person, which the transit agency said were put in place after finding some areas along the extension narrowed.

Questions were immediately raised over how long the agency had known about the issue and who was at fault for defective tracks that first opened in March and December 2022 under former Baker’s administration.

Eng previously said a case of narrow tracks “certainly is unusual.”

The first instance of narrow tracks were observed in April 2021 by inspectors for the contractors building the project, GLX Contractors, Eng said. Another inspection in November 2022, prior to the opening of the Medford-Tufts line, found 29 locations where tracks were narrow, which were addressed prior to the start of service, he said.

The November 2022 inspection also found “significant portions” of both the Union Station and Medford-Tufts branches that had tight tracks where repairs were needed but trains could run safely over, Eng said.

Eng said he believes there was an opportunity before opening the Green Line Extension to address the tight tracks, which he said eventually led to future conditions that required speed restrictions.

“The early indication as I mentioned that there was tight gauge in this yard facility, that was back in April 2021,” he said. “We also had other reports in November 2022 that indicated the widespread need to address more than just these isolated conditions. Back in April 2021, it’s my belief that it could have been and should have been more proactively investigated prior to opening and prior to installing what we’ve done.”

Baker opened the Medford-Tufts branch in December 2022 with a ribbon cutting that signaled the end to a project that cost the state $2.3 billion dollars and promised to bring reliable Green Line service to more areas of Greater Boston.

Officials said at the time that almost all of Somerville would be within a 12-minute walk of an MBTA station when taking into account Red and Orange Line stops. The five GLX stops were estimated to serve 50,000 riders each day and take about 45,000 car trips out of traffic, the MBTA said.

But issues with the tracks that surfaced in the past month have cast a long shadow over the extension at a time when the MBTA is already facing myriad problems, including the need to comply with a raft of federal safety orders.

Eng said he met with GLX Constructors last week and instructed them to come back with a proposal to address the large-scale need to bring track width into compliance with dimensions laid in the original project requirements.

He said GLX Constructors provided a proposal that MBTA officials are reviewing.

“This is not something that the public should be paying for. It’s not going to pay for. We’re reviewing the root cause still. What I’ve given you is my thought process on where I see some of the challenges,” he said.

Some were quick to blast the agency Thursday afternoon.

The Conservation Law Foundation, which filed lawsuits in an attempt to open the Green Line Extension, said the level of “dysfunction and irresponsibility defies explanation.”

“The previous administration was clearly more interested in cutting a ribbon than getting this project done safely and correctly. CLF sued to ensure that this extension was built, and this is now an opportunity for the Healey administration to commit to public transit and repair public trust,” Conservation Law Foundation Attorney Seth Gadbois said in a statement.

Attorney Sammy Nabulsi, who represents Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their 1-year-old son, Yousef, said the family is stranded near the Rafah Crossing, a border checkpoint in Southern Gaza with Egypt, and is running out of food and water. The family traveled to Gaza for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents, Nabulsi said.

Airstrikes have hit the area in recent days, Nabulsi said, including one Thursday that struck buildings just over 100 yards from where the family is sheltering. In a message sent on WhatsApp, Okal told Nabulsi that “windows shattered and walls cracked.”

“My son was sleeping under a window. (Wafaa) had to snatch him out in fear of glass falling on him,” Okal said in a message sent to Nabulsi just after 7 a.m. Thursday that was shared with the Herald. “We’re ok, kids are crying so trying to calm them down. About 100 meters away. Close enough the walls of the house cracked.”

An image of the airstrike’s aftermath shows a plum of gray smoke rising over a mass of buildings near the City of Rafah, Gaza. Nabulsi said this is the closest the family has been to an airstrike after Okal witnessed one Tuesday while traveling to a nearby town to find milk for his son.

“What’s become clear is even Southern Gaza and the town of Rafah, which is where they are currently located hoping and waiting to cross into Egypt, is also unsafe,” said Nabulsi, a Boston-based lawyer with Rose Law Partners. “I’m particularly worried about airstrikes in the south because that’s presumably where all the other American citizens who wish to exit Gaza into Egypt are currently located.”

United States officials estimate 500 to 600 American citizens are trapped in Gaza without a way to exit as the number of deaths from a war with Israel continues to rage less than two weeks after Hamas militants stormed into Israel and killed civilians in a brutal terrorist attack.

Israeli airstrikes continued Thursday across the entirety of Gaza, including in the south where Israel declared “safe zones.” More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled homes in the north and Gaza City after Israel told residents to evacuate the north in advance of an expected ground assault.

The death toll is mounting on both sides.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that nearly 3,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 were wounded. More than 1,400 people in Israel were dead, most from the initial attack by Hamas, and hundreds were taken hostage.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid could flow into Gaza from Egypt following a request from President Joe Biden. But it is unclear if any U.S. citizens will be able to flee Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, where United Nations flags are expected to be raised to protect trucks carrying aid supplies.

Nabulsi said the Medway family received messages Wednesday that the border between Gaza and Egypt would open for Americans to flee.

But only a few hours later, Nabulsi said he heard from U.S. officials that the limited aid deal “does not include any provision for the confirmed and safe departure of any American citizen in Gaza.”

“I asked myself this question like what on earth can I do next? Because I’m just getting to the point where I feel like I’m sitting here banging my head on a table saying like, these people are about to die and no one seems to do anything about it,” Nabulsi said in an interview.

Nabusli said he has been in touch with the U.S. Department of State, White House, and the offices of U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, Seth Moutlon, and Jim McGovern.

The family is a constituent of McGovern so any case work would fall to his office, which said they have been exchanging “nonstop” emails and texts on a daily, and even hourly, basis with the White House and State Department.”

McGovern called the deputy assistant secretary of state Saturday to “express the dire urgency and need for immediate action,” his office said. And the congressman spoke Thursday with United States Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power to discuss the family’s situation.

Everyone from the White House “on down” is working on the issue around the clock, McGovern’s office said.

