Families who have been in state-funded shelters for nine months or longer will start to receive notices next month that they are no longer eligible to stay in the system, according to Healey administration officials.
About 4,000 families, including Massachusetts residents and migrants from other countries, have been in emergency shelters for more time than is permitted by law approved earlier this year. Housing officials expect the first families will be kicked out of shelter around Sept. 29.
“This policy is a responsible measure to address the capacity and fiscal constraints of our state’s emergency assistance system,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “As Congress has repeatedly failed to act on this federal problem, Massachusetts has been going above and beyond – helping thousands of immigrants get work authorizations, jobs and ESOL classes.”
But it is still unclear what other specific criteria the state may be using outside of the length of a family’s stay in shelter to determine which people receive notices first that their time is up.
Senior administration officials said one of the top considerations is the amount of time a family has been in shelter and whether or not they have a stable place to go if they are removed. Officials said they also plan to spread out shelter removals between geographic areas.
At the start, only 150 families will removed from shelters each month before that is eventually ramped up to 150 a week as lawmakers on Beacon Hill originally intended.
Emergency shelter providers, oftentimes nonprofit organizations spread across Massachusetts, are tasked with delivering one of three different types of removal notices to families 90 days before their last scheduled day in the system, according to guidance published Wednesday afternoon.
Families will have a chance to apply for up to two 90-day extensions if they receive a notice they are no longer eligible for state-run shelters.
A hardship waiver will also shelter residents up to 120 days of extra time once they have exhausted the two 90-day extensions, according to the guidance.
An influx of migrants over the past year has put an enormous strain on the state-funded shelters and prompted the Healey administration to quickly expand a network that was initially set up to handle about 3,500 families with children or pregnant women as required under state law.
There were 7,387 families in the emergency shelter system as of June 6, according to a dashboard maintained by the state.
This is a developing story…
