Gov. Maura Healey reduced the cap on the number of families allowed in the state-run shelter system by 1,700 and released regulations that require applicants to the program to consent to a local criminal background check or be barred from receiving benefits.
The rules that took effect Friday come as the number of families in the shelter system has fallen over the past year from a peak of more than 7,500 in the fall of 2023 during a surge of migrant arrivals in Massachusetts and as the state faces increasing scrutiny from Republicans in Washington for its immigration policies.
Healey said the changes “empower our team to keep families, staff and communities safe by enhancing our criminal background check process and disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime.”
“Additionally, we are making real progress when it comes to lowering the cost of this system to taxpayers — and we are on track to hit all of our goals by the end of the year,” she said in a statement. “Massachusetts is managing this federal problem, but Congress needs to act on meaningful immigration reform instead of making Massachusetts taxpayers foot the bill for their failures.”
The first-term Democrat has incrementally restricted access to the state-run shelter system over the past two years, moves that fundamentally altered a program set up under a 1980s-era law to provide immediate housing to homeless families with children and pregnant women.
Healey first restricted state-run shelters to no more than 7,500 families in October 2023 as the number of migrants arriving in Massachusetts who were applying for emergency assistance services skyrocketed.
The demand spiked the cost of the program and prompted Healey and Beacon Hill lawmakers to implement a suite of other policies that attempted to reduce expenses. The administration ultimately spent $856 million in fiscal year 2024 on state-run shelters, according to state data.
State legislators this year approved a $425 million shelter spending bill that also requires the Healey administration to reduce the number of families in shelters to 4,000 by the end of the year. Officials still expect to spend more than $1 billion on shelters in fiscal year 2025.
Housing Secretary Ed Augustus reduced the shelter cap to 5,800 families Friday, arguing in a letter that even with the additional funds, the shelter program does not “have enough space, service providers, or funds to safely … meet the current and projected demand.”
“It continues not to be possible to secure and maintain space that is suitable and safe for use as shelter beyond the system’s current capacity,” he wrote.
The 5,800 cap will stay in effect until July 12 but the administration can extend it if it “determines that the shelter system is still unable to meet all current and projected demand for shelter from eligible families in light of legislative appropriations,” according to the regulations.
The Healey administration said caseload in the shelter system is “at its lowest point since August 2023,” the number of costly hotels and motels being used as temporary sites has been “reduced by half,” and 75% of families seeking shelter are “long-time Massachusetts families.”
There were 5,454 families in state-run shelters as of Thursday, with 3,532 in traditional shelters and 1,922 in hotels and motels, according to state data.
The regulations that took effect Friday also require an individual who is 18 years or older to submit to a criminal offender record information check by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services in order to be eligible for emergency assistance benefits.
“The department shall, prior to taking any adverse action based on CORI results, notify the individual about the adverse action and the opportunity to dispute the accuracy of the CORI results received from DCJIS,” the regulations said. “An individual who appears to be ineligible for emergency assistance benefits under (the regulations) shall not be placed while a dispute is pending.”
Any person 18 or older is also not eligible for emergency shelter if they have been convicted of or have a pending charge for first- or second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonies involving child pornography, sex offenses, human trafficking, or failure to register as a sex offender, felonies involving rape or sexual assault, arson, and kidnapping.
Felonies or misdemeanors involving firearms within the previous six years and felony drug trafficking within the previous three years also disqualify a person from the state-run shelter system, according to the regulations.
The Healey administration said it is working on releasing more guidance and policy changes that will revise the shelter eligibility process, a nod to the spending bill the governor signed earlier this year that gives her the power to rework who and how people access the system.