Markey, Warren, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen penned a Tuesday letter to the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging federal officials “to do everything possible to provide assistance to U.S. citizens fleeing the Gaza Strip, including our constituents from New England.”

“We are also concerned that our offices have received requests from multiple families from New England who are seeking assistance. These families are terrified for their lives and growing more frustrated as promises of escape through the opening of the Rafah Crossing remain unfulfilled,” the trio wrote, specifically pointing to the Medway family.

Nabulsi said he also wants to see more involvement from Gov. Maura Healey as the state’s federal delegation continues to push the White House and State Department for help.

“That advocacy needs to include her,” he said. “Everybody at every level of government needs to put their pencils down, and they should be doing nothing other than focusing on bringing all of these American citizens home safely, immediately.”

At an unrelated press conference Thursday, Healey said she was aware of the Medway family’s situation, calling it “heartbreaking.”

“I know that our senators have already been in touch with the State Department. There’s been a considerable amount of advocacy on their behalf, but it is a heartbreaking situation for them, for so many,” Healey told reporters.

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.

As opioid overdose deaths spike to record-high levels in Massachusetts, it appears that residents overwhelmingly support allowing cities and towns to establish overdose prevention centers.

A new poll released on Thursday shows that 70% of Massachusetts voters support a State House bill that would give the green light for communities to open supervised drug injection facilities.

People at overdose prevention centers would be able to bring drugs and consume them under the supervision of trained healthcare workers.

These facilities have helped prevent overdose deaths in countries across the world — including in Europe, Canada and Australia — and also increase access to treatment and recovery services, according to advocates.

“As a medical provider, I know overdose prevention centers will save the lives of many people struggling with addiction,” said Miriam Komaromy, medical director of Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction.

“It’s encouraging that an overwhelming number of citizens agree that overdose prevention centers are a commonsense way to help keep people safe,” Komaromy added.

This new Beacon Research survey of 603 voters comes in the wake of the Bay State’s highest ever recorded year for opioid-related overdose deaths with 2,357 lives lost. Since 2016, statewide overdose deaths have increased by 9.1%.

According to the new poll released by Massachusetts for Overdose Prevention Centers, 76% of voters see opioid use in Massachusetts as a major problem. Nearly as many (73%) believe the government should be doing more to address the issue.

Almost 8-in-10 voters (77%) would rather see the state respond to the opioid epidemic as a public health problem, instead of as a law enforcement issue.

The state Legislature is considering a bill that would give municipalities the authority to establish overdose prevention centers. According to the new poll, there is bipartisan support for this legislation — with majority support among Democrats (85%), unaffiliated voters (63%), and Republicans (53%).

The Massachusetts Medical Society has been advocating for the establishment of overdose prevention centers in the state, stressing that these sites save lives and help connect people with treatment and rehabilitative services.

Massachusetts Medical Society President Barbara Spivak said, “As disparities and overdoses caused by synthetic drugs like fentanyl continue to rise and ravage families and communities, it is clear the majority of residents of the Commonwealth agree with physicians in their belief that the time is now to deploy a proven harm reduction tool that can save the lives of our patients.”

Gov. Maura Healy is looking to leverage the interest spun off the state’s deep savings to boost efforts to land competitive grants. The governor filed legislation Thursday to try and make it happen.

A trio of laws — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — signed by President Joe Biden made more than $1 trillion in federal funds available to states. Local officials estimate Massachusetts can compete for a remaining $17.5 billion that could support everything from transportation to technology services and security.

Most federal grant programs require states to put up cash to cover a portion of proposed project costs and Healey said having money in hand to match federal dollars will make applications from Massachusetts more competitive when they are sent down to Washington. Healey’s bill creates a fund to build up matching dollars.

“This Capital Investment and Debt Reduction Fund will give Massachusetts a competitive edge in pursuing this historic federal funding grant opportunities,” Healey said. “And after we get through the push for federal funding, the remaining funds will be available to invest in state assets, taking pressure off traditional capital programs and our debt portfolio.”

Officials have already identified more than $2 billion in state matching funds from various sources like the fiscal 2024 budget and the state’s capital investment plan.

But estimates show a need for roughly $3 billion in matching funds if Massachusetts applies for and receives all $17.5 billion in grants the state is eligible for, according to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

Healey proposed using interest earned on the state’s rainy day fund, an $8 billion account that is typically reserved for emergencies, to pay for the $750 million in state matching dollars.

State officials anticipate the interest generating $250 million each year for the Capital Investment and Debt Reduction Fund, which will also be seeded with $50 million in revenue from a surtax on incomes over $1 million.

The principal of the stabilization fund “will remain preserved for mitigating the impacts of a substantial, unanticipated reduction in revenues that cannot be managed with normal budgetary reductions and savings measures,” the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said in a policy memo.

The state would stop drawing on the interest of the rainy day account if its balance is declining or it drops below 10% of the state’s total operating budget, which in fiscal 2024 neared $56 billion.

“We think those are guardrails that are both fiscally responsible and support our needs in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish, while not jeopardizing the commonwealth’s physical health in terms of its ability to weather a rainy day,” Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said.

Having a “plan of attack” for going after federal grant programs that require state matching funds “is a really solid approach,” said Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Doug Howgate.

He said protecting the balance of the stabilization is important.

“We got to make sure we protect our stabilization fund, right, and we’re not kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And so I think the idea of ensuring that our stabilization fund balance doesn’t decline as we’re gonna go down this road is a really important thing to have,” he said. “As a principal, that makes sense.”

Healey also signed an executive order establishing the Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office led by Director Quentin Palfrey, who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general in 2022. Healey said Palfrey and his team have already “yielded results” even before the office was cemented.

Healey pointed to $108 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for East-West Rail, a successful bid to serve as one of three hubs for a Biden administration-backed “nationwide health innovation network,” and an application for roughly $1.5 billion for the Cape Cod bridges as examples of Palfrey’s work.

