Massachusetts is latest blue state to enforce migrant shelter stay limits

BOSTON — Massachusetts on Wednesday became the latest blue state grappling with an influx of migrants to move forward with enforcing time limits on shelter stays over advocates’ objections.

With the state’s emergency family shelter system long over capacity, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey’s administration will begin sending out 90-day eviction notices early next month with the goal of exiting some families starting Sept. 29.

“As Congress has repeatedly failed to act on this federal problem, Massachusetts has been going above and beyond,” Healey said in a statement announcing the new rules. “This new length of stay policy will strengthen those efforts to connect families with the resources and services they need to move into more stable housing and contribute to our workforce.”

Massachusetts follows other blue strongholds that have seen a surge in migrants — New York, Illinois and Colorado, whose major cities are a target of red-state governors’ transportation programs — in moving to limit how long families can stay in overburdened state- or city-run homeless shelters.

The rules Healey’s administration rolled out Wednesday allow the state to send out 90-day notices to 150 families a month on a rolling basis starting in July. Families will be able to apply for up to two 90-day extensions, and some will be able to extend their stays further by applying for a hardship waiver. Those who use both extensions, or who don’t qualify, will still be eligible to reapply to enter the emergency shelter system, according to the administration. Around 4,000 of the roughly 7,500 families currently in the system have been there for at least nine months.

“As we have said from the beginning, this is a federal problem that demands comprehensive federal immigration legislation,” state Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement. “Until that reform comes, we will continue to work alongside our partners in government, as we did in the most recent supplemental budget, to manage this challenge so that we can continue to respond in a way that is both humane and fiscally responsible.”

Democratic leaders in other states are setting even stricter rules than in Massachusetts, where Healey is carrying out the Legislature’s orders to rein in emergency shelter costs that are set to approach $1 billion this fiscal year and next.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has imposed 60-day limits for families with children and 30-day limits for single adults. The first-term mayor also recently moved to restrict some adults from being able to reapply for shelter. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently began enforcing a 60-day limit on shelter stays, with some exceptions.

The rules have been met with backlash from local homelessness-prevention and immigration advocates who worry that families will be forced to find shelter on the streets or at Logan Airport, where many have already been staying.

“Obviously, we’re very concerned about where families will go,” Kelly Turley, the associate director of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, told POLITICO.

Asked Wednesday whether he was concerned that people would end up on the street, Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano noted that “people can appeal depending on what their circumstances are … and hopefully there will be none of those that are thrown out in the street.”

Massachusetts is required to provide emergency housing to homeless families and pregnant women under a decades-old “right-to-shelter” law that is similar to New York City’s.

But Healey, who last summer declared a state of emergency over the state’s migrant and shelter crisis, capped the emergency shelter system at 7,500 families in October. The state has opened up several temporary overflow shelter sites for the hundreds of families on the waitlist for the main system and is moving forward with enforcing time limits for families staying in those facilities as well.

Healey and Democratic leaders in the Legislature have repeatedly slammed Congress for failing to pass the bipartisan border bill that would’ve delivered much-needed funding to states like Massachusetts that have seen massive increases in migrant arrivals. And while some Democrats — including multiple members of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation — criticized President Joe Biden’s recent move to effectively shut down much of the southern border through executive action, Healey praised the president for taking “important action” to address the crisis.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.