Massachusetts progressives boo Gov. Healey's proposed emergency shelter changes: 'Disconnected from reality'

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Jan 16, 2025

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BOSTON — Progressives are demanding Beacon Hill lawmakers reject Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed changes to state-run emergency shelters as other critics welcome the governor’s requests, some of which raise questions, they say.

Housing and immigration advocates gathered outside the State House hours before Healey delivered her State of the Commonwealth address Thursday night, spotlighting how they view the governor’s response to the shelter crisis as “disconnected from reality.”

Healey proposed major changes to the state emergency assistance shelter program Wednesday, aiming to cordon off the maxed-out system from non-Massachusetts residents. Advocates say the requests will lead to more children and families stranded in the bitterly cold streets.

“The right to shelter has effectively been eroded,” said Kelly Turley, associated director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. “We are allowing children and parents to sleep in places not meant for human habitation because we don’t have the political will to address the root causes of family homelessness and the underlying housing crisis.”

Turley, highlighting how Massachusetts has championed a unique right-to-shelter law for decades, said Healey has harmed the system with “arbitrary caps and limits” on the number of eligible children and families at 7,500.

While the cap on the state-run system has been in place for over a year, Turley said not all shelters are at capacity despite “hundreds of families” being on a waiting list and sleeping on the street.

Advocates booed and shouted “shame” when Turley listed the proposed changes that Healey announced on Wednesday including a requirement that all individuals in a household seeking state-funded shelter demonstrate they are United States citizens, lawful permanent residents, or are here “under the color of law.”

Households that include children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents would be an exception. Under current state regulations, only one individual in a household seeking shelter must show they are a citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or are here under the color of law.

“The governor justifies these changes with rhetoric that blames immigrants much of the time, but don’t fall for it,” said Liz Alfred, senior attorney for the Greater Boston Legal Services. “Immigrants are not responsible for the housing crisis.”

Healey also requests that legislators mandate all household members trying to access the emergency assistance program show an “intent to remain in Massachusetts.” That could be done through an “independent documentary verification” or “three months of physical presence in the state.”

“It should be the complete opposite,” Massachusetts GOP spokesman Logan Trupiano said in a statement Wednesday. “We need to ensure that emergency shelters are reserved for long-term Massachusetts residents — not individuals from other states or countries seeking to take advantage of our broken system.”

Henry Barbaro, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform, told the Herald Thursday that his group, which advocates for policies that favor American workers, is “grateful” for the proposed changes. But he’s questioning how Healey’s order for criminal background checks on shelter residents would work if they may be “undocumented” immigrants.

Healey’s series of requests come in the continued fallout of a 28-year-old Dominican illegal immigrant being arrested at a Revere shelter for allegedly possessing an AR-15 and 10 pounds of fentanyl, an amount capable of killing over 2 million people.

The arrested illegal immigrant, Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, entered the country unlawfully and was staying with his pregnant girlfriend, according to federal immigration officials and court documents.

Thousands of pages of “Serious Incident” reports released last week also exposed incidents of child rape, domestic violence, brawls, drunkenness, drugs and more in the Massachusetts emergency housing shelter system, dating back to 2022.

Advocates are also demanding the state Legislature approve Healey’s $425 million supplemental budget request for the shelter system.

“Of course we want people to be safe,” Mark Martinez, a housing attorney for the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, told the Herald. “The concern here is not that we don’t want increased safety measures but when you paint with broad strokes you’re going to end up locking families out of shelter that you don’t mean to.”

“Especially when the common rhetoric is that because the person who happened to do this was an immigrant we now have to limit shelter to all immigrants,” he added, “and that immigrants as a whole are a safety risk is dangerous and problematic.”

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