“Today’s executive order also creates a new clearinghouse that will help us to be systematic and strategic and thoughtful in our pursuit of these federal funds,” he said.

Advocates said the legislation comes at a crucial moment in Massachusetts as high costs of housing and living push people out of cities and towns to other parts of the country. Critics, like the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, argue the legislation is packed with “just about every bad idea.”

Associated Industries of Massachusetts President Brooke Thompson said the business group supports the bill, and the development of “reasonably priced housing” in Massachusetts will ensure workers can live and raise families in the state.

“Virtually every employer in Massachusetts has at one time heard a valued employee say: ‘I love working for this company, but my family can’t afford a house here,’” Thompson said in a statement. “AIM looks forward to working with the Healey-Driscoll administration and the Legislature to ensure those conversations become a thing of the past.”

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney said the bill includes state borrowing when interest rates are high, a prospect that “will only make Massachusetts more unaffordable to the taxpayers who have to pay it all back.”

“If Healey wants to make housing more affordable, she needs to call on President Biden to lower interest rates, she needs to provide a way to lower property taxes, she needs to reverse the arbitrary green mandates which limit consumer choice and penalizes affordable energy options,” Craney said in a statement.

The Healey administration said the $4.1 billion bond bill will help create more than 40,000 homes, including 22,000 for low-income households and 12,000 for middle-income households.

Housing is the single biggest challenge facing residents across Massachusetts, Healey said, pointing to “vital signs” like vacancy rates and home sales that she said do not indicate a healthy market in Massachusetts.

“Across the board, people are feeling the pressure of the high cost of housing. It’s impacting and adding to stress in people’s lives. And it’s also affecting in very real ways whether or not people are going to stay in Massachusetts. High housing costs are hurting people, and they are hurting our great state,” Healey said at an event in Chelsea Wednesday morning.

Healey wants to give municipalities a revenue stream to build affordable housing in the form of a transfer tax between .5% and 2% on the portion of property sales over $1 million, or the county median home sale price. Local legislative bodies or housing authorities could adopt the tax by vote.

It’s an initiative that many local leaders have backed, including Mayor Michelle Wu, who said Wednesday that she is “grateful” to the Healey administration for empowering local communities with tools “we urgently need to take action across the commonwealth.”

“From doubling our funds for affordable housing by enabling a modest transfer fee, to supporting office-to-residential conversions and accessory dwelling units, these proposals match Boston’s plans to move on all fronts for more housing and more affordability,” Wu said in a statement.

But not all are on board with the real estate transfer tax, including the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, which also opposes a separate transfer fee proposal Wu filed on Beacon Hill that lawmakers heard last week.

Doubling spending and advancing policies to develop state-owned land “will lead to the creation of more housing units,” Greater Boston Real Estate Board CEO Greg Vasil said in a statement. But there are “deep concerns” about the inclusion of a “sales tax on real estate,” he said.

“It’s an unstable source of revenue that would cause more harm than good at a time when people and businesses are leaving the state because it is just too expensive,” Vasil said.

The proposal shuttles $1.6 billion to repair, rehabilitate, and modernize more than 43,000 public housing units, including $150 million to start “decarbonizing” public housing through the installation of heat pumps and electric appliances.

Another $200 million is set aside to support alternative forms of rental housing for people experiencing homelessness, housing for seniors and veterans, and transitional units for people recovering from substance abuse. The bill does not address rent control, a measure that is also being pushed at the state level through a ballot question.

Greater Boston Interfaith Organization Chair Rev. Burns Stanfield said the housing bond bill is an “expansive step” toward addressing a housing crisis in Massachusetts.

“$1.6 billion allocated to the capital needs of state-funded housing authorities will make a tangible difference in restoring our housing supply to a dignified state, and the real estate transfer fee provision will open up many new opportunities for our communities to invest in developing affordable units,” Stanfield said in a statement.

The legislation is packed with policy proposals that have long floated on Beacon Hill, including granting municipalities the option of imposing a real estate transaction fee, an initiative that Mayor Michelle Wu and several other cities and towns have pushed at the state level this year.

Gov. Maura Healey said the proposal — which will need approval from and likely undergo rewrites by the House and Senate — supports the production, preservation, and rehabilitation of more than 65,000 homes statewide.

“It’s the largest housing investment in Massachusetts history. Together, we’re going to make our state a place where people can afford to move to and stay to build their future,” Healey said in a statement.

Healey proposed a real estate transaction fee of 0.5% to 2% on the portion of a property sale over $1 million, or the county median home sale price, with the revenue generated from the fee directed to affordable housing development.

The fee would be paid by the seller of real property, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. The fee is projected to affect fewer than 14% of all residential sales, the administration said.

Wu has advocated for a 2% real estate transfer fee on sales that exceed $2 million to help fund affordable housing development. At a legislative hearing last week, Wu said the “powerful tool that remains out of reach without legislative and gubernatorial approval is a transfer fee.”

“Revenue raised through this fee will help us build supportive housing and ensure that our seniors can stay in their homes,” Wu said at the hearing. “It will help build new homes for families who have been forced out by skyrocketing prices and make it possible for more first-time homebuyers to put down roots and raise their families here in Boston.”

In Healey’s proposal, officials said there are several exemptions to fee, including property sold for less than $1 million, or the median county sales price for single family homes. The fee would apply to every dollar over $1 million, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

A city or town’s housing board or legislative body could adopt the fee by a majority vote, the Healey administration said.

The legislation directs $1.8 billion to housing production and preservation, including $425 million for a housing stabilization and investment fund, $175 million for municipal infrastructure projects that encourage dense developments, $100 million to incentivize the construction of affordable homes, $100 million to support middle-income housing production, and $50 million for mixed-income multifamily development.

Healey plans to sign three executive orders as she releases the bill, including one that directs two state agencies to develop an expanded inventory of government-controlled property suitable for housing.

Two other orders create a council tasked with developing a statewide housing plan and identify ways to streamline housing production.

