Mass. motel and hotel shelters will close this summer
Photo | Courtesy of Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
The Massachusetts State House
The state will close its remaining motel and hotel shelters this summer, Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday, as the governor and lawmakers have imposed restrictions on the emergency housing system over the past year and family enrollment has declined.
Thirty-two hotel shelters remain, down from a peak of 100 in the summer of 2023. Healey set a goal this year to eliminate the use of hotels and motels in the Emergency Assistance shelter system by the end of 2025.
A press release from the Healey administration says the total number of families in shelter recently dropped below 5,000 for the first time since July 2023, and is expected to drop below 4,000 families this summer.
"Since the start of 2025, double the number of families have exited shelter (approximately 2,500) than have entered shelter (approximately 1,100). Approximately 85-90 percent of families seeking shelter are now longtime Massachusetts families," it says.
Caseloads exploded at the end of 2022, as a surge of immigration strained the system. Healey declared a state of emergency in 2023. The state has spent about $1 billion annually on the system for the past two years, and Democrats have turned to more restrictive measures to control enrollment and curb costs.
Healey unilaterally capped the number of families the system could hold at 7,500 in the fall of 2023 and state officials have tightened eligibility, limited how long families can stay, and implemented stricter security.
"When we took office, homeless families were being placed in hotel shelters across the state," Healey said in a statement. "A hotel is no place to raise a family, and they are the least cost effective. That’s why we implemented reforms to lower caseloads and the cost of the shelter system. We also promised to close all hotel shelters by the end of the year. I’m pleased that we are ahead of schedule, with more families getting jobs and moving to stable housing."
Asked about the administration's announcement, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues pointed to the Legislature's passage of reforms that he said led to "real material changes in the number of occupants in the EA system."
"We are appropriating the same as the House, $275 million, in that system this year," Rodrigues said. "We are hopefully not going to have to supplement that in the future. So kudos to the administration. We were expecting all of the hotels to be, stop using hotels for shelter sometime by the end of the calendar year, not by the end of summer. That's good."
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