Massachusetts’ Emergency Housing Assistance (EA) Program, designed to provide shelter and support for families facing homelessness, including a significant number of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, is spending $2,932 per family per week and is estimated to cost taxpayers over $1 billion in FY2025. This is per the most recent bi-weekly report submitted to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means dated April 22, 2025.
A breakdown of the EA costs
The EA Program’s financial scale is staggering, with expenditures totaling $894.0 million in Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) and $706.8 million in FY25 as of April 17, 2025. The report projects FY25 costs to reach $1.064 billion by year-end, driven by expenses for shelter operations, associated services, National Guard activation, Temporary Respite Centers (TRCs), Clinical and Safety Risk Assessment (CSRA) sites, and exit programs like HomeBASE. The weekly average cost per family in the EA system is $2,932, based on January 2025 data, underscoring the resource-intensive nature of providing shelter and support…