Since 1983, Massachusetts has been the only state in the United States to provide a Right to Shelter for homeless families—adults accompanied by one or more children. The Right to Shelter in Massachusetts has kept tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of families desperately in need of shelter off the streets, whether through placements at emergency shelters or other accommodations like hotels.

This July, that decades-old protection for the state’s most vulnerable families was effectively halted by Massachusetts governor Maura Healey. Just a few weeks ago, Healey announced that families seeking shelter must abide by a new five-day limit on stays in emergency shelters.

Healey, a Democrat, justified the decision to pause the Right to Shelter in Massachusetts under an emergency order she issued last year in response to an influx of migrant families to the state and a corresponding shortage of shelter space to take in homeless families.

The governor’s decision to pause the Right to Shelter in Massachusetts will mean families with children sleeping in the streets and other unfit places in numbers not seen in decades—not since the state’s Right to Shelter was passed over 40 years ago, say advocates for homeless families.

Homeless Families Face Instability as the Right to Shelter Is Paused

Within days of the governor’s notice to pause the Right to Shelter in Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported that more than 50 families had received notices to leave shelters. Meanwhile, families are already on the streets in striking numbers, according to another Globe report. 

While the Healey administration has justified these decisions as emergency measures, the ostensible emergency being a lack of space in emergency shelters, the state’s Right to Shelter is not contingent upon the availability of shelter space. It is a guarantee: that eligible families will be sheltered, at the cost of the state, period. Healey’s actions mark the first time since the law was passed that a Massachusetts governor tried to overtly deny shelter to eligible families.

“We see this as a real retreat away from the state’s 40-year commitment to providing healthcare to eligible families,” says Kelly Turley, associate director at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Read the full article about the Right to Shelter in Massachusetts by Isaiah Thompson at Nonprofit Quarterly.