BOSTON (WWLP) – As the amount of people in need continues to outweigh the options for shelter, the waitlist for emergency housing only continues to grow.
Families at Logan shifting to Roxbury shelter
When it comes to emergency housing, the state reached its limit back in the fall, leaving hundreds of Massachusetts residents and new arrivals without a place to live. There are currently a little over 7,500 families in the state’s shelter system.
That number is expected to remain around 7,500 since Governor Healey placed a cap on how many families the state would be able to provide safe shelter to this past fall. When the cap was reached in November, a waitlist ensued, even though the Commonwealth is a right-to-shelter state.
Now, this waitlist has continued to increase. There were only 22 families on the waitlist four days after the cap was reached. At the start of this year, the waitlist hit 406 families. As of this week, the waitlist was at 656 families.
Now, it’s important to note that these figures are being reported as the amount of families waiting, not individuals so it is unclear how many people are actually on the waitlist.