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…