A Republican state lawmaker accused the Healey administration of providing a “woefully incomplete” response to a request for the costs associated with housing migrant families in 38 hotels and motels on an emergency basis.
A spokesperson for Gov. Maura Healey pushed back against Rep. Peter Durant, saying the Spencer Republican agreed to a pared-down “narrative” answer to a records request asking for the number of hotels and motels contracted with the state to house migrant families and the total cost to taxpayers.
Durant said the administration did outline the cities and towns that currently have state-contracted hotels for migrants, undocumented immigrants, refugees, and displaced families. But there is “so much more that we requested, and so much more information that we need,” he said.
“This is about what we’re spending in taxpayers’ dollars to house, feed, secure those who are in the country illegally,” said Durant, who is running for a state Senate seat in Central Massachusetts. “I think we’ve got some good information but how many of these 1,300 families are illegal?”
The governor’s office regularly speaks with records requesters to narrow the scope of their requests in an attempt to expedite responses.
“The governor’s office reached an agreement with Rep. Durant’s office to provide direct answers to his questions to expedite the process for responding to his request,” said Karissa Hand, a spokesperson for Healey.
The state reported 1,201 migrant families living in motels as of Monday, according to publicly available data from the state’s Division of Housing Stabilization. Nineteen families entered the emergency shelter system on Monday — six went directly to shelters and 13 were “placed presumptively,” the data showed.
But it is still unclear how much the state is spending on the hotels and motels for migrants arriving in Massachusetts who need emergency shelter. A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said 38 hotels and motels across 28 different municipalities are currently contracted with the state.
The Healey administration did not immediately provide a total figure to the Herald on Tuesday in response to follow-up questions but said it does track how much the state is spending on hotels and motels for new arrivals. A total number for emergency assistance shelter spending could be provided in the future, the HLC spokesperson said.
The Herald requested the same information as Durant on May 31, including the number of hotels and motels contracted with the state to house migrants, undocumented immigrants, and refugees; the number of hotels the state was presently paying for; and the specific hotels being used, among other things.
The Herald also agreed to the same “narrative” response in which the administration did not say how much it had spent on housing migrant families, undocumented immigrants, or refugees in hotels or motels.
Although a total cost was not provided, one contract for a Holiday Inn in Taunton obtained by the Herald offers some insight.
In a document dated May 5, the Department of Housing and Community Development — now known as the Office of Housing and Livable Communities — said the total estimated cost for housing people at the hotel would reach $2.6 million in fiscal year 2023 and $10.7 million in fiscal 2024.
The hotel agreed to provide three meals a day, weekly housekeeping, toiletries, access to all common spaces excluding the pool and fitness centers, and direct any media requests “to DHCD and not to respond directly to any media request for comment with respect to DHCD, any EA family, or the EA program.”
The department agreed to provide overnight security, onsite case management and housing search services, and to manage referrals for placement in the Taunton hotels.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed to reimburse communities for school-related costs associated with emergency assistance shelter, according to the Healey administration.
In the response to the Herald, the administration said it could not calculate the average stay of families in state-funded hotels and motels because “length of stay can only be calculated after a family’s homelessness episode is completed.”
“Systemwide, among families who exited EA shelter in fiscal year [2023], average length of stay in EA was approximately 14 months,” the administration said.
The Healey administration said Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state, which means officials are legally obligated to provide eligible families shelter through the emergency assistance program.
“The uptick in newly-arrived families coupled with challenging housing market conditions in the commonwealth, among other factors, have resulted in a sizable increase in families seeking shelter in the EA system,” the administration said. “As a consequence of this, the shelter system is strained and we are struggling to not only find physical shelter space, but also shelter providers capable of efficiently and effectively connecting families with the robust services necessary for child and family health and well-being and long-term stability.”
Massachusetts has experienced “an increase” in Migrant families arriving over the past year in need of assistance, particularly those fleeing violence and instability in their home countries, state officials said.
Most new arrivals are coming from Haiti and countries in Central and South America because of political instability and worsening conditions back home, said Kate Froehlich, a new arrivals specialist with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
“There’s a lot of instability politically. I think climate change is starting to play a role in migration, all of those different things,” Froehlich told the Herald. “There definitely is an uptick that we have for sure witnessed over the past year.”
That influx put a strain on the local emergency shelter system, which Froehlich said is not a long-term solution to the uptick in people arriving in Massachusetts.
“It is for sure better than anything, but families are in cramped hotel, motel rooms without access to a kitchen, without access to privacy,” she said. “These are not ideal conditions for anyone to be living in but they’re better than nothing.”
The state contracted with hotels and motels in Burlington, Chelsea, Chicopee, Concord, Dedham, Greenfield, Holyoke, Kingston, Marlborough, Methuen, Norton, Norwood, Peabody, Plymouth, Revere, Saugus, Shrewsbury, Sturbridge, Taunton, Waltham, West Springfield, Westborough, Woburn, and Worcester.
Officials declined to provide the exact names or addresses of the hotels and motels, citing an exemption to the public records law that allows the state to withhold documents containing personal and medical information that, if released, would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”