State records show more than 670 serious incidents at Massachusetts’ emergency assistance family shelters in 2024, including allegations of rape and physical assault.
The Boston Herald unveiled those details last week , which prompted public uproar. The spotlight on the issue comes shortly after an undocumented immigrant was arrested with a rifle and 10 pounds of fentanyl in a Revere shelter, and as the Massachusetts Legislature considers approving more funds to keep shelters open.
Shelter directors are pushing back on the narrative that crime is running rampant in their facilities.
“To think that we have programs that the state funds where we serve our highest-risk populations, who have the highest stress levels, and that there be no safety incidents, regardless of tax dollars, is an unrealistic expectation,” said Danielle Ferrier, CEO of shelter provider Heading Home.
Stress levels that cause families to need service in the first place increase the likelihood of verbal outbursts, domestic violence, and other incidences, she said, pointing to clinical research. Heading Home’s serious incident rate for 2024 was just .03% of those served, the organization said.
GBH surveyed the over 40 shelter agencies mentioned in the 2,239 pages of reports last year. They were asked how they handle domestic abuse cases and how quickly perpetrators are kicked out of shelter; if there’s a screening involved in the intake process; how many people have been evicted from shelter as a result of the reports, if staff has been concerned for their own safety; and thoughts on the governor’s call to audit all shelters.
Five of the providers replied with answers. Four ignored questions and gave short statements. Two forwarded information to the state and referred all questions to the state. Thirty-two didn’t respond at all.
Most serious incidents were medical
Many shelter providers noted that not all incidents in the reports involved crime.
Medical issues appear more than anything else, with over 780 “medical” mentions throughout the 2024 reports, according to GBH News’ review. Many of the families entering the shelter system have either a child or adult with a serious medical condition or disability, according to Melissa González, executive director of Citizens Inn.
“That is why they are vulnerable,” said González.
She said after they receive a referral from the state, they talk with the family about their situation, including medical needs and any safety concerns.
Last year, a child in one of Citizen’s Inn’s shelters ate dinner, and went to bed. Her father brought her to a staff office inside a congregate shelter after noticing she wasn’t breathing. Staff and EMTs tried to revive her, and she taken to two hospitals, the second through MedFlight. González stayed with the family at the hospital. The child didn’t survive.
“That incident, which was incredibly devastating for the family but for our staff as well, was something that was related to an underlying medical condition and a medical emergency that was unrelated to the shelter stay,” said González. She said this is the very reason why the shelter system exists: to help families in extreme circumstances.
At least 16 incidents of attempted suicide or suicidal ideation were mentioned. In March at another hotel, a child attempted suicide. The mother told an emergency housing specialist in Spanish that he “witnessed a lot of death on his way here.” The boy was set up with therapy upon return.
Another report shows a mother telling a case manager that her daughter told her therapist that she’d taken sleeping pills in an attempt to kill herself. At another hotel serviced by AMI Expeditionary Care, an immigrant woman drank bleach, telling staff later that she “wanted to kill herself because, she cannot find a job and she was stressed.”
Dealing with bad actors
Shelter providers who responded to GBH News said overall, they have far more clients who follow rules than bad actors. One agency mentioned that the state’s screening process includes running potential shelter recipients’ names through the sex offender registry. Shelters also have their own intake processes and security on site. Those include asking the families self-reported questions about health history, access to health care, substance use, and history of domestic violence.
But when safety concerns arise, they say they have protocols to respond. Providers told GBH News they train their staff to ensure safety. For example, the Center of Human Development educates its staff on domestic violence readiness and even has a domestic violence services coordinator to offer ongoing support.
In many instances, the staff that filled out serious incident reports put in requests for transfers, or a request for a finding of non-compliance by the state. It is unclear what happened after the reports were written.
Some providers told GBH News that in emergency circumstances, they can take immediate action.
“If a staff witnesses any kind of abuse or violence, we will call law enforcement and we won’t let the person who’s perpetrating the violence remain on property with the person who’s being abused,” said González.
