BOSTON (WWLP) – Costs continue to skyrocket around the emergency housing crisis the state is experiencing.
Over 650 families on Massachusetts emergency housing waitlist this week
As the waitlist for emergency housing continues to grow, so don’t the costs. The governor has put forward a plan to pay for this crisis but with one-time funds. Governor Maura Healey put in place a cap on the amount of families the state could house back in the fall with a limit of 7,500 families. However, that cap was reached soon after and a waitlist ensued, one that only continues to grow.
Four days after the cap was reached, the waitlist was at 22 families. Latest numbers show that the states waitlist is at 692 families. Numbers are being reported in amount of families, not individuals, so we do not know how many people are on the waitlist. That being said, western Massachusetts is housing around 800 families, mostly in hotels and motels.
The governor’s budget proposal maintains level-funding of $325 million for the emergency shelter system. That number represented funding needed for a caseload of 4,100 families, far below what the state is at now.