Healey Plan Limits Family Shelter Stays To Six Months

BOSTON (State House News Service) — Gov. Maura Healey's office intends over the next roughly 19 months to phase out the use of hotels and motels for emergency shelter, seek a legislative change to boost rental assistance for needy families, create a reserve account for shelter expenses, and further shorten the length of stay in traditional shelter settings while extending stays in overflow sites. 

Confronting more than $1 billion in annual costs tied to the state's emergency assistance family shelter system, the Healey administration rolled out a suite of new reforms Friday without detailing expected expenses, cost savings or timelines for action. 

The revised policies and legislative previews come days after the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs -- tasked with curbing the surging costs to the system caused by an influx of migrant families to Massachusetts -- approved a report with broad recommendations, which did not identify clear steps or future initiatives from the Healey administration to resolve those issues.

The report suggestions include ensuring the EA family shelter system is "operationally sustainable" and "fiscally sustainable," reducing the state's reliance on hotels and motels for emergency shelters, delivering more targeted resources to families, and offering clearer messaging around shelter policies and expectations.

In a statement Friday, Healey called the shelter system "increasingly unsustainable." It's a point of view shared by many on Beacon Hill where a big chunk of rising tax revenues are limited to education and transportation spending and soaring shelter costs have cut into the pool of money available for other government programs and services.

"We've taken significant action to rein in its growth, and we've seen tangible results. The size of the system has remained stable for the past year, we no longer have families relying on Emergency Departments or the airport for shelter, and all shelter sites currently have a service provider instead of relying on the National Guard," Healey said. "More needs to be done so that Massachusetts taxpayers do not continue to be on the hook for this federal problem. The changes we are making will reduce costs, phase out the use of hotels and better meet the needs of all families."

New demand for shelter has declined, with 15 to 18 families now seeking shelter each day, compared to 40 families in late summer 2023, Healey's office said.

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Under Healey's new plan, the administration will gradually move away from hotels and motels throughout fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with the aim of reaching a "more cost-effective and supportive" portfolio of shelter options. Families and local communities will be notified in advance when local hotels will no longer be used for shelter purposes, which will involve discussions with providers.

The administration said providers "will work intensively with families to support exits into safe and stable housing prior to a site closing."

The governor plans to propose legislative changes to the HomeBASE rental assistance program, making families eligible for up to $25,000 of rental aid annually for two years. Families can currently receive up to $30,000 over two years or $45,000 over three years.

The administration also plans to file a supplemental budget seeking additional funding for the EA shelter system for the rest of fiscal 2025, and that money would flow into a new "Family Shelter and Services Reserve" account.

Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorzkowicz recently said the system will likely run out of funds in January, and that Healey's team would be requesting more than $400 million from the Legislature, a request that will reopen debate over the shelter crisis response.

It's unclear whether Healey plans to submit the spending request to the current Legislature, or the new one that will be seated on Jan. 1. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said the administration will not file the new request until the Legislature finishes up the pending closeout supplemental budget.

"When we do it, we'll be talking with legislators about what's the right timing to do it, but right now, we need the closeout completed before we can file anything else," Driscoll told the News Service. 

Within the supplemental budget, Healey will also propose reducing the length of traditional shelter stays from nine months to six months and "change the extension criteria to help families and EA providers rehouse more quickly, which ultimately helps families move to permanency more rapidly and helps the system serve more families," the administration said.

The package will also call for boosting the HomeBASE rental stipend from $15,000 per family to $25,000 annually.

Healey's strategies to address the migrant crisis comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office and launch plans to deport undocumented immigrants. New arrivals in the commonwealth's EA shelter system are in the United States legally, and about 65 percent of enrolled families are long-term Bay Staters, the governor's office said.

Immigration law enforcement is a federal responsibility and Healey, in a TV interview after the election, said State Police would "absolutely not" assist in mass deportations if they were requested by the Trump administration.

Driscoll insisted the new policies, which she said have been under development for "very many months," are not a response to the new federal administration.

The Healey administration is also overhauling how it handles families' needs and risks, and assigns them to shelter.

Under an approach described as a "Rapid Shelter Track," families will be allowed to stay in overflow shelters for 30 days, up from the existing five-day limit. The track is designated for families who have "strengths and needs that position them to rapidly find self-sufficient permanent housing." Families will receive "intensive" support at the overflow shelters to find stable housing, plus help with work authorizations, job placements and English classes.

Families who are considered more high-risk with "more complex needs" will fall under the "Bridge Shelter Track," including women who have late-term pregnancies and individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Families are eligible to stay in this track for up to six months, with the ultimate goal of also finding "stable, permanent housing as quickly as possible."

