State projects about 1,000 families to enter emergency shelters each month, senators say

The Healey administration is projecting about 1,000 families, including locals who are experiencing homelessness and newly-arrived migrants, to enter Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system each month, according to state senators who attended a Thursday briefing.

That projection used family units as measurement, which likely means the number of individuals entering the system could stretch thousands more. State officials do not keep a detailed breakdown of the types of families in the emergency shelter system but estimate more than a third of the 6,200-plus are migrants.

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, and other officials held two separate briefings Thursday for House and Senate lawmakers to provide updates on a National Guard deployment next week and the administration’s response to a shelter system overburdened both by new arrivals but also excruciating housing costs.

During the virtual Senate briefing, lawmakers who attended told the Herald the administration displayed projections for the emergency shelter system.

“There’s no end in sight,” said Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican who attended the meeting. “We said, ‘how long do we expect this to go on?’ And they had a graph that showed every month there’s going to be about 1,000 more families.”

Sen. Michael Moore, a Millbury Democrat who was present at the virtual meeting, also said the administration shared those projections. Sen. John Keenan, a Quincy Democrat who listened in on the meeting, also confirmed the projection.

“Certainly, those types of numbers place a strain on our infrastructure in terms of housing,” Keenan said by phone Friday. “I keep telling people the best we can do is the best we can do.”

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities did not confirm the exact projections shown Thursday but said Massachusetts “has seen a significant rise in the number of families seeking shelter.”

“We have placed more than 800 families in emergency shelter over the past month and expect this pace to continue in the months ahead,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The family shelter system will continue to be strained without urgent action taken by the federal government.”

A day before Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, there were 5,550 families in the emergency shelter system, according to data provided by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. That number increased to 6,297 families in state shelters as of Friday morning, according to the housing department.

Moore said Thursday’s meeting “went as well as possible” considering the difficult situation the state is facing and Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter law, which requires officials to provide temporary housing to homeless families.

“I have empathy with the administration having just come into office and having this crisis arise. So I think for where they are in their administration, I think they’ve done a good job dealing with the circumstances,” he said. “But I do think going forward, whether it’s through the administration, or myself, or my colleagues, we need to get some more assistance from the federal government.”

The pressure on the shelter system has led the Healey administration to prop up a sweeping net of hotels and motels to temporarily house families as they await permanent solutions. Municipal officials whose cities and towns play host to those locations have often said they received little advance warning of the placements.

Keenan said communication issues stem from the administration finding themselves in a situation “that is very dynamic.”

“In terms of notifying communities, I think they’re trying to give as much notification as possible. But my understanding is, and this is consistent with what has happened in Quincy, is that they don’t know from one day to the other who’s coming, and what the need will be for housing in the communities,” he said. “It’s not as if communities are getting advance notice of two weeks or a month because in many cases, that just seems to be an impossibility given the circumstances.”

Fattman said his main concern during the Thursday meeting was the administration’s communication with local officials. He echoed concerns expressed by a range of House lawmakers Thursday, including top Democrats.

“I think the one question everybody’s asking is, why the hell aren’t you communicating with these towns and letting them know that you’re sending people, which is obviously Sutton and Sturbridge’s experience too, which I represent,” Fattman told the Herald by phone Friday.

Families come to the state seeking shelters “at all hours of the day and often into the evening seven days a week,” a Healey spokesperson said.

“It is of upmost importance that families are provided with shelter as soon as possible and, while we work hard to provide local officials with notification of placements within their communities, sometimes notification occurs just before or after families have been sheltered,” spokeswoman Karissa Hand said in a statement.

Local officials in Sutton received two days’ notice via email that more than 50 migrants were being relocated to a Red Roof Inn, according to  Fattman. The hotel is in a high risk area for crime and lacks physical infrastructure like a multi-line telephone system that allows first responders to pinpoint 911 calls down to the room in which they originate, Fattman said.

Twenty-eight families were placed in Sutton starting on Aug. 27, according to the administration. Department of Public Health “rapid response nurses” visit shelter sites within the first few days families are there to triage any urgent health issues.

Moore said the administration’s communication at the outset of the emergency shelter crisis could have been better. But as the situation has worsened, he said communication has picked up.

“I still think there’s an issue with better communication with some of the municipalities,” he said.