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A shelter funding and reform bill awaiting Gov. Maura Healey’s signature will keep the state’s system running, but people who work in New Bedford’s shelter organizations say it won’t fix the overwhelming demand.
Local lawmakers say the bill is not a long-term solution. They believe the federal government needs to address the influx of immigrants that’s adding demand to the shelter system. Republicans believe the state needs to tighten standards even more.
The bill, which the House and Senate finalized Tuesday, would supply $425 million in funds for the state’s family shelter system, which ran out of money at the end of January. It would require Massachusetts criminal background checks for everyone entering the system prior to placement. It would also place a 4,000-family cap on shelters for 2026. The system was serving over 6,000 families at the end of last month.
The bill’s restrictions pose some challenges to the state’s right-to-shelter law, which has guaranteed emergency housing to homeless families and pregnant women since 1983.
The Emergency Assistance shelter system ran through $1 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. The emergency funding is supposed to carry it through the end of the current 2025 fiscal year, which ends June 30. The state had already approved about a half-billion dollars for the system this fiscal year. The unexpected financial strain came from an influx of migrants and a worsening housing crisis.
Locally, the state placed homeless families in several hotels, including the Seaport Inn Resort & Marina in Fairhaven, until early 2024, when it moved them to a new shelter in Lowell.
“It really is a problem of not only providing emergency shelter for those residents of Massachusetts that have been here for a long time, but those new legal residents that have come through the migrant process,” said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael J. Rodrigues, D-Westport.
“What’s frustrating is that Massachusetts does not control that process,” Rodrigues said in an interview with The Light. “That’s controlled on the federal level, and lack of action from Congress has led to this inflow of a large number of migrants … they make the rules, but they don’t pay for the consequences.”
Rep. Mark Sylvia, D-Fairhaven, said while the Emergency Assistance program serves registered immigrants and asylum seekers, the program “is focused on” the many long-term residents of the commonwealth who need the state’s support.
“Are we all frustrated that we still have to provide more supplemental funding? 100%,” said Sylvia. “Was it important that the House added more reforms to make sure that we’re addressing some of the issues that have come up over the course of the last several months? 100%.”
An influx of migrants has strained the system, but people who work in New Bedford area shelter systems — not those funded by the Emergency Assistance program — said the bigger strain came from poverty and a lack of affordable housing.
“The faces of those that are facing housing instability and challenges right now have changed,” said Danielle Brown, program director for Steppingstone, a local organization that offers counseling and addiction, housing and homeless services.
Brown said the profile of people looking for shelter has changed throughout the housing crisis. More and more, she said, she sees “hardworking people” with no substance use or criminal backgrounds, who just can’t afford to stay in their homes.
Brown advocates for families trying to get into Emergency Assistance and finds funding to house them, usually in motels, while they wait to hear back from the state.
The reform bill would grant an automatic 30-day stay in temporary housing while applicants gather documents newly required for housing approval, such as those that prove Massachusetts residency and intent to stay in the state.
Local legislators criticize parts of the bill
The bill, which passed almost entirely along party lines, faced strong opposition from the Republican minorities in both the House and the Senate, who wanted to broaden criminal background checks for shelter residents.
The bill would give the Healey administration authority to restrict eligibility and tighten security. House Republicans proposed that the bill should allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers into shelters to remove undocumented immigrants. Republicans also wanted to offer less funding until reforms were implemented.
“I personally was very disappointed in it,” Sen. Kelly Dooner, R-Taunton, said of the reform bill. “I don’t think it went far enough in addressing safety concerns with background checks, something that I’ve been very vocal on for the past year and a half.”
“Our system is just so flawed here in Massachusetts,” Dooner said. “So while I’m happy to see that some steps are being taken in the right direction, we still have a long way to go with the shelter system and the reform needed with it.”
But Rep. Steven Ouellette, D-Westport, who voted for the bill, said he felt the bill’s requirement of Massachusetts criminal background checks for all people entering the system is overkill.