Driscoll said six months is the "right number" based on the work that shelter providers have done in recent months, and she noted hardship waivers will be available. Extending stays at overflow sites, which the administration calls "temporary respite centers," makes it more achievable for families to access housing, she said. 

"What we saw with the TRCs were people were actually capable of identifying a unit and getting to it, but they couldn't start their tenancy. If you came into the TRC on May 7, you may not have a unit available until June 1," Driscoll said. "So we're trying to set expectations for families and recognize the intensive case management and upfront services they're going to get to help get to that next model. And in this case, we think 30 days is right for one track and six months for the other."

Families will not be allowed to choose between the two tracks. Families who receive intensive support at overflow sites "will not be eligible for placement in the Bridge Shelter Track," Healey's office said. The change to overflow stays would start on Dec. 10, but shortening stays at traditional shelters requires legislative approval, a Healey spokesperson said. 

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The new tracks replace a policy in which families can stay in overflow sites for up to five days but then cannot seek placement in traditional shelters for six months, the spokesperson said. 

"As Chair of the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs, I heard clearly a consensus around making shelter brief, rare and non-recurring," Driscoll said. "Our administration is taking the guiding principles set out by that bipartisan Commission and applying them to policy changes that will ensure we no longer have a one-size-fits-all system. This will better allow us to meet the unique needs of families, help them get into stable housing more quickly and lower the cost to the state."

Driscoll could not pinpoint exact cost-savings from the new shelter initiatives, including the financial savings from phasing out hotels and motels. 

"I mean traditionally EA shelter prior to our arrival was somewhere between $335-$350 million. There may have been blips here or there," Driscoll said. "We'd love to obviously get back in that $350 to $400 million range, just taking into account, you know, traditional cost escalation through inflation and whatnot. So it will depend on how quickly we're able to reduce hotel usage."

The administration wants to "dramatically reduce" the use of hotels and motels "as fast as we possibly can," Driscoll said. Fifty-six hotels and motels are currently operating as emergency shelters, she said. 

About 3,800 families, including migrants and Bay Staters, have exited the shelter system in the past year. More than 700 families have been "diverted" from entering the system due to investments in other services, Healey's office said.

At recent commission meetings, officials emphasized the importance of phasing out hotels and motels for emergency shelter. Hotel shelters are operating in 46 communities across Massachusetts, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

In July 2023, as state officials confronted "rapidly expanding EA shelter" demand, the system turned to using hotels and motels "at such a rapid pace that EOHLC was unable to coordinate and scale EA shelter provider contracts to provide basic needs support and case management at many new hotel and motel sites as is a standard component of the EA shelter model," the commission report said.

Hotels and motels are the most expensive type of shelter in the EA system, but they typically lack kitchens or laundry facilities to meet family needs, according to the report. Hotels and motels can also be far from public transit, which poses barriers for job seekers.

Massachusetts has used 128 hotels as emergency shelters since September 2022, according to an EOHLC spokesperson. The largest use of hotels and motels was recorded on Dec. 1, 2023, when 3,832 families out of 7,542 families enrolled in the EA shelter system were staying in them. As of Thursday, 3,369 families out of 7,115 families in the system are in hotel and motel settings.

When EA shelter demand previously peaked in 2014 with 4,600 families -- including 1,500 families staying in hotels and motels -- the state developed diversion and exit tools, according to the report. That included the HomeBASE program, which provides significant financial assistance to help families find stable housing.

"EA shelter caseload reached 2,800 families in 2020 after an effort by the state to reduce reliance on hotels and motels," the report said. "In part, the reduced reliance on temporary hotel and motel shelter units was accomplished by adding scattered shelter sites, which are individual apartments rented from landlords to be used as shelter. These units look and feel more like permanent housing than other types of shelter units."

The family shelter system more recently required as many as 4,000 units in hotels and motels, according to the report.

Healey has already taken steps to curtail Massachusetts's right-to-shelter law, including setting a cap of 7,500 families in the system and instituting a nine-month limit on shelter stays with possible extensions. Healey has also limited stays at overflow shelters to just a few days and then prevented families seeking more traditional shelter for six months.

An overflow shelter in Cambridge is slated to close by Dec. 15, and staff are working to rehouse families, Healey's office said.

Other location changes include the Quincy Family Welcome Center moving from Eastern Nazarene College to Hancock Street, and the clinical and safety risk assessment site in Quincy closing. High-risk families will need to seek support at a Revere clinic.

Written by Alison Kunitz/SHNS

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