Gov. Maura Healey’s administration said Friday it believed it had fulfilled a requirement to set up an overflow site for families with children and pregnant people waiting for placement in Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system.
Clearing the overflow site hurdle would allow the administration to access millions more in already allocated state funds to respond to the “ongoing humanitarian crisis and influx of families seeking shelter,” according to state law.
A Healey spokesperson confirmed the administration felt it had complied with the statutory requirement to set up one or multiple locations as the waitlist for shelter hit 400 families as of Friday.
“Our administration has set up safety net sites for families who need a place to stay, and we will continue to work closely with our local, state and federal partners to support the needs of families in Massachusetts,” Healey spokeswoman Karissa Hand said in a statement.
Satisfying a component of a bill the Legislature passed earlier this year and Healey signed into law this month comes as more than 40 families received services Thursday night at an overnight shelter in Cambridge.
The site, set up last week inside a former courthouse that also houses the Middlesex Registry of Deeds, features the basics like cots for guests to sleep on, the Healey administration said earlier this month when it announced the location on Cambridge Street would serve as a shelter.
Healey faced a Dec. 31 deadline to create one or multiple overflow sites for families waiting for placement in Massachusetts’ larger emergency shelter system, which is partly propped up by a network of hotels and motels.
The Legislature handed the administration $50 million for an overflow site and required officials to set one up before hundreds of millions more in state dollars could be accessed. The shelter dollars proved to be a flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans this fall.
House Speaker Ron Mariano said he is “hopeful” that families on the state-run waitlist are being provided with a safe place to sleep as required by legislation Healey signed into law at the start of December.
“We will continue to monitor the steps taken to address the shelter crisis, including the required reports, to help ensure that there are operational overflow sites through the end of the fiscal year,” Mariano said in a statement.
The emergency shelter system was serving 7,505 families as of Thursday, according to state data, just over the 7,500 family limit Healey imposed earlier this year.
State officials contracted AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, an Australian-based company, to provide services at the Cambridge shelter. The company has also provided services at a shelter site in Quincy.
Rep. Mike Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat whose district covers the shelter, said earlier this week on his blog that a Christmas tree had been set up inside the building, children received gifts over the holiday, and a Haitian pastor held a service for families.
“Showers have been set up at MIT and transportation was smooth on Sunday and again this morning,” Connolly wrote.