August 5, 2024

Local housing advocates call on state to reverse restrictions on emergency housing

BY Namu SampathMassLive

SPRINGFIELD — Standing in front of the state’s office building Monday morning, housing activists called on Gov. Maura Healey to make the state’s policies around the shelter program “more humane.”

“You can’t put stipulations on homelessness,” Shaundell Diaz, a Springfield resident who has twice experienced homelessness, told the group of about two dozen gathered in front of the office building.

Last Tuesday, Healey announced that only certain families will be able to stay in the state’s emergency assistance program to accommodate the system’s “continuing capacity constraints,” according to a press release. The changes take effect Aug. 1.

The governor said in a statement last week her administration made the changes due to the large influx of migrants relying on the shelter system, and Congress’ inaction on the issue caused the state to take more drastic measures.

Last year, the state declared a state of emergency due to the demands placed on the shelter system, and in October, Healey said it could not accept more than 7,500 families.

There are over 7,000 families currently enrolled in the state’s shelter system, according to state data.

On Thursday, families who do not fit the priorities listed by the state will have a five-day limit before they must leave the shelter.

“That could leave thousands of families impacted,” said Kelly Turley, the associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Some of the priorities that families must meet in order to stay sheltered in the emergency assistance program include: families that underwent no cause eviction, are at-risk of domestic violence, has a significant medical issue, were the victim of uncontrollable disaster, or have a newborn child.

The families who choose to stay in a “temporary respite center,” located in Chelsea, Lexington, Cambridge and Norfolk, will be “required to wait six months or more for placement in the state’s emergency family shelter system,” a press release from the governor’s office said.

None of the centers are in the western part of the state, but advocates say people across the state will be affected by the change.

“When your time is up, you’re going to have to leave regardless of whether you have a place to go,” said Catherine Ady-Bell, an attorney with Central West Justice Center. “I don’t know where the governor thinks these folks are going to go.”

The families who choose to stay on for the five days will be eligible for the state’s HomeBASE program and “reticketing,” which provides families with transportation to another location where they have friends, family or another option for a safe place to stay.

For Ady-Bell, children who live in the shelters are the priority.

“Every single restriction impacts a child,” she said. “We’re calling on the legislature to stop this.”

She questioned the governor’s reason for the shelter restrictions, saying problems with the system had plagued the state long before the recent influx of migrants.

Diaz, the longtime Springfield resident, explained that when she experienced homelessness in 2012 and again in 2015, she was raising four kids who were under 10 years old.

Her job as a traveling certified nurse assistant was hectic: She put in over 80 hours of work a week, she said.

“It wasn’t because I wasn’t working. It wasn’t because I’m not educated,” she said. “I couldn’t afford my rent.”

Diaz, like many in Springfield and in Western Massachusetts, did not want to leave the city to stay in a shelter in Boston.

“My support systems are here in Springfield,” she said. “We cannot force people to leave their support system, to go other places, to seek shelter.”

Springfield No One Leaves, Homes for All MA, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness organized the action at the state’s office building in Springfield.