Healey, Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorzkowicz, and Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus were scheduled to publicly discuss the legislation at a 9:30 a.m. event in Chelsea.

Previous Herald materials were used in this report.

Failure to comply with this law has led to injury and death for state troopers, firefighters and tow truck operators, state police union representatives testified at a Tuesday legislative hearing, where several bills on the matter were considered.

“It is imperative to protect our first responders so we can protect you,” said Patrick McNamara, president of the State Police Association. “Failure to obey this law results in lives disrupted, irrevocably altered and lost in a blink of an eye.”

“Virtually every instance” where a motorist failed to slow down and move over, and then ultimately hit a first responder was preventable, he added.

Three proposed bills are seeking to update what state Sen. Walter Timilty called an “archaic” penalty structure that caps fines at $100 per vehicle, “which simply is not a deterrent in this day and age.”

Under the proposal, fines would increase to $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense, and $1,000 for all subsequent offenses. In instances where violations result in “bodily injury” to an individual, the fine would increase to $2,500 and the offender could face up to a year in prison.

McNamara said the State Police Association is requesting that the legislation considered at the day’s Joint Committee on Transportation hearing be recognized as the Trooper Thomas Devlin bill.

Devlin was struck by a passing vehicle on Route 3 in Billerica, on July 26, 2018, and endured what his widow, Nancy Devlin, described as “six grueling surgeries” before succumbing to “complications of blunt force injuries” two years later.

The 35-year State Police veteran had been conducting a traffic stop on foot when he was hit by a car. The motorist who hit him, Kevin Francis, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in April 2022. At the time her husband was struck, however, the penalty was just a $100 civil infraction, Devlin said.

“The operator veered into the breakdown lane at highway speed and he never touched his brakes,” Devlin said. “He was not paying attention. He did not slow down or move over. My husband sustained severe and catastrophic injuries including a devastating traumatic brain injury.”

The crash left Trooper Devlin with “profound” cognitive deficiencies, and “he lost every level of his functionality,” his widow said, adding that the loss to their family has been “immeasurable.”

“He adored me and our kids and he wanted nothing more than to come home safely to us,” Devlin said, while flanked by her two sons. “One operator completely and devastatingly changed the trajectory of our lives forever.”

Trooper Christopher Johnson, legislative aide for the state police union, said he was “pretty damn lucky” to be able to testify in front of the committee, given that he was struck by a vehicle traveling “87 miles per hour” over Interstate 495 in August 2017.

Johnson said he was diagnosed with a Grade 3 concussion, splenic laceration, and permanent disc damage to his back. He is recovered and back to work, he said, but will have to “live with those injuries for the rest of his life.”

Nick Allen, who was struck by a car on Interstate 93 in Randolph this past June, may not be so lucky. It’s unclear if he will “ever come back to work in his capacity as a state trooper,” Johnson said.

The day’s testimony pointed to potential favorable action from the joint committee. Timilty, a committee member, testified in favor, and Senate Chair Brendan Crighton put forward a separate bill that would further amend the “move over law” to include utility and disabled vehicles.

“We’ve been favorable toward this kind of fix so we’ll all be optimistic about it,” House Committee Chair William Straus said.

The state’s right-to-shelter law requires officials to provide homeless families and pregnant women with temporary housing, including migrants who are in Massachusetts lawfully. The mandate has created what public leaders have described as an unsustainable situation — a non-stop flow of new arrivals makes for a never-ending demand for shelter.

But Healey said Monday the state would limit the number of families in emergency assistance shelters to 7,500 and put those who cannot fit on a waitlist, a move Mariano said creates uncertainty for many.

“I don’t know if she has the authority to cap it,” Mariano said. “What happens if someone shows up? What does she do? We haven’t got a clear answer for that. If there is no place to put them, where do they go?”

Healey said the state will not guarantee placement for families who arrive after the end of October, when she predicted Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system will reach capacity.

What happens to families after that point is unclear and legal questions remain about whether the administration cannot guarantee placement.

“We are not ending the right to shelter law. We are being very clear, though, that we are not going to be able to guarantee placement for folks who are sent here after the end of this month,” Healey said. “… We’re going to do what we can. Obviously, this is part of why it’s so important that we have the exit strategies that we talked about.”

The Healey administration said families seeking shelter will be assessed “and those with high needs, such as health and safety risks, will be prioritized for placement.”

A pair of rapid rehousing and rental assistance programs “will be expanded,” the administration said, and two new programs will help shelter residents access employment.

The work stoppage at the Ashmont Tunnel comes only days into a two-week partial shutdown of the Red Line for crews to make track repairs to eliminate slow zones. But a string of Sunday emails sent between MTBA safety officials shows the project is already running into potential communication issues.

In one email, MBTA Safety Engineering Deputy Director John Murray said he attends two update calls every day that require him to raise and report any issues or concerns the agency’s safety department may have with the Red Line project.

He said he learned of the Ashmont Tunnel situation on a 7 a.m. call Sunday, according to the email.

“There was an incident last night in the Ashmont Tunnel where a decision was made to shut down the work zone because of reported elevated carbon monoxide levels. Unfortunately, this issue was not reported to the (operations control center) or our department, an embarrassing situation that I had no knowledge of for today’s 7 a.m. meeting,” Murray said in a mass email to the MBTA’s safety department.

Murray said, “safety must be notified of any and all occurrences” no matter how minor so safety officials “can determine the level of our involvement and work to mitigate any harm to the safety and well-being of everyone who is working on the surge projects.”

In another email, MBTA Deputy Chief Safety Officer Dennis Lytton said low oxygen or high carbon monoxide levels “can get dangerous very quickly.”

“The absence of notification to safety of a dangerous environmental condition can’t be repeated going forward. Also, the lack of accounting for ventilation needs by Middlesex for work inside the Ashmont Tunnel, a well-known ‘legacy’ issue in this tunnel with no mechanical ventilation system, is very concerning to me,” Lytton said in an email to other T officials, referencing the contractor on the project, Middlesex Corporation.

