Massachusetts spending on the emergency shelter system housing migrant families and local residents has crossed the $700 million threshold, according to data released Monday.
Government budget writers have projected the state will shell out approximately $932 million on the emergency shelter system in fiscal year 2024 and another $915 million in fiscal year 2025, which began on Monday. The massive costs were spurred by an influx of migrants over the past year.
Gov. Maura Healey’s finance and housing offices said the state had spent $715 million on the emergency shelter program as of June 27, though the figure is largely representative of costs through mid-March.
“March invoices are currently being received and processed,” the report said.
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As migrants arrived in droves to Massachusetts, the state turned to a network of hotels and motels to increase state-run shelter capacity for families with children and pregnant women. Housing people in those locations can often prove costly, sometimes running $300 a night.
Healey over the past year has approved restrictions on the shelter system, including a nine-month time limit on families’ stay, a 7,500 family cap, a monthly requirement for people in overflow sites to reapply for services, and just last week a prohibition on sleeping overnight at Logan Airport.
At an unrelated event in Lowell Tuesday, Healey said while the state is required to provide families with children and pregnant women with shelter, there is only so much room.
“It’s why I took action this fall to announce the cap and to establish a waiver,” she told reporters. “My position has been, we simply cannot shoulder this. It’s why I also demanded time and time again that Congress step up and act and provide relief to the state.”
Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and Lynn are playing host to the most families in shelters, hotels, and motels of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, according to the report.
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About $210 million, or one third of the total money spent, has been paid to shelter providers who run traditional locations as well as the hotels, motels, and overflow sites, according to the report.
Another $24 million has gone to municipalities to help alleviate costs associated with an increased number of students from shelters, the report said. The state has also spent $2.7 million for “additional educational supports” like student transportation and multilingual faculty.
After Healey put a capacity limit on the emergency shelter system, those who applied for services were directed to overflow sites, including at state-owned facilities in Lexington, Roxbury, Chelsea, Cambridge, and Norfolk.
The locations were oftentimes unsuited to house families immediately and the state had to spend money to upgrade the sites. The report released Monday shows officials have spent $1.1 million to make “life safety improvements” at overflow sites.
There were 7,463 families in the emergency shelter system, another 417 at overflow sites, and 699 on the waitlist for placement as of June 27, according to state data and the report.
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A separate report released Monday provides an update on an effort to move 400 migrant families out of state-run shelters and into stable housing by the end of the year.
Healey and the state’s eight resettlement agencies inked $10.5 million worth of contracts to stand up the program, which takes a well-known resettlement strategy used at the federal level with humanitarian parolees from Afghanistan and Ukraine and applies it to those in local emergency shelters.
Ascentria Care Alliance committed to helping 75 families in the Worcester and Greater Springfield area move into long-term housing and is expected to receive $1.5 million to do so, the most of the eight organizations, according to the report.
Five other groups contracted to help 50 families and are in line to receive $1 million while Jewish Family Service of Metrowest agreed to assist 25 families and is expected to receive $500,000 to do so, the report said.
Gov. Maura Healey (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald, File)
Massachusetts families are stuck in the Middle East amid the war in Iran, and Democratic Sen. Ed Markey says the State Department needs to do more to get them home.
The Trump administration is telling Americans to leave the region, and families would love to, but they haven’t been able to get out.
Stacey Schuhwerk of Hingham has been sheltering in place in a Doha hotel since Saturday.
“We hear the missiles outside,” she said. “We can see them.”
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The Hingham mother and her son are among nearly 1,600 Americans trapped in the Middle East with no way to get home.
“Airspace is shut down. There’s no planes,” said Schuhwerk. “There’s no way to leave.”
Flights between Boston and the Middle East are canceled or delayed as travelers express anxiety over the conflict.
At first, U.S. officials told people to shelter in place and register with the State Department — something Schuhwerk did days ago.
“There’s no help there. The last time we called was 20 minutes ago, and they continue to say that ‘We don’t know anything about any plans for government help to get people out,’” she said.
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Embassies and consulates across the region — including the U.S. Embassy in Israel — have now suspended services, saying they simply can’t get Americans out.
“They did not have a plan to conduct this war, and they clearly did not have a plan as to how to evacuate innocent families,” Markey said.
The senator says his office is hearing from Massachusetts families, and he’s pressuring the Trump administration to come up with an evacuation plan fast.
“We are going to apply that pressure on the State Department until every American who wants to leave that region is out,” he said.
Back in Doha, Schuhwerk keeps watching the war outside her window.
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“The talk here is ‘How much defensive ammunition’s left?’ Good question, you know, because the missiles aren’t stopping,” she said. “So how long are we going to be safe here?”
With no clear end to this conflict, she’s worried she could be stuck there for weeks.
Happy Tuesday! While today started off dry, we’re already looking at snow out there across the area. While this event will primarily stay as rain on the Cape and islands, it will be an icy mix of snow, ice and rain for the rest of us.
The rain/snow line will continue to advance from the south to the north as the evening progresses. Before the changeover, there will be a quick coating to 2 inches for most of our area.
The threshold between the snow and rain will feature sleet and freezing rain, leading to that icing.
For the rest of the night, there will primarily be rain with continued pockets of freezing rain, leading to increasing spotty ice accretion. Be extremely careful on roads, especially since switching between rain and freezing rain can wash off any road salt.
The rain and freezing rain will exit by 6 a.m. Wednesday, but temperatures will still be close to freezing during the morning commute, so watch out for some spotty black ice.
The rest of Wednesday will be really nice! Highs will warm up to the mid 50s with the help of ample sun.
Thursday we start off in the mid 20s and top off in the mid 40s. We’ll be partly sunny with another chance for some wintry weather Thursday night. This primarily looks like some rain and freezing rain, rather than the triple threat with snow too. We’ll keep an eye on that for you.
That will continue into Friday morning. The rest of Friday: cloudy with a chance for a spot shower and highs cooler again in the upper 30s. Saturday will be dry, breezy and cloudy but gorgeous near 50 degrees! There’s a chance for some rain showers Saturday night. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward an hour before you to go bed!
Sunday we start the day mild in the 40s and make it all the way into the upper 50s with more sun. Monday and Tuesday both look bright and in the 60s! Stay tuned.
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