Eleven families will have been evicted from the state’s temporary respite centers by the end of Friday, a state spokesperson said, far fewer than the number who were warned they would need to leave under a new policy from the Healey administration.
The policy that took effect Aug. 1 limits families to a five-day stay at one of the state’s four temporary respite centers in Norfolk, Lexington, Cambridge and Chelsea, which act as overflow for the state’s maxed-out shelter system. Advocates have strenuously pushed back since the policy’s announcement, urging the governor to “keep families off the streets.”
The Healey administration had initially sent out 57 eviction notices earlier this week, but the remaining families have been granted “one-time extensions, medical extensions, or extensions due to pending enrollment in a state home subsidy program called HomeBASE.”
Danielle Ferrier leads Heading Home agency, which oversees the program at the Norfolk shelter. Her team is actively working with families on rehousing plans. They’re meeting with families individually and in groups to discuss the new policy — but she says it’s not an easy conversation to have.
“They cry and we just assure them we’re going to work as intensely as possible,” she said. “We’ve increased staffing to work more intensely each day, longer periods each day, to try to make sure that we’re finding safe locations or identifying near future safe locations.”
Of the 233 families currently staying at Norfolk, Ferrier says 10 families were told they had to leave by Friday. But several got a reprieve.
“We either have placed them in alternative placements that they could go and safely stay, or we have received an extension,” she said.
According to the state, the 11 families who left Friday went to alternative accommodations, to placement in longer-term emergency assistance shelters or had been “reticketed,” which means the state pays for a family’s transit to another city or state where they have a place to stay.
Outside of the Chelsea temporary respite center Friday, some families put suitcases into taxis and others unloaded them. It was unclear where they were going, and where they were arriving from. Individuals who spoke with GBH News said that they were “just waiting” to hear what happened next throughout the day.
Some said they had been in the shelter for about three months and expect to be told to leave soon.
The governor’s office said in a statement Friday: “This is a difficult situation that we are managing as best we can, but Massachusetts is out of shelter space and cannot continue to afford the size of this system.”
One advocate, executive director Jeff Thielman at the International Institute of New England, said he was relieved to see the number of extensions granted Friday.
“[It] gives us hope that they’re listening,” he told GBH News.
The advocacy group Homes For All Massachusetts, a housing justice coalition, emphasized that the new policy is not just affecting immigrants: homeless families who’ve spent their whole lives in Massachusetts will also be subjected to the five-day limit.
“While none of these 57 families will be sleeping on the street tonight, we know there are additional families with nowhere to go, and there is no solution in sight to keep a roof over people’s heads,” said a statement provided by the coalition. “Massachusetts needs urgent rent relief, eviction protections, and affordable housing production to meet the housing crisis that is impacting all of our residents, whether they have come here six months ago or lived here for generations.”
Healey placed a 7,500-family cap on the state’s shelter system last fall as the state became overwhelmed, but hundreds more need a place to stay. More than 750 families are on a waitlist to enter the shelter system — and many of them are staying in the four overflow sites. They will have to wait months before they’re allowed to stay in the state’s shelter system.
