Healey seeks $425M to keep up with shelter costs

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. AP

By COLIN A. YOUNG

State House News Service

Published: 01-07-2025 3:55 PM

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey filed a supplemental spending bill Monday, seeking another $425 million from a reserve account to keep the maxed-out emergency assistance shelter program running for the next six months.

Healey’s office announced in November a series of changes that the state plans to make to further shorten the length of stay in traditional shelter sites and to phase out the use of hotels and motels in the emergency assistance program. The changes stem from the broad recommendations of the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs, which was tasked by lawmakers with curbing the surging costs to the system caused by an influx of migrant families to Massachusetts over the last two years.

The administration hopes the changes, many of which are included in the supplemental budget the governor filed Monday, will help reduce shelter costs to about $400 million from roughly $1 billion this year and last.

“We appreciate the Legislature’s consideration of this proposal, and we continue to call on the federal government to act on a bipartisan border security bill because Massachusetts taxpayers should not be footing the bill for this federal problem,” Healey said in a statement.

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