MBTA spokesperson Lisa Battiston said as the situation unfolded inside the Ashmont Tunnel, work was immediately suspended.

“Top MBTA managers, including the chief of infrastructure, were in the field at the time, and they were addressing the matter in real-time,” Battiston said in a statement. “During the 16-day project, daily information is shared at three conference calls each day involving multiple MBTA departments, including the safety department and the control center.”

Middlesex Corporation began heavy construction in the Ashmont Tunnel with multiple pieces of diesel powered equipment similar to ones in other areas where exhaust fans are in place, according to the MBTA.

But this section of the Ashmont Tunnel did not have exhaust fans and extra ventilation equipment is needed for work to proceed safely, the agency said.

Battiston said air quality monitors were placed within the Red Line tunnel before work began. After several hours of work Saturday, an “air quality concern” was reported related to heavy construction within the Ashmont Tunnel and the work crew was relocated, Battiston said.

“At that time, the MBTA’s safety team temporarily suspended the work taking place in this area until a full assessment of the air quality could be conducted, that the air quality was normal, and that it was safe to resume work,” Battiston said in a statement. “The contractor is working with the safety department to address the air quality issues within the tunnel and provide a ventilation plan in order to optimize the construction efforts.”

Occupational Health and Safety Deputy Director James Marcello said in one Sunday email that the MBTA talked “during the last major surge” with Middlesex Corporation about the need to bring in portable ventilation to keep carbon monoxide levels low.

“Middlesex is an experienced contractor and has dealt with this issue in the past while working in the tunnels. There really is no excuse for this to be happening again. They have their own safety people that monitor their work activity,” Marcello said in an email.

Middlesex Corporation did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to a general email address listed on their website. Calls to their office went unanswered.

Battiston said crews have continued working in the area with battery-operated tools, “which has allowed the work to safely continue while the permanent ventilation plan is developed.”

Murray, in another email Sunday morning, said Middlesex would stop work on the Ashmont Tunnel “until the ventilation situation is resolved.”

“I will recommend that (occupational health and safety) pay a visit to the tunnel to evaluate air quality in general and get a reading on O2 and CO levels before any fans are turned on. This is important because even after the surge, there will undoubtedly be night work happening in the tunnel in the future,” Murray said in a Sunday email.

Battiston said the transit agency expected “all planned construction work being accomplished on schedule.

“Because the work inside the tunnel was suspended, the MBTA shifted the personnel and resources to other locations along the line where work was scheduled for later in the 16-day shutdown,” Battiston said.

Mariano, a 76-year-old Quincy Democrat, is in his 14th term as a state lawmaker after first being elected to office during a 1991 special election. He is in his second term as speaker of the House, taking over for former Speaker Robert DeLeo who was the longest-serving person in that role.

Asked if he would run for re-election, Mariano said “sure.” Asked if he would run for speaker next session, Mariano again said “sure.” But it “remains to be seen,” Mariano said, whether he would serve out the rest of that next term.

“The speaker looks forward to the work ahead the remainder of this term. He intends to run for re-election for his seat and the speakership. He’s grateful to the membership for their collaboration and support,” a Mariano spokesperson said in a statement only minutes after he spoke to reporters.

Mariano reported just over $500,000 in campaign cash as of Sept. 30, according to state campaign finance records. He spent $12,558 and raised $8,022 in September, according to state records.

He earns more than $178,400 as speaker, according to Comptroller records.

“We are preparing to run for re-election after the first of the year,” Mariano’s campaign spokesperson Scott Ferson told the Herald.

And it seems Mariano could face a Republican challenger.

“The MassGOP will be focused on competing in every district where we have strong candidates and an electorate open to two-party government. Communities like Quincy are becoming increasingly competitive as legislators on Beacon Hill advance policies that make it harder to live and prosper in the commonwealth,” MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said in a statement to the Herald.

During a recorded interview Sunday, Mariano said there are “a lot of things I really would like to get done” and he does not think he will retire any time soon.

“I have always been involved in healthcare. There are some things in healthcare that are changing rapidly. Obviously, Dana Farber leaving Mass General is a shock to me. I think that there’s a reconfiguration of the hospitals,” he said on WCVB’s On The Record. “I feel like there are some things I’d really like to sink my teeth into and put on what we hope to be the right track.”

That’s the narrative state lawmakers heard Thursday from coaches, trainers and doctors, among others, as they look to get a read on whether youth sports should be regulated across the Bay State.

As of now, there’s no regulatory body for youth sports in Massachusetts, the MIAA governs high school sports and NCAA college sports, said state Sen. Barry Finegold, D-2nd Essex and Middlesex. But that shouldn’t be the case for “our most vulnerable population: young people,” he said.

“I feel like there’s so much pressure on these kids from parents who don’t really understand most of these kids aren’t going to play [Division 1]. This is an interesting conversation I think we should have,” Finegold said during a hearing held by the Joint Committee on Economic Development & Emerging Technologies and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing

“So much more has to be done on the education of parents, and kids, as well, that you should be playing other sports,” he added.

The hearing highlighted how the youth sports landscape has changed “dramatically” over the last 15 years, from mostly all-volunteer organizations to professionally-run elite clubs, and the risks that come with the shift.

More and more kids are overtraining and specializing in one specific sport as they look to achieve their wildest dreams of playing at the highest level, said Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, a physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and director of the Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program. That leads to unnecessary injuries, fatigue and decreased performance, she said.

Ackerman called sports specialization a “health crisis,” in which the U.S. has spent over $5.2 billion addressing injuries related to athletes focusing on one specific sport. There should be restrictions on how many sports children can play at a time, she said.

“When we’re talking about youth they need to be able to pivot and do other things so their body can recover and mentally recover,” she said.

Finegold the past two sessions filed legislation to establish a special commission to study the youth sports industry, but the bills never made it far. He told reporters that lawmakers will now address the best path forward and that he’s not aware of such a hearing ever happening on Beacon Hill.

