Massachusetts’ outsized homelessness challenge has worsened due to the border crisis and record high inflation. The state is already stretched thin, resources for the most vulnerable are dwindling, and everything from groceries to shelter are more expensive now than they were four years ago.

Massachusetts ranks as the second least-affordable state in the U.S. behind California. In its expensive environment, inflation makes affording basics like food and housing much harder. Massachusetts residents are suffering more than the average American with the state ranked 14th in highest inflation burden. The average household in Massachusetts has spent $28,992 more since January 2021.

This pain is being compounded by the border crisis. While not a border state, Massachusetts is feeling the effects of the state administration’s lack of a clear message around this urgent issue – starting off with rhetoric and policies that encouraged inadmissible migration through the right-to-shelter law, only to recently take a tougher stance. This law guarantees emergency shelter for all and further exacerbates the problem by incentivizing migrants to flock to the state. The Healey administration has abdicated its responsibility to the federal government and thereby uses Congress as a scapegoat for the failures of the emergency shelter program.

Everyone suffers because of this border crisis, but it disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable already feeling the effects of dwindling resources and support. The border crisis is terrible for the migrants themselves, many of whom would much rather go through a legal process. The current Biden administration has only exacerbated that by increasing legal application fees – to pay the costs for border crossers seeking asylum, increasing case processing times, and making it increasingly difficult for farmers trying to hire legal migrant labor.

So often the solution to any problem is spending. But that is what got us into this high-cost mess and would only serve to increase reliance on government funds and further fuel the incentives that drive migrants to these areas to start.

Even with federal funding, the state cannot address the needs of migrants and their fellow Bay Staters. If the challenge of limited housing is to be taken seriously, it begins with understanding what drives up prices and what limits building more housing options, such as zoning and land use regulations. These are all concerns that must be addressed by the state.

Immigration is a boon to the national economy, and locally, as it can often strengthen communities. This process can be gradual and seamless or rife with conflict. How immigration occurs, and how individuals are incorporated into a community, matter. It also matters that people are treated humanely, with due diligence when establishing shelters, which the current state administration has failed to do. While Massachusetts has made some changes to the right-to-shelter law, it lacks legislative action, which leaves it vulnerable to reversal by executive order. Legislative action is necessary to enshrine the changes into law.

Currently, emergency shelters are full, and hotels are filling up despite Massachusetts’ best efforts to address the border crisis. Part of the challenge is that the state’s right-to-shelter law not only depletes valuable resources, but likely increases tensions between localities and migrants by creating an even more urgent scarcity mindset.

Another challenge is Congress’s reticence to pass meaningful border and immigration reform. It is not the executive branch’s role to unilaterally pass its wish list of regulations. Jumping from one executive order to the next breeds uncertainty and will not solve the immigration crisis. With the change in political power after the election, there is a chance for Republicans at the federal level to take charge of this issue, provide solutions, and promote policies that reflect the needs of states facing this crisis.

Reform is not only necessary but timely. The status quo right-to-shelter law will result in continued strain on the Massachusetts budget — directly impacting funding for line items like education, public safety, and municipal support. We cannot continue down this road at the expense of taxpaying residents. Now is the time to take back our authority as the state government and reform the right-to-shelter law so that residents of the Commonwealth receive the help they need when hard times come.

Ryan Fattman is the state senator for the Worcester-Hampden District in Massachusetts. Isabel Soto is the policy director at the LIBRE Initiative