As emergency shelter population dips, Mass. Governor Healey directs all hotel shelters to close ‘ahead of schedule'
Starting in 2022, mounting numbers of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts forced the state
Since Healey took office in January 2023, officials drastically
expanded its emergency shelter system to house thousands of homeless and migrant families
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In August 2023, Healey declared the shelter system to be in a
According to recent tallies, the total number of families in shelter
The shelter population decline is partially a response to the slew of requirements Healey's administration implemented on the system, including rules that require homeless families prove lawful immigration status, show they have lived in the state for at least six months, and undergo
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The changes have dramatically reshaped the state's unique and
Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues, who led the charge to fund the shelter system while imposing Healey-recommended restrictions, applauded the administration Monday.
'Kudos to the administration,' the Westport Democrat said. 'We were expecting to stop using hotels for shelter sometime by the end of the calendar year, not by the end of summer. That's good'
But there is still a need for shelter, data shows.
According to numbers released by the state housing office Monday, 570 families applied for shelter in the last two weeks; 97 of those families were placed in the system. The average time a family spends in shelter remains long, at more than a year.
Advocates say that while the numbers in shelters have decreased, the needs of homeless families still 'remain high' amid the high costs of stable housing.
'We certainly haven't tackled the causes of homelessness,' said Kelly Turley, associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. 'As the state takes down infrastructure, we want to make sure that we're in a position to add units as they're needed, and hopefully as we undo some of the draconian restrictions . . . that are keeping many children and parents in places not meant for human habitation.'
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