Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has spent more than $700 million this fiscal year to house locals, families, and migrants in the state’s emergency shelter system, according to publicly available data.
In total, the state has spent $706.8 million on the emergency housing assistance program.
Under Massachusetts’s right-to-shelter law, the state is required to provide shelter if it is needed, such as if a family is homeless or if someone is pregnant. This applies to all Massachusetts residents, whether they are locals or migrants.
The state spent $537 million on direct shelter payments, according to the data, which was updated on April 17. This is the highest amount of spending as part of the $706.8 million. The second highest amount of spending this year was for HomeBASE at $77 million.
HomeBASE is a program designed to help those in shelters seek stable housing.
The total shelter spending is below the projected $1 billion in costs the administration anticipated for the 2025 budget year. It is also lower than the total amount of money spent on the emergency housing assistance program in the 2024 budget year, which came in at $894 million, according to the data.
What is not included in the data is how much spending will be projected for the 2026 budget year.
Democrats in the state House have proposed putting $275 million into the system in their fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, according to the Boston Globe.
The total number of families in shelters, hotels or motels as of April 17 is 4,935, according to the report.
The Healey administration announced on April 16 that the number of people in shelters dropped below 5,000 for the first time since July 2023.
“We inherited an Emergency Shelter System that was on an unsustainable path,” said Healey. “We’ve taken decisive action to reduce the number of families in shelter and lower the cost of the system – and we’re getting results. Caseload is now down by 33 percent from its peak, and we have already reduced the use of costly hotels by more than half.”
In March, the Healey administration announced it had set a cap of 5,800 families in the shelter system, down from the previous threshold of 7,500 families.
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