“It went, in my opinion, over the top,” Ouellette said. “It just went too far.”
In-depth background checks, he said, could leave people on hold, unable to get assistance.
The bill would institute a competitive bidding process for Emergency Assistance program services from different providers. The system drew criticism for no-bid contracts in the past. It would require the Healey administration to create a plan to phase out the use of hotels and motels as shelter sites. It also would limit family shelter stays to six months, with a few exceptions.
Currently, a stay in the system is capped at nine months. Brown said this is already an unrealistic timeline for families to find affordable housing. She noted about half of the people she works with who apply for the Emergency Assistance program are rejected for various eligibility reasons. Many of them, she said, are above the minimum income requirement.
The Emergency Assistance program requires families’ gross monthly income be at or below 115% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of five, that amounts to $3,608, or $43,296 annually. Brown said a lot of families are above this mark and still can’t make New Bedford rent.
How local organizations help homeless families and single adults
Local shelter and assistance organizations fall under the umbrella of the Bristol County Continuum of Care. Many of these organizations, including Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction (PAACA) and Steppingstone, cater mainly to single adults who need shelter, but they also help families trying to get into the state’s Emergency Assistance program. Catholic Charities Diocese of Fall River operates individual and emergency shelters, a meal center in New Bedford, and Emergency Assistance family shelters licensed through the state program.
Without the state maintaining the Emergency Assistance program, providers agree the overflow to their shelters would be much worse. But even with the state family program, they’re dealing with too big an overflow.
The continuum opens shelters whenever the weather is below 30 degrees in actual temperature or in feel, according to Rev. David Lima, executive minister of the Inter-Church Council of Greater New Bedford, who sits on the continuum’s executive committee. As of Feb. 20, the continuum’s shelters had been open for its 67th consecutive night, a record last broken in 2013.
Families make up a smaller proportion of the homeless population than individuals, said Carl Alves, CEO of PAACA, and they tend to get more support than individuals.
Many organizations in the continuum are dealing with a greater demand for individual shelter than they are equipped for. Currently, Alves said, the continuum doesn’t have enough beds for all the people looking for shelter.
“We’re just kind of knuckling down,” Alves said. “People just want to do the best we can for the least of our brothers, and we do what we can. If we can’t house them, then maybe we can give them a warm place to be and some food.”
Four housing advocates working in the continuum said that supplemental funding for the Emergency Assistance system is necessary, but won’t fix the larger problem.
“I really don’t think the whole state shelter system as it stands is really a long-term solution,” Brown said. “It’s just a safety net. … It’s not designed for any stability.”
Abigail Pritchard is a graduate student in journalism at Boston University, covering state government for The Light as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.
The problem in my opinion is that we allow people to enter this country illegally. There are immigration laws that are being ignored instead of enforced. Then these lawbreakers are given free transportation to states and cities whose elected officials force hard working taxpayers to pay for their free housing, food, medical care, education, cell phones, clothing,and more. Meanwhile we have legal long-term citizens and veterans who are being ignored or are not able to obtain the same. Billions of dollars a year to house and care for criminals who broke federal immigration laws. As long as we keep providing all the free stuff, they will keep coming. What could help reduce some of the homeless issues and housing problems, is to stop the influx of illegals to locations that already have a short supply of available housing. This would not be a total solution to the problem but could help. The definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
The federal tax payers should never be obligated to pay higher taxes due to funding shortages caused by sanctuary cities and sanctuary states, if these liberal socialist Democrats want to fund the needs of illegal aliens, then they can pay for it themselves. If these right to shelter laws are not changed, then you’ll always have this problem, if MA was not a sanctuary state, or didn’t have a “Right to Shelter” law, there wouldn’t be a problem.
I can’t wait to see the fallout from the wrong decisions made by Democrats AGAIN, and federal funds are stopped completely, because there was no spending in the budget that was meant to be used for illegal immigrants.