Massachusetts

Shelter policy is cruel and harmful – The Boston Globe

Published

2 years ago

August 3, 2024

Shelter policy is cruel and harmful – The Boston Globe

Last week, Governor Maura Healey announced a new policy that will drastically limit children’s and families’ access to Emergency Assistance shelters and state-funded overflow shelters. Under the policy, which went into effect Aug. 1, many families with children who are experiencing homelessness will be faced with a stark choice. Eligible families can choose to stay for five days in an overflow shelter (with very limited opportunities for short-term extensions) or remain unsheltered and hope that they quickly come up to the top of the waiting list for a longer term Emergency Assistance shelter placement.

If a family stays five days in an overflow shelter, they not only will have to leave rapidly (almost by definition before they have regained stability) but they also will be deemed ineligible for Emergency Assistance shelter for at least six months. Anyone who lives in Massachusetts knows that it will be impossible for most families who have nowhere else to go to find a safe place to live within five days.

The dramatic decisions by the administration to discourage families from accessing overflow shelters and to abruptly limit the stays of families who do choose that option are particularly punitive as the only families who have been able to access overflow shelters are those who state officials have deemed eligible for Emergency Assistance shelter after a rigorous application process and who the Commonwealth has placed on the waiting list due to state-imposed capacity constraints.

Last October, Healey instituted a cap of 7,500 families in the Emergency Assistance program, the first such limit in the program’s 40-year history. In November, the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities began placing eligible families on a waiting list for longer-term shelter. Recognizing the dangers of unsheltered homelessness and the state’s obligations under the Commonwealth’s landmark 1983 right-to-shelter law, the Legislature intervened last December to require the administration to establish overflow shelters for families on the Emergency Assistance waiting list.

While the capacity of overflow shelters has never been to scale, these sites have been a lifesaving layer in the state’s response to family homelessness over the past year, keeping children and parents off the streets during the freezing cold nights of winter, through summer heat waves, and on the days in between. Indeed, there is never a good time to experience unsheltered homelessness in the Commonwealth. This can be attested to by the hundreds of children and parents who slept on the floor of Logan Airport for months until the administration worked to place those families in overflow shelters while barring additional families and individuals from accessing Logan as a place of last resort starting in July.

Before the Commonwealth terminates the first families from the overflow shelters next week, the governor should use the intervening days to reconsider and rescind this harmful policy. Healey should commit to having a dialogue with the families who will be most directly impacted and engage advocates, providers, and key legislators about alternatives that truly center the safety and dignity of children and families experiencing homelessness.

The Legislature should intercede to uphold the spirit of the state’s landmark 1983 right-to-shelter law by securing access to shelter for all eligible families, committing to providing the needed funding to keep the doors of shelters open, and making bold investments in the homelessness prevention resources, long-term housing, and supportive services that children, families, and communities need and deserve.

Families should not have to resort to sleeping in hospital emergency rooms, bus stations, train stations, airports, cars, and other places not meant for human habitation.

While state lawmakers continue to pressure federal officials to reform the nation’s immigration system and better support immigrants, refugees, and children and adults seeking asylum, the state must simultaneously stabilize rents, uplift communities, eliminate inequities, and uphold the basic human rights of shelter and housing for everyone who calls Massachusetts home.

Kelly Turley is associate director of Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

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Massachusetts

Massachusetts town near Gillette Stadium presses for World Cup security funding

Published

3 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Massachusetts town near Gillette Stadium presses for World Cup security funding

Up the road from Gillette Stadium, a town neighboring Foxboro is pressing for funding to meet public safety demands arising from the World Cup, with the first match just over a month away.

Walpole’s state delegation has written a letter to the state Office of Travel and Tourism requesting approval of the town’s request for nearly $200,000 to support “essential public safety personnel,” as officials expect “significant spillover impacts” from the premier soccer tournament.

As the Walpole/Foxboro town line on Route 1 is a handful of miles north of Gillette Stadium, officials are expecting increased traffic congestion and pedestrian activity to amount to “heightened public safety demands.”

“As outlined in the Town’s proposal,” the state delegation wrote in the letter it sent to the state last week, “Walpole will play a critical role in ensuring safe and efficient operations for both residents and visitors.”

“This funding will help close a critical gap and ensure that Walpole can safely support this internationally significant event,” the delegation added.

The state Office of Travel and Tourism confirmed to the Herald that it received the letter from state Reps. John H. Rogers, Paul McMurtry, Ted Philips and Marcus Vaughn and Sen. Mike Rush. The office said it will announce decisions in the coming weeks about round two of the $2 million grant program that supports municipal public safety needs tied to the World Cup.

