BOSTON (SHNS) - A commission tasked with reconceiving the structure and sustainability of state's beleaguered emergency family shelter system is up against a quickly approaching deadline, with still broad disagreement amongst its members about what exactly is at the core of the state's right-to-shelter law. The commission was established in a supplemental budget passed in April that also injected $251 million more into the shelter system and established new time limits on how long families can stay in the state-supported housing. The members have to turn in a report by December 1 with their recommendations to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of the Emergency Assistance (EA) program, review safety practices at overflow sites, lay out how to best support and ensure the long-term sufficiency of those seeking shelter, and create a region-based response to support families in need of shelter. "We are short on time. I want to be clear. This commission's report is due in December, and I don't think we're going to have this completely figured out and solve it, but we're hoping to really be running down a lane that folks can kind of get behind as we work on the current implementation challenges and opportunities that we have," commission chair Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said at a Monday meeting. Special commissions are often created by the Legislature when lawmakers are unable to agree on a policy shifts. Oftentimes, the panels themselves disband without coming to an agreement themselves. The shelter system has been in crisis over the past two years as it has strained under the weight of new arrivals to the country and long-term Massachusetts residents who have had trouble leaving the system, but Driscoll said that she sees the commission as an opportunity to not just address the immediate surge in family homelessness but to reform the Emergency Assistance program at large, which she said was already fraught with issues prior to the swell of immigration. The commission's "guiding principles" for the EA system that they've identified are "rare, brief and non-recurring." "We can anticipate having an EA shelter system that's rare, so that it's not a revolving door, that would be brief, so that you're not there for a year-plus, and again something that you're in and out of ideally, that we're providing the sort of support that a family might need so that this becomes a real tool for families who might find themselves in need of shelter, that they get an off-ramp into something that can be sustainable, and obviously sustainable to the commonwealth in terms of costs," Driscoll said. She added that the commission is also considering how to be able to adjust the system's size when necessary -- how to expand it when there is more demand, but shrink it down and save money when there is less. The Healey administration has enacted tighter restrictions on the family shelters over the past year in efforts to rein in spending that topped $1 billion in fiscal year 2024 and overburdened shelter providers and other resources. More and more families, as a result, have turned to sleeping on the streets and other public spaces. Over a dozen activists came to the commission's Monday meeting, where they held signs at eye level with Driscoll, Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, and Emergency Assistance Incident Command Deputy Director Adit Basheer. One of the signs read, "5 Nights Then Homeless Not OK," referencing a policy that forces families to choose between five nights at a temporary overflow site and removing themselves from the waitlist for more long-term shelter for six months, or sleeping in potentially dangerous conditions. Activists also held a rally at the Embrace statue in the Boston Common later Monday afternoon in solidarity with families experiencing homelessness, and against the Healey administration's shelter restrictions. "I think it's very striking that no families who have been directly impacted by homelessness and participate in the system are centered in the meeting," said Kelly Turley of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, after the commission meeting Monday. Driscoll said the next step towards completing their report is meeting with different stakeholder groups, and recommended meeting with providers, community-based organizations and advocates, and municipalities. Leah Bradley, CEO of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, told Driscoll she also believed that families actually in the system should be consulted in the process. Democrat Sen. Robyn Kennedy, chair of Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, was critical of restrictions on the family shelter system. "I think the principles are right," she said, of the "guiding principles" that Driscoll laid out. "But I think that we have to be crystal clear that policy doesn't get us to achieve those goals. Restrictions, limits don't get us to meet 'brief,' don't get us to meet 'non-recurring,' don't even really get us to meet rare." Kennedy said as the commission reimagines the shelter system, she encourages them to "be willing to think very differently about how we approach this whole model of delivering all the services, not just EA." This includes other housing services like HomeBASE, Residential Assistance for Families in Transition, the rental voucher program -- and to think of all of them as linked together, she said. "They actually, again, not only are better for families, but they actually save the commonwealth money in the long run, versus trying to limit access," she said. However, while the progressive senator from Worcester was encouraging a more holistic framework, a Republican representative on the commission was pushing for the members to use their power to reexamine who, exactly, the right to shelter applies to. For years, Republicans have argued the 1983 law that created Massachusetts's right-to-shelter was only intended for long-term residents of the Bay State -- not recent immigrants, some of whom come to Massachusetts because they've heard of its expansive social services. "We need to do a dramatic change, and in that right to shelter law in making sure that we are taking care of those folks who have been in Massachusetts for a long period of time, and have to reexamine people who come from out of the state -- from wherever out of the state, Tennessee or coming across the border in Texas -- that when they're coming here, what they're eligible for on day one probably has to be reexamined," Frost said. He added that he was worried about an uptick in families who have been moved out of shelters into more permanent housing -- something that has been a goal of shelter providers, lawmakers and the administration, as they say it will remove pressure on the shelter system and put families in more stable homes. Frost said he was worried about migrant or short-term families leaving shelters and competing with longer term Massachusetts residents for stable housing or state-run services. "I understand what you're asking us, and I think we welcome that conversation with everybody here and others," Driscoll said. Ruthzee Louijeune, president of the Boston City Council, spoke at the rally on Monday. Prior to speaking, she told the News Service that she hopes the commission will focus on finding "a more humane policy." "People do not want to be in shelters. They want to find solutions," she said. "We are a country of immigrants, we've had this shelter law on the books, and it's been one that's protected young kids and families and no one can be happy with what they see when we see young kinds sleeping outdoors when they should be at school or out of harm's way." Driscoll said in the meeting that one thing the commission is considering is the length of stay policy. The Healey administration began instituting a nine-month limit this spring. "It isn't going to be a one-size fits all system. Length of stay policies -- how is our length of stay policy helping or hurting families that might find themselves in EA shelter?" she said. Andrea Park of Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, an advocate who has been working to organize against shelter restrictions, said she appreciates the sentiment around fitting specific families' needs, but that it strikes less true when the administration is simultaneously instituting restrictions. "The intensive case management is something that people who have been in shelter for a long time have needed for years, and that is where we should be focused on. I appreciate the one-size-fits-all approach, but I just hope that we're talking about the same things, because I don't think these limiting approaches, as Sen. Kennedy said, putting restrictions on, is not the way to get people into sustainable housing," she said.