MA Emergency Shelter Cap Allowed To Continue: Judge

BOSTON, MA — A Suffolk County Superior Court judge is allowing Gov. Maura Healey's plan to cap new emergency shelter beds to move forward after a legal advocacy group sued the state last week to stop it.

Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee in a ruling released Wednesday afternoon denied Lawyers for Civil Rights request for an emergency restraining order to stop the cap from going into effect, according to State House News Service.

Last month, Healey said the state would stop adding new emergency shelter beds on Nov. 1. Healey has said the system is at-capacity and is costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Massachusetts is the only state with a right-to-shelter law guaranteeing families and pregnant women space in a shelter if they need it. Now, the state will begin turning away families if there are no spaces available above a cap of about 7,500 families. There were about 7,300 as of Monday.

State officials have begun circulating fliers in English, Spanish and other languages alerting shelter-seekers that they're out of luck.

"The Massachusetts Emergency Assistance family shelter system does not have enough space to shelter every family right away. While we cannot provide shelter for you tonight, we want to help you find other options for housing," the flier says.

The flier offers three options to shelter-seekers: go back to wherever the family stayed the previous night, apply for a rental assistance program called HomeBASE, or apply for either food stamps (also called SNAP) or cash assistance. The flier also recommends calling the 211 hotline, or using the website www.findhelp.org.

Families that need shelter will also be able to join a waiting list as spaces open. Healey and other state officials say they will attempt to move families staying in shelters into permanent housing as soon as possible, although Massachusetts is in the midst of a rental housing shortage.