City Councilors From Across MA Ask Healey To End New 5-Day Shelter Policy: Letter

WORCESTER, MA — Members of the Worcester City Council and school committee are joining elected officials from Boston and Chelsea to ask Gov. Maura Healey to rescind new shelter stay limits that went into effect last week, saying the new policy puts families on a path toward homelessness.

The elected officials sent individual letters to Healey on Wednesday, amid a week of protests after the 5-day shelter stay limits that began Aug. 1.

Worcester city councilors Thu Nguyen, Etel Haxhiaj, Jenny Pacillo and Khrystian King and school committee members Sue Coghlin Mailman and Vanessa Alvarez signed the local letter sent to Healey. No other members of either the Worcester council or school committee had signed before an 11 a.m. deadline Wednesday.

"Housing is a human right, and we cannot sit idly by when faced with a policy that may result in young children being forced to sleep on our city streets," the letter said. "As municipal leaders, we have seen our community work tirelessly to support unhoused families, regardless of immigration status. Massachusetts has long served as a beacon for immigrants by sheltering them and has reaped enormous benefits from the recent migration of large groups who have come here from places like Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, and who have thrived in our state."

The letter sent by officials in Chelsea was signed by six city councilors and nine school committee members. Nine of Boston's 13-member city council signed that city's letter. Somerville councilor Judy Pineda Neufeld, Malden councilor, Carey McDonald, Cambridge councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Newton councilors Martha Bixby and Bill Humphrey, Little School Committee member Jeanine Wood, and Melrose councilor Maya Jamaleddine also signed on.

Many of the municipal leaders said they fear a rise in homelessness due to the new policy.

"These families deserve and need our help, and our state government needs to either support them or provide municipalities with the resources to do so. If not, we will be left with the same question these families are facing: where should they go? If the answer is 'to the streets,' we will not stand for it," Chelsea's letter said.

The new five-day limit applies to "respite centers" in Chelsea, Lexington and Cambridge and at the former state prison in Norfolk. Those sites are a waypoint for people attempting to enter the state's family shelter system, and before Aug. 1, hosted people for up to 30 days. The state has capped the family shelter system at 7,500 people, and has been very close to that capacity in recent months, requiring families to join waitlists for spots.

According to the Boston Globe, 57 migrant families are scheduled to be evicted from respite centers by Friday. The state is offering extended 30-day stays for some families, but typically only if they have a lease for a new apartment — a difficult hurdle in a state that was recently rated as having the highest cost of living in the U.S. second only to Hawaii. The state also offers other assistance, including paying for flights for families to get to places where they have relatives. Respite center visitors will also be directed toward homeBASE, a state housing subsidy for families only.

The Healey administration has said the new policy is necessary because the state is out of room. The emergency family shelter system, which is enshrined in state law, could cost the state up to $1 billion in fiscal year 2025, which ends June 30, 2025.

"Massachusetts is out of shelter space, and we simply cannot afford the current size of this system," Healey said in a news release announcing the policy.

The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute week of protests on the policy will culminate Thursday with a demonstration on Beacon Hill, including a "speak out" outside Healey's office.

"We urge you to work with advocates, organizers, and state and local leaders to develop thoughtful and humane policies that do not leave families with children trying to find the safest alleyway to sleep at night. We are committed to working with you to create real solutions that will benefit and better the livelihood of all our residents in Massachusetts," the Worcester letter to Healey concluded.