In addition to local police, shelter staff also rely on state agencies for support. One hotel run by Commonwealth Care Alliance had an instance in August of three children playing in a hallway clothed in just underpants. They engaged in inappropriate activity, leading to staff contacting the Department of Children and Families.
“Ultimately one [family] was transferred to another site, and the other ultimately exited [the system],” said Kevin O’Connor, press secretary for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. A provider and case manager worked with the families to inform them the the behavior was inappropriate, and require more supervision of the children.
Domestic violence is mentioned over 580 times in the report, and in varying degrees.
At one hotel, a mother reported her partner for abusing her verbally, causing the man to grow angrier and threaten her. He was arrested and later detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At another hotel, a husband punched his wife, began to yell and break things around a room. The man was arrested and detained. The mother was offered medical assistance and help to get a restraining order. For the husband, the report author asked for him to be found not in compliance of emergency assistance shelter rules.
The reports also shine a light on potential trafficking and kidnapping incidents.
In May at a hotel run by the South Middlesex Opportunity Council, a “visibly distraught, sobbing” mother told shelter staff her two daughters were “being picked up in a Blue SUV with several adult Haitian males.” The girls were gone for “3-4 nights,” at least twice. One of the girls later claimed the men were family. The agency reached out to a police liaison about trafficking concerns.
In another case, one woman and her child were approached in a Walmart parking lot by four men and a woman who she’d never met. They tried to convince her to get into the car for a ride back to the shelter, using Google Translate for Haitian Creole. She’d never told them she was Haitian or a shelter resident, and refused the ride. “One of the men lifted his shirt and showed her a gun in his waistband,” the report author wrote, causing the woman to flee back inside the store. A shelter staffer recognized her and offered to take her back, while hearing the men yelling “go back to your country” and “why are you helping her?” The author of the report recommended a transfer for the family’s safety.
Threats against staff and residents
In April, a Making Opportunity Count shelter manager and worker requested transfers for a number of families who threatened them. Employees had tried to remove a child from the custody of its mother after the mother attempted suicide.
A group of families followed the employees to their vehicles, in one case, “banging on her windows attempting to talk to her and taking pictures of her license plate and vehicle.” Another client blocked an employee in with his car, and others got in employee’s personal spaces. Everyone dispersed with police arrival, who told people lingering in a lobby that their behavior could lead to “arrest and termination of their EA services.”
In addition to those concerns of staff safety, the reports describe multiple situations in which shelter residents threatened others.
The population currently in the emergency shelter system is about evenly divided between migrants and Massachusetts residents, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Many of the reports don’t indicate if the persons involved are migrants or residents, but among those that do disclose those details, some show tension between the two groups.
At a congregate shelter run by NeighborWorks Housing Solutions, a client was found drunk in a hotel lobby and was hospitalized. The next day staff found her back at the facility with slurred speech, and she stated “she hates the Haitian families and does not wish to live near them.” The report mentions she told staff she’d shoot another shelter resident if her children were approached by that resident.
At a Commonwealth Care Alliance-run site, one resident asked another on his phone to be quiet in a hallway because her babies were trying to sleep. The man became aggressive and told her to shut up, adding “you’re a nobody, you’re just an immigrant,” and to mind her own business.
Another report asks to send a man to a “non-migrant shelter” after a third instance of discrimination, where he went on a rant after a woman bumped into his wheelchair in an elevator. “Many discriminatory words were used by the client,” read the report. When a police officer told him to stop, he continued.
In another instance he threatened to beat them. “He doesn’t want migrant families in the elevator when he’s using it with his family,” read the report. “Many times, he asked me to ask 'my people’ to stop.” I believe the client has a problem with migrant— If he stays here, he may pose a danger to migrant staff and families.“
González said her staff at Citizen’s Inn have heard some of their shelter participants make anti-immigrant remarks. She’s concerned the public narrative will only make things worse.
”Staff are concerned that members of the public will come to the shelter to protest—not necessarily peacefully—because they are under the impression that shelters are overrun by undocumented immigrants who are dangerous criminals,“ she said.
