Governor Charlie Baker strongly denied claims that his effort to reduce the number of homeless families housed in motels and hotels has offered no solution to the city’s vulnerable populations, forcing them into emergency rooms and other inappropriate living conditions. “The whole notion that somehow we would deliberately work to deny people, first of all, is ridiculous,” Baker said in an interview with Boston Public Radio on Monday. “The notion that these people, or that this administration is engaging in a deliberate desire to not serve people who are eligible is just false.”

Baker’s administration is facing a lawsuit brought by five mothers coping with a history of homelessness, who allege that the state has not met its legal obligation to accommodate homeless families, when shelters reach maximum capacity and motels and hotels are no longer an option.

Baker was asked by BPR host Jim Braude if pushing homeless families into spaces unsafe for human habitation was an “unintended consequence” of an otherwise well-meaning advocacy effort. “Obviously, that will play out in the court,” Baker said, “but my answer to that is no.”

Baker defended his administration’s effort, originally a campaign promise, to move homeless parents and children from state-sponsored motels and hotel rooms into safer, more family-friendly shelter environments. “We didn’t change the eligibility standards, we didn’t change any of the practices associated with how families are dealt with or handled on the front end of this— except we worked really hard to use alternative funds to see if we could find solutions for people who were at risk of losing their housing where they were,” Baker said. “We expanded the size of the state’s shelter system for families, so that we would be able to put people in shelters, which are far more preferable…over the course of the past year and a half...we’ve reduced the amount of hotels and motels from 1500 down to about 160.”

The lawsuit draws a correlation between Baker’s plan and an increase in homeless families with no place to go— alleging that these families are falling through a major crack.

“Over the past several months, the Department has set as a goal to eliminate the use of motel rooms in the EA shelter system and has been aggressively pursuing it, often in ways that are inconsistent with the law,” the lawsuit reads.

Baker said he could not speak to the specifics of the case, though his administration will “vigorously defend this.” All five of the plaintiffs and their families, according to Baker, have been placed in “what we consider to be appropriate settings at this point in time.”

To hear Governor Baker’s full interview with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio link above.