Grant program funding two overnight shelters opening in North Central Massachusetts

United Way of Massachusetts Bay awarded a grant Wednesday to open two overnight shelters in North Central Massachusetts as the Healey administration continues to contemplate how to use $50 million for an overflow site.

Opportunities for Hope will provide 23 bedrooms across the two sites as well as facilities management and maintenance while the Spanish American Center will offer “multilingual, culturally competent resource coordination and connections to local supports.”

This is the second grant the nonprofit organization has handed out to a community group to stand up overnight shelters after Gov. Maura Healey shuttled them $5 million in federal cash. The sites come online as the emergency shelter system in Massachusetts is still at the 7,500-family limit the governor put in place earlier this year.

United Way of Massachusetts Bay President and CEO Bob Giannino said United Way of North Central Massachusetts, Opportunities for Hope and the Spanish American Center thought “creatively about the community assets they can leverage to provide increased capacity, services and resources in the region.”

“As the commonwealth continues to address the emergency shelter crisis on multiple fronts, it is heartening to see new partnerships coming together to help ensure eligible families have a safe place to stay,” Giannino said in a statement.

More than 7,500 homeless families and pregnant people, including locals and newly-arrived migrants, were living in emergency shelters, according to state data last updated Tuesday. There were 3,826 families living in hotels and motels, 3,648 in traditional sites, and 57 in temporary shelters, according to the data.

An influx of migrants arriving in Massachusetts and high housing costs have left the state’s emergency shelters struggling to keep up with demand and led state officials to pump hundreds of millions into the system.

Beacon Hill lawmakers this month approved an additional $250 million for the Healey administration to respond to “the ongoing humanitarian crisis and influx of families seeking shelter.”

The funds cannot be used in their entirety until the Healey administration uses $50 million to set up one or multiple overflow sites for families who have been waitlisted for emergency shelter placement. The overflow location must be up and running by Dec. 31, according to the law.

At an unrelated event Tuesday, Healey said officials “continue to find ways to house people.”

“I’m grateful to the number of providers who step forward, the number of communities that have stepped forward. It’s been really heartwarming to see. We continue to be very focused on work authorizations,” she said.