Massachusetts Shelters 7500 Families During the Migrant Crisis
Boston Globe
In August, there was a state of emergency declared because of the numbers in the migrant crisis and the national guard was called in because the numbers increased 80% since the year before.
The numbers kept rising from this point resulting in a new report being published this month to highlight the need for more money for the Emergency Housing Assistance Program.
Gov. Margaret Healey’s Administration published a report on the Emergency Housing Assistance Program that says that there needs to be more monetary assistance to accommodate the nearly 7,500 families currently residing in the state due to the migrant crisis, with more on the waitlist for shelters. These families are spread out through 100 cities in the state of Massachusetts.
The shelters are not entirely filled with migrants, there has been an increase in the need for the shelters in Massachusetts for both migrants and Massachusetts citizens. An estimated half of the spots in the emergency shelters are filled by migrants.
The new rules in Massachusetts prioritize women facing a high-risk pregnancy, families with a member who has a tracheotomy or an infant, and families at risk for domestic violence.
According to the report, Boston has the most families with 1,308 in shelters. Other cities in Boston with migrants are Worcester, Springfield, Lynn, Peabody, Lowell, Framingham, and other cities.
In September, the Healey Administration filed a $250 M supplemental budget request in order to expand the needs of the Emergency Shelter System due to the amount of families that were in the state at that time. Since this time, the amount of people and the budget has grown in order to keep the Emergency Housing program up and running during the next few months.
The Emergency Housing system is set up to have a maximum of 7,500 families at a time, when it hits this point, additional funding is needed in order to avoid run out dates for key programs in the system.
These programs include: shelter and associated services, supplemental housing staff, clinical and safety risk assessments, temporary emergency shelters, family welcome centers, school district reimbursements, immigration and refugee health and community support, immigration and refugee workplace and work authorization programs, and more.
The current length of stay for families is on average exceeding one year, so even with the current level planned, the fiscal year needs to be two years and needs to span a solution from previous fiscal findings.
Currently the state could be spending as much as $2 billion in the next two years in order to properly fund the systems in place. Gov. Healey plans to drain a state escrow account of $700 million in order to properly cover at least a portion of the unpredictable expenses.
“The current average length of stay for families in the system exceeds one year. That means that even with the system’s capacity level established, deficiency needs for EA are a two-fiscal-year problem, requiring a solution that spans FY24 and FY25,” Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz and Housing Secretary Ed Augustus state, “fundamentally, the crisis of family homelessness requires a multi-faceted set of policies including shelter, supportive services, education and workforce training, and affordable housing programs that enable families to leave shelter and ultimately move on to stable housing.”
If nothing changes at this current moment, reports believe that it will cost $1 billion each year to properly fund the state shelter system.
Work Authorization for Migrants
Governor Maura Healey is focusing on getting migrants work authorization during this time. Starting on November 13, Healey’s work authorization clinics started in order to get more migrants the ability to work. The Department of Homeland Security and the Healey Administration has said they have partnered in order to expedite the work authorizations for migrants in order to work towards this goal.
There has also been a call on the Biden Administration to help Massachusetts with this process. The Biden Administration set a team out of Homeland Security members in order to assess the issues in Massachusetts and figure out the states’ needs.
The White House has sped up work authorization permits for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela by shortening the process time to 30 days.
Migrants have reported to want to work in order to provide for their families, contribute to the communities sheltering them, and to find security in the state.
According to the report that the Healey Administration put out, only 813 migrants have work authorizations in Massachusetts as of Dec. 12, 2023.
The Numbers Updated as of Dec. 28
As of Dec. 28, there are 7505 families enrolled in the state migrant crisis, with 12 in just 24 hours.
The types of shelters for families are the traditional shelters that are staffed and contracted by homeless service providers, hotels and motels that are used when the traditional shelters are not available, and the Temporary Emergency Shelter that do not have the same benefits.
There are 3,829 families enrolled in hotels and motels. There are 3643 enrolled in the traditional shelters. There are 33 enrolled in the Temporary Emergency Shelter.
For the 3,829 families enrolled in the hotels and motels, 2310 are provider supported, 1302 are National Guard supported, and 217 have no provider.
Why Migrants Settle in Massachusetts
The reason that migrants are settling in Massachusetts is because Massachusetts is one of the few states in the United States to have a “right-to-shelter” law. Even with this, in October, Gov. Maura Healey asked migrants to not come to Massachusetts and to go elsewhere because there is no room to safely house them.
With this statement, Gov. Healey reassured that the right-to-shelter law is not ending but there is no guarantee for housing if the numbers increase as they were in October.
Massachusetts right-to-shelter law started in 1983 to fulfill then-Gov. Michael Dukakis’s promise in his inaugural address “to put together a statewide effort which will provide the necessities of life to those in desperate need.”
With this law, Massachusetts was the first state to guarantee a place to shelter for every man, woman and child.
When the law started, there were only three state shelters but after 8 years the number went to 105. After the 8 years, Massachusetts is said to be the state that spent more on affordable housing than any state at that point.
This year was the first time in the state’s history that a cap was put on this shelter-in-place because of the high numbers of migrants that are finding refuge in the state. The cap was the 7,500 families that the state currently has the funding for. Any family that comes after the capacity limit of families, migrants will be put on a waitlist for shelters in the state.
Eligibility for Massachusetts Emergency Assistance
Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities is in charge of creating the eligibility for those requesting emergency assistance in Massachusetts.
There are requirements and conditions to be eligible for Massachusetts emergency family shelter system. Individuals seeking shelter are not typically considered eligible for the shelter system.
Families are eligible if:
They are residents of Massachusetts.
If a person is pregnant or has children under 21
A family’s gross income is 115% or less of the Federal Poverty Guidelines
Reasons for needing state shelter:
No fault fire, flood, natural disaster, condemnation or foreclosure
Fleeing domestic violence (current or within past 12 months)
No-fault eviction
Family’s children are exposed to a substantial health and safety risk
Families need to show proof of identity and proof of family relationships in order to be placed in shelters. They also need to provide documents that prove Massachusetts residency; documentation for a cause of homelessness; financial statements for income and assets; and citizenship or immigration documents.
Lawmakers Considering to Change Right-to-Shelter
In November, Massachusetts lawmakers created a commission on Nov. 14 to research and study the right-to-shelter law in order to determine the sustainability of the shelter system in the state. Legislators consider the current crisis a “humanitarian crisis” that is ongoing in the state.
State Sen. John Velis created Amendment 41, the intention is to focus on sustainability as well as the financial impact on communities statewide. When the law was introduced in 1983, the numbers that Massachusetts has today would not have even been considered. The system was not created for the current numbers of people that are needing shelters.
Recommendations based on the findings of the sustainability of the shelter system would need to be made by March 1, 2024 with both Velis’s amendment and the supplementary budget in mind.
The commission is made up of 16 individuals throughout multiple state agencies, lawmakers, and members that are appointed by the governor and the legislative leadership.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr believes that because of this amendment, there is an opening for a bipartisan discussion on the situation and the issues of the shelter system in place.
A different amendment made with the intention to relieve the issues of the shelter system by Sen. Ryan C. Fattman by limiting the right-to-shelter law only for Massachusetts families that have been in the state for a minimum of six months was rejected with a 36-3 vote.
State Sen. Peter Durant would like to consider revising the right-to-shelter law. He would like to change the law to limit the influx of migrants that the state supports. He wants to limit it to migrants and citizens of Massachusetts who have resided in Massachusetts for at least a year. He plans to introduce the bill after state legislators get back from holiday break.