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The Healey administration has closed all but a handful of hotel shelters, with two dozen programs shuttering this month alone. The remaining four hotel shelters will close by July 31.
“Providers and on-site case managers have been working closely with all impacted families to help them identify secure housing before the closing date,” said a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities in an emailed message.
At the start of the month, there were 623 families in the 24 hotel programs set to close by the end of June. Thirty total families are moving out of the 11 hotel shelters closing just today, and the rest have been transferred.
A number of families moved out of the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center last week, including ten assisted by International Institute of New England, a resettlement agency with a state contract to re-house a number of new arrivals.
Carolyn Michelle Brooks Castillo and her family were among those who recently moved out of the hotel shelter. They initially thought they would be transferred to another shelter, but then were accepted into the HomeBASE program, which provides eligible families in the shelter system with up to $30,000 over two years for rental assistance.
Brooks Castillo fled Honduras in 2023 with her husband and four children after gangs injured her and her husband.
“We were terrified that something else would happen and we would be killed. That’s when we decided to flee,” she said.
They slept on the floor of Logan Airport that September, and were eventually connected to the state shelter system. The family resided at the Lowell shelter for over a year until June 20.
They spent the time applying for asylum and dealing with multiple efforts to get work permits through immigration court, finally being successful this winter. Castillo and her husband took jobs in construction, cleaning, and elder care to save funds.
“We don’t look for specific work. Whatever was needed — construction, if that’s the open job, we would take it. If it is caretaking or cleaning, we would do that,” said Castillo.
They were initially told they’d have to move before December of this year, but that was moved up to June 20. Until that day, they believed they would move to another shelter, were told that one was too full, and that they’d have to figure something else out. The day they were supposed to leave the shelter, Castillo’s social worker called and said their HomeBASE application was successful, and they could immediately move into a three-bedroom apartment.
“The children are so happy, so content. They can have their own space and be comfortable. They said they still can’t believe it,” she said. Castillo said the opportunity will help the family “be organized, save, and move forward with their future.”
“It’s not that someone can say the government will give something to me, I will take this and that — no, it’s important that someone moves forward with a mission and purpose, and now we can prepare to work more, be secure, and in one place for the children.” She’s hoping she and her husband can move beyond temporary and part-time jobs to full-time positions now that they have a secure home.
HomeBASE covers 70% of their rent. International institute of New England CEO Jeff Thielman said all of the families his organization assisted at the Lowell facility were able to find permanent housing using the program.
The anticipated closures were initially announced in May, when the administration said shelter caseload was projected to drop below 4,000 families this summer, and as a result, the state would phase out its use of hotels as emergency housing.
The Healey administration spent more than $700 million in Emergency Assistance shelter and programming in fiscal year 2025. Healey said in a press scrum earlier today that she “inherited a real mess” with growing demand on the shelter system. She touted her efforts to restrict the amount of people in the system and rein in costs.
“We’re closing shelters ahead of schedule,” Healey said. “I promised I’d do it by end of year — we’re doing it right now.”
GBH News State House reporter Katie Lannan contributed to this story.