Massachusetts would become the first state to regulate youth sports. In 2018, Puerto Rico approved guidelines for age-appropriate play, drawn from best practices endorsed by sports governing bodies in other countries.

Brian Mazar is the president of the New England Futbol Club, a nonprofit premier youth soccer organization, training players across the region. Lobbying for state funds, he said, would help keep costs manageable for families, and an oversight body could serve as a “bridge” to facilitate relationships between private and public programs

Across the country, youth sports has turned into a more than $30 billion industry, Mazar said.

“I personally have not been successful in trying to partner with local municipalities where we could mutually benefit by working together,” he said. “These alliances could grant us access to land, facilities and resources that might otherwise be out of reach.”

It is time for there to be a regulatory body for youth sports in the state, said Bryan Lambert, chairman of the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission, which is charged with regulating all professional and amateur boxing, mixed martial arts, and unarmed combatants and events.

Lambert highlighted how in youth combat sports, there are 8- to 16-year-olds competing in weigh-ins and title belts.

“We don’t even have the authority to regulate that, while we already have the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission charged with regulating combat sports,” he said. “This is a huge blind spot.”

Both meetings were part of a two-day visit by the Department of Homeland Security to better understand Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system and the state’s ability to deal with an influx of migrants. It came after more than two months of repeated calls for federal help from Gov. Maura Healey.

The Department of Homeland Security team met with Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin and the city’s police chief Tuesday afternoon at a local Comfort Inn that is hosting about 25 migrant families. More than 6,900 migrant and homeless families are temporarily living in emergency shelters throughout Massachusetts, including at many hotels and motels.

“It was a bit of a letdown,” Galvin said of the meeting. “We continue to express our concerns about the sustainability of the whole program that the commonwealth is undertaking because of an outdated right-to-shelter law.”

Galvin has been vocal about municipalities’ need for state or federal help, especially for education needs, as more migrants arrive in the state. He has also asked state lawmakers to take another look at the right-to-shelter law, which requires the state to provide temporary housing to homeless families and pregnant people, including migrants.

Galvin said he received a text from a member of the governor’s staff informing him that the DHS team and Healey staffers would visit the Woburn shelter site along with a location in Quincy.

“I just told the members of Homeland Security that in the meantime, we have these families here, we need more money, the commonwealth needs more money,” he said in an interview. “There wasn’t a whole lot of substance at that meeting.”

The federal team also met privately Wednesday with Mayor Michelle Wu, shelter providers, faith organizations, and resettlement agencies. Wu’s office confirmed the meeting Wednesday night but did not disclose specific details except that it was hosted by the Immigrant Family Services Institute, a non-profit based in Mattapan.

The hour-long meeting largely featured conversation around work authorizations, including the Biden administration’s push to reduce some application processing periods to 30 days, according to officials with knowledge of the meeting.

The officials who spoke to the Herald Thursday asked to discuss the details of the meeting anonymously because the Department of Homeland Security requested the Wednesday meeting — and much of the trip — be “off-the-record” because they felt it would allow them to learn about the issues facing Massachusetts in a more candid manner.

Federal officials did not make any hard commitment during the meeting but did appear to be open to several ideas floated by providers and the Wu administration, including a week-long work permit processing workshop where the Department of Homeland Security could offer in-person training, according to an official with knowledge of the meeting.

“Both the providers that were there and (the Wu administration) and the feds were open to that,” the official told the Herald. “Nothing finalized or planned yet but everyone seemed open to that concept.”

Federal officials were also receptive to moving a process to waive the work permit application fee online instead of requiring applicants to conduct business through regular mail, according to an official with knowledge of the discussion.

The idea for the meeting, according to another official, was to bring together different organizations involved in the migrant response to discuss work authorizations, resource and funding challenges, approaches to housing migrants, and basic services migrants need when they arrive in Massachusetts like English classes.

But the hour-long meeting started late and the federal team had another commitment right after so not all the challenges Massachusetts officials deal with were discussed, according to a one official with knowledge of the meeting.

Less than 10 Department of Homeland Security employees attended the meeting, representing various agencies covered by DHS, according to multiple people with knowledge of the meeting, who described the group as delegates sent to gather information and report back to Washington.

Several people with knowledge of the meeting described the meeting as helpful and the federal team as receptive to concerns aired by service providers, faith organizations, and city leaders. Organizations present at the meeting included the Immigrant Family Services Institute, Heading Home, Catholic Charities Boston, and the International Institute of New England.

A City of Boston spokesperson said the mayor attended the meeting and the city “worked closely with the governor’s team to support this visit and ensure that DHS representatives could get a full picture of the work happening on the ground.”

The exact rundown of where Department of Homeland Security officials went and what they did has largely been kept out of the public eye, except for the Wednesday afternoon meeting, the Woburn excursion, and a discussion they held with House Speaker Ronald Mariano.

A Department of Homeland Security press aide did not respond to a request for comment.

State officials initially scheduled a visit to the Brazilian Worker Center — a welcome center in Allston designed to serve as an entrance to state resources for new arrivals — for Wednesday morning but ended up canceling it, Brazilian Worker Center Executive Director Lenita Reason told the Herald by email.

MBTA Chief Safety Officer Tim Lesniak said a regularly scheduled inspection showed tracks were too narrow to safely run trains and over the past few weeks, “GLX constructors” performed repairs.

An investigation into why the tracks narrowed — which MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng described last month as “unusual” — is “still under investigation,” Lesniak said, repeating what Eng said the day before during a press conference.

“That is still under investigation and once that investigation is complete, we will provide a report on that,” Lesniak said. “It’s an ongoing investigation. We’re still trying to collect data so we don’t necessarily have a full timeline put together yet.”

But it is still not clear what the root cause of the defective tracks were even as the MBTA said Wednesday it had lifted a series of slow zones put in place in response to the narrowness.

