Hotel shelters for homeless families in Massachusetts will close this summer, governor says

Hotels and motels in Massachusetts will stop serving as shelters for homeless families this summer, Gov. Maura Healey says.

Healey said last fall that Massachusetts would be "phasing out" hotel shelters by the end of 2025. The plan is six months ahead of schedule, her office said.

A WBZ I-Team report from last year found that Massachusetts taxpayers were paying tens of millions of dollars for rooms and food. 

"A hotel is no place to raise a family, and they are the least cost effective," Healey said in a statement. "That's why we implemented reforms to lower caseloads and the cost of the shelter system."

Only 32 hotel shelters are still operating in Massachusetts, down from 100 last summer. Recently, the number of families staying at the shelters dropped below 5,000 for the first time in nearly two years. Healey says up to 90% of families that sought shelter "are now longtime Massachusetts families."

Massachusetts capped its emergency shelter system at 7,500 families in 2023 as an influx of migrants arrived in the state. Earlier this year, the governor proposed requiring families seeking shelter to prove they are in the country legally.  Healey said the drop in families seeking shelter can be attributed to a six-month length-of-stay requirement, workforce training and work to help families find stable housing. 

Also set to shut down as a shelter this summer is the former Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk. Turning the old, vacant prison into a shelter that could house 450 people was a controversial issue in town last summer.