THE HEALEY ADMINISTRATION received some welcome news on Tuesday, as the number of migrants in the crowded emergency shelter system with work authorizations more than tripled over a two-week period.
Between December 18 and December 28, the number of migrants in the emergency shelter system who are authorized to work under federal law rose from 813 to 2,713, according to a status report provided to the Legislature. The sharp increase means those individuals are eligible to work and, if they land jobs, can possibly find their own housing and exit the overwhelmed shelter system with their families in tow.
Gov. Maura Healey has established two priorities for dealing with the shelter crisis – extracting more money and immigration policy changes from the federal government in Washington and putting more people in the shelter system to work at jobs that are currently going unfilled in the private sector.
The governor has had little luck in Washington, but the latest report shows significant progress on work authorizations. According to the report, the Department of Homeland Security and various state agencies ran work authorization clinics for 2,910 migrants in the shelter system over a two-week period in November and facilitated 734 engagements with a state program designed to land people jobs.
The Healey administration initial shelter report to the Legislature, filed on December 18, indicated 813 migrants in the shelter system had work authorizations as of December 12. The latest report indicated the number had increased to 2,713 as of December 28. “That is definitely a success,” said Kevin Connor, a spokesman for the Healey administration’s executive office of housing and livable communities.
The impact of the increase in work authorizations hasn’t translated into a shrinking emergency shelter system yet. A one-of-its-kind law requires the state to provide shelter to eligible homeless families and pregnant women, but the Healey administration unilaterally changed the law last year to create a cap at 7,500 families and put additional families on a waitlist.
According to Tuesday’s report to the Legislature, 391 families were on the waitlist as of December 28, a number that had increased to 406 as of Tuesday. Families on the waitlist may be housed if space is available at temporary overflow shelters in Quincy, Revere, and, as of last week, in Cambridge.
“Families on our waitlist are provided assistance with transportation
to locations within Massachusetts of their choosing and information
on additional state resources and assistance in finding housing.
For example, [the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities] administers the HomeBASE program, which can provide eligible homeless families with help paying first/last month’s rent and security deposits, moving expenses, stipends to help with ongoing housing costs, and other costs that can help families stabilize an existing housing situation or stably rehouse,” the report to the Legislature said.
The rest of the report to the Legislature remained largely unchanged. As reported two weeks earlier, the Healey administration is forecasting an additional $250 million appropriated by the Legislature in December for the emergency shelter system will not be sufficient to last through the year.
The administration is preparing to seek another $224 million to cover the remainder of the current fiscal year, boosting the total cost of the program to $932 million, nearly three times the $325 million originally budgeted. The cost for fiscal 2025 is currently forecasted at $915 million.
According to the report, 3,525 families in the shelter system, slightly less than half, entered the program as migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers, up slightly from the 3,516 in the initial report.