The first round of the program, a $10 million competitive initiative, awarded funding earlier this year to 17 communities to support tournament-related events, including fan festivals, watch parties and regional activations.

This comes after the Foxboro Select Board battled the Boston Soccer 2026 nonprofit host committee and Kraft Sports & Entertainment, which operates Gillette Stadium, for months to ensure it received full funding to cover all security personnel and equipment.

In mid-March, the David vs. Goliath fight concluded, with Boston Soccer 2026 and the Krafts agreeing to cover Foxboro’s $7.8 million request.

Gillette, which will be rebranded as “Boston Stadium,” is set to host seven matches – five in the group stage and two knockout games – between June 13 and July 9. The World Cup is considered a SEAR 1 event, the highest risk level for public gatherings in the country.

“These matches will bring an excitement that this town has never seen,” Foxboro Police Chief Michael Grace said before the Select Board voted to grant an entertainment license for the matches to go on.

Gillette Stadium. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

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Massachusetts

The best Massachusetts high schools for athletes? According to one study, here are top 25

Published

15 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

The best Massachusetts high schools for athletes? According to one study, here are top 25

No other city in the country boasts more championships than Boston, giving Massachusetts a sporting pedigree unlike any other.

What’s unique about many of the state is that several of the stars from those championship-winning teams were Massachusetts natives.

Before they were winning the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, World Series or a gold medal, those athletes were high school standouts.

Which high schools in Massachusetts are considered the best for athletes today?

According to a study conducted by Niche, which accounts for survey feedback from students and parents—accounting for “reviews of athletics, number of state championships, student participation in athletics, and the number of sports offered at the school”—and data from the U.S. Department of Education, these are the top 25.

25. Hanover High School

Total number of sports: 29

24. Tewksbury Memorial High School

Total number of sports: 24

23. Medfield Senior High School

Total number of sports: 27

22. North Reading High School

Total number of sports: 26

21. Cushing Academy (Ashburnham)

Total number of sports: 20

20. Minnechaug Regional High School (Wilbraham)

Total number of sports: 30

19. Franklin High School

Total number of sports: 20

18. Shrewsbury Senior High School

Total number of sports: 34

17. Longmeadow High School

Total number of sports: 28

16. Bishop Feehan High School (Attleboro)

Total number of sports: 27

15. Wellesley Senior High School

Total number of sports: 36

14. Mansfield High School

Total number of sports: 22

13. Billerica Memorial High School

Total number of sports: 23

12. St. Sebastian’s School (Needham)

Total number of sports: 13

11. Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School

Total number of sports: 32

10. Deerfield Academy

Total number of sports: 37

9. Nashoba Regional High School (Bolton)

Total number of sports: 30

8. Belmont Hill School

Total number of sports: 16

7. Duxbury High School

Total number of sports: 30

6. Notre Dame Academy (Hingham)

Total number of sports: 19

5. Central Catholic High School (Lawrence)

Total number of sports: 30

4. Catholic Memorial (West Roxbury)

Total number of sports: 15

3. Xaverian Brothers High School (Westwood)

Total number of sports: 17

2. Boston College High School

Total number of sports: 17

1. St. John’s Prep (Danvers)

Total number of sports: 22

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Massachusetts

Family of fallen Massachusetts State Trooper attends ceremony remembering those killed in the line of duty – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

Published

1 day ago

May 8, 2026

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Family of fallen Massachusetts State Trooper attends ceremony remembering those killed in the line of duty – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

BOSTON (WHDH) – It was a powerful moment on Friday during the annual Law-Enforcement Memorial Ceremony at the State House, as the ceremony remembered those lost in the line of duty, including State Trooper Kevin Trainor.

Trainor was killed in a wrong-way crash this week. Trainor’s family was in attendance.

“We’re here today with the Trainor family as another tragedy and agonizing time in policing has found us,” Larry Calderone, Boston Police Union President, said.

The day brought a moment to pause and remember the 30-year-old who is being hailed a hero after he was struck and killed Wednesday morning on Route 1 in Lynnfield.

“We’ve lost a brother,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said.

The fallen trooper’s fiancée spoke out for the first time since losing the love of her life. She posted to social media, “I am beyond proud of the amount of love you have been given by those who loved and cared about you shows us who you really were, a friend, a partner, a brother, a son, and a hero. You weren’t just a hero to me but a hero to all.”

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