The Healey administration will implement another series of major changes to the state’s emergency shelter system starting next week, giving priority to certain Massachusetts families and setting a five-day cap on how long people can stay in overflow sites.
In a move that anti-homelessness advocates worry will increase the number of people with nowhere to safely sleep at night, Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday announced a dramatic overhaul that in effect moves further away from the so-called right to shelter law.
Administration officials did not explicitly say they were aiming to curtail shelter access for newly arriving migrants, but the combination of reforms is likely to put a greater emphasis on making services available for the thousands of Bay State families already here and struggling.
Starting Aug. 1, the state will prioritize placement in emergency assistance shelters for families who are homeless because of a no-fault eviction, who have at least one member who is a veteran, or who are homeless “because of sudden or unusual circumstances in Massachusetts beyond their control, such as a flood or fire,” Healey’s office said.
Families will continue to be prioritized if they have “significant medical needs, newborn children, are at risk of domestic violence, or are homeless because of fire, flood, or other disasters,” according to the governor’s team.
The administration on Aug. 1 will also cap how long families awaiting a longer-term shelter placement can stay at overflow sites, sometimes referred to as safety net sites, at five days. Families who choose to use one of those locations after Aug. 1 will then need to wait at least six months to qualify for placement into an emergency assistance shelter.
Those limits do not apply to shelters managed by the nonprofit United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and families who are staying at the state-run overflow sites before Aug. 1 will retain their prioritization for emergency assistance shelter…