Regularly scheduled service resumed on the Union Station and Medford-Tufts branches of the Green Line Extension following weeks of speed restrictions that had trains running at 3 mph in some places.

At an unrelated press conference in Lynn, Eng said the investigation into the narrow tracks is “still ongoing” and more information would be shared “shortly.”

“We will certainly be sharing that information as that investigation continues,” Eng said. “We’re investigating everything right now with regards to that project, with regards to how this came about and when I have that information, I’ll share that. Everyone deserves to hear that.”

Mayor Michelle Wu appeared before Beacon Hill lawmakers for a second straight year on Wednesday to testify in favor of a home rule petition she filed in 2022, that would add a real estate transfer fee for sales that exceed $2 million.

The seller would incur the fee, with proceeds payable to the City of Boston. The city would then deposit the money into a neighborhood housing trust, for the purpose of furthering housing acquisition, affordability, creation and preservation, and senior-homeowner and low-income-renter stability, the legislation states.

“We’re doing everything we can at the city level,” Wu said, citing efforts to overhaul the city’s zoning code for more housing affordability, provide tax incentives for converting offices into residential buildings, and provide financial assistance to homebuyers.

“But the one powerful tool that remains out of reach without legislative and gubernatorial approval is a transfer fee,” the mayor added at a Joint Committee on Revenue hearing at the State House.

In her testimony for the proposed bill, H.2793, Wu cited statistics that show roughly half of renters, and more than 40% of households, are cost-burdened, meaning that they pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs.

Rising housing costs are “deepening racial and socioeconomic disparities,” she added, pointing to stats that show nearly 60% of renters of color are cost-burdened compared to 38% of white renters.

A “modest 2% transfer fee,” Wu said, would translate to $50,000 for a $2.5 million property sale. Based on 2021 data, the fee would have affected roughly 7% of sales that occurred that year, and generated up to $100 million in local revenue, she said.

“Revenue raised through this fee will help us build supportive housing and ensure that our seniors can stay in their homes,” Wu said. “It will help build new homes for families who have been forced out by skyrocketing prices and make it possible for more first-time homebuyers to put down roots and raise their families here in Boston.”

Testifying alongside the mayor was state Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley, who filed the proposed legislation that grew out of Wu’s home rule petition, which was approved by the Boston City Council last year.

The bill was among a number of transfer fee petitions considered by the joint committee on Wednesday. Also lobbying for the fee were officials from Amherst, Arlington, Cambridge, Chatham, the Cape and Islands, Provincetown, Somerville, Truro, and Wellfleet.

Noting the Legislature’s past resistance to imposing a real estate transfer fee, Wu said Boston’s proposal differs from prior years, in that it would create a provision to increase the number of people eligible for the 41C senior property tax exemption, “nearly doubling the amount of seniors who could stay in their homes.”

The bill, which needs to be greenlit by the committee, faces strong opposition from industry groups. In its submitted written testimony, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board said a “new real estate tax will harm the economy, further constrain housing and is simply a bad tax policy.”

Such a tax would strip “hard-earned sweat equity” for sellers looking to put that money toward a down payment on a new home. Increasing the cost of selling a home would penalize existing residents who want to stay in their communities, and in some cases, price buyers of the market, the board’s statement said.

Further, the board states that Massachusetts cities and towns were already granted the authority to impose a property tax surcharge of up to 3% to pay for affordable housing, 22 years ago, through the Community Preservation Act.

Creating new taxes, especially on housing, in the wake of last week’s “historic” tax relief bill, “would move the state backwards,” Mark Kavanagh, government affairs committee chair for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, added.

“Transfer taxes will harm our communities — they are unfair,” Kavanagh said. “In our opinion, taxing a small percentage of a population for the gain of an entire community sets a bad precedent.”

A team from the Department of Homeland Security was scheduled to visit Boston Tuesday and Wednesday but the itinerary for the trip has not been made public nor have state or federal officials disclosed specific details.

The federal team did meet with House Speaker Ronald Mariano, who has expressed frustration in recent weeks with the Biden administration’s handling of migrant arrivals in the United States and Massachusetts, an official confirmed to the Herald.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu attended a session hosted by the Immigrant Family Services Institute with local service providers.

“Our administration worked closely with the governor’s team to support this visit and ensure that DHS representatives could get a full picture of the work happening on the ground. We look forward to continuing to partner with the Healey administration and federal partners on this challenging situation,” a city spokesperson said in a statement.

In a statement last week, a White House spokesperson said a team would be “deployed to assess the current migrant situation and identify ways to improve efficiencies and maximize our support for communities that are addressing the needs of migrants.”

A Healey spokesperson said Tuesday the administration would have more information to share when the visit concluded and referred some questions to the Department Homeland Security.

“Our administration welcomes the opportunity to show officials from the Department of Homeland Security the extremely difficult situation we are facing and discuss badly-needed support,” the spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.

More than 6,900 families were staying in emergency shelters as of Thursday morning, with 3,171 living in hotels, 3,626 in traditional shelters, and 108 at Joint Base Cape Cod and a Quincy dorm.

Regularly scheduled service on the Union Station and Medford-Tufts branches started earlier in the day following weeks of speed restrictions that were put in place when the agency discovered tracks were too narrow to safely operate trains, an anomaly MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng described last month as “certainly unusual.”

In a statement provided by the Department of Transportation, Eng said a “successful operation of test trains” on the Union Station branch led officials to bring back regular service. All speed restrictions on both the Union Station and the Medford-Tufts Station branches were removed, Eng said.

“Green Line trains today are traveling at regular line speeds on both branches. I wish to thank our riders for their patience while MassDOT completed the bridge project and we addressed the track defects discovered during an inspection last month,” Eng said in the statement, which also said work had been completed on the Squires Bridge in Somerville.

Eng, Acting Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, and MBTA Board Chair Thomas Glynn were all at the State House later in the day and were seen entering Gov. Maura Healey’s office.

After a roughly hour-long meeting, a Healey aide did not let Eng answer questions from reporters as he left the building, saying the MBTA chief already had a media availability earlier in the day in Lynn.

At the Lynn press conference, Eng said the investigation into the narrow tracks is “still ongoing” and he looked forward to sharing more information “shortly.”

“We will certainly be sharing that information as that investigation continues,” Eng said. “We’re investigating everything right now with regards to that project, with regards to how this came about and when I have that information, I’ll share that. Everyone deserves to hear that.”

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the issues on the tracks had been corrected but the agency was still “working to identify the root cause.”

“The issues discovered during last month’s inspection have been addressed, allowing trains to operate again at regular line speeds,” he said in a statement.

A public dashboard previously showed speed restriction limiting trains to 3 mph, the average walking speed for any given person. The transit agency said the speed restrictions were implemented after finding that tracks along the extension had narrowed.

At a board meeting last month, MBTA Chief of Infrastructure Doug Connett suggested that the Green Line Extension, which was built by a number of contractors, “didn’t meet construction standard.”

“They were notified,” he said. “We’re going to dig in why to see what it is. But we know we have a problem. The good thing is, somebody said it didn’t meet the number and they slowed the train down and they did what all books says their supposed to do.”

But Eng downplayed Connett’s comments after the meeting, telling reporters Connett was likely speaking in general terms.

“We have a new facility that just finished construction and we have something that is unusual,” Eng said. “So he’s looking at it from that perspective. I also talk generally about how I’m looking at capital projects moving forward.”

The Green Line Extension project cost $2.3 billion and the speed restrictions that came to light last month were met with outcry from local officials, with some accusing the MBTA of a lack of communication between the transit agency and the municipalities served by the new stations.

The branches of the extension opened in March and December 2022, a project former Gov. Charlie Baker said he “went back a long time with” as the ribbon was cut at the Medford/Tufts station.

Eng has not said whether contractors did something wrong when building the Green Line Extension.

“We are looking into that,” he said last month. “For me to say that, obviously, we’re going to look at construction, we’re going to look at inspections, we’re going to look at all of that. But for me to say that right now, I don’t know that.”

Previous Herald materials were used in this report.

Unofficial election results streamed in as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. and Durant told the Herald he was declaring victory just before 10 p.m., saying it was “statistically impossible” for his Republican challenger, Bruce Chester, to make up the difference in votes according to unofficial results from town clerks.

The one Democrat in the race, Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, faced no challenger in his primary and swiftly moved on to the Nov. 7 general election, where he is poised to face off against Durant, a House colleague.

Durant said people are upset about gun rights and the cost of living in Massachusetts.

“And this just proves that the guy from the small town can make a big impact. So we’re very happy with tonight’s results. I think it gives us momentum going into this general election,” he said in an interview. “ I commend (Chester), he put up a very good campaign, and it was pretty hard fought.”

Chester said he conceded to Durant in a phone call after he realized he could not make up the difference in votes.

“But it’s not the end. I talked to (Durant), we’re gonna work together as we should. And, I’m looking forward to making some progress,” he told the Herald. “There’s still the state (representative) race that’s coming up next year. So I’ll be considering that. Right now, I haven’t made up my mind quite yet.”

Republicans have viewed the Senate race as a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in the Senate, where only three conservative lawmakers serve. MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said the Senate district has consistently voted Republican in statewide elections.

“We would expect going into November, that the district will support the Republican nominee. Obviously, we’ll be working to get the message out and communicate with voters,” Carnevale told the Herald. “But we are optimistic headed into November that we’ll be adding to our ranks in the state Senate.”

Durant spent the day in Boston, where a legislative committee was reviewing a major firearms reform bill that Durant said was of particular importance to his constituents.

Durant has primarily focused his campaign on immigration issues, blasting the Healey administration for what he has called an “out-of-hand” situation in Massachusetts. More than 6,800 families, including migrants and homeless individuals, were living in state shelters as of last week as federal officials visited the state to assess the situation.

Local elections typically focus on issues specific to the communities in the district, Durant said, but as the campaign progressed, gun reform and immigration moved “front and center.”

“That was what was on everybody’s mind so it has kind of morphed that way,” he said in an interview hours before polls closed.

Chester, a self-described Constitutional conservative, said he spent the morning working at Fitchburg State University, where he serves as an adjunct professor, with plans to head out to polls later in the afternoon. Chester has previously run against Zlotnik for a local House seat.

A Massachusetts National Guard veteran with a deployment to Iraq under his belt, Chester said he wanted to focus on three main areas — government transparency and accessibility, economic development, and education.

He said he wanted to introduce a “parents bill of rights,” which he described as a working relationship between parents, teachers, and administrators “to where one group isn’t blaming the other.”

“But in reality, the parents have to have the final word because it’s their kids,” Chester said.

Chester had only $56 cash on hand days before the special election after spending nearly $18,000 and pulling in $11,770 in September, according to state campaign finance records. He has also pulled in top donations from major figures in Massachusetts’ Republican orbit.

Former MassGOP chair Jim Lyons donated $1,000 as did Rick Green, the head of 1A  Auto Parts and a major benefactor of Republican causes in the state. Former Republican candidate for attorney general Jay McMahon donated $100 to the campaign.

Durant reported more than $32,000 cash on hand as of Oct. 3, according to the state’s campaign finance office. The Spencer Republican spent nearly $15,000 and brought in over $17,000, records showed.

Top contributors for Durant include Brian Shortsleeve, who runs the venture capital firm M33 Growth, former MassGOP chair Jennifer Nasour, and former gubernatorial candidate Chris Doughty.

Zlotnik reported more than $53,000 cash on hand as of Oct. 4, according to state records.

The Gardner Democrat pointed to workforce and economic development as one of his top priorities in a district where there are both city and rural issues, heavy manufacturing and farming, a college, a hospital, a small airport, and biotech.

“Sometimes there just aren’t people to work, but just as often there’s a skills gap. And I think it needs more attention in terms of job training or retraining,” he said.