Massachusetts lawmakers are looking at how to help the state's growing number of homeless families. At an oversight hearing today, advocates say the state is in a crisis.
Homelessness is at an all-time high in Massachusetts. The state’s emergency shelter system is now serving about 4,000 families, or twice its capacity. The shelters are so full, the state has been sending families to motels — costing the state tens of millions of dollars a year.
“Why aren’t we able to empty the motels? Heaven knows we’ve tried,” said Peter Gagliardi, executive director of Springfield-based housing agency HAPHousing. “There have been three massive waves of effort in the last several years, and each time we have succeeded in reducing the number, and each time they’ve refilled and then some. It’s worse than the myth of Sisyphus. Not only do we go back up the hill, but the hill gets higher.”
Massachusetts Undersecretary of Housing Aaron Gornstein says the state needs more permanent, affordable housing, which is expensive to build.
Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker says he would try to stop sending homeless families to motels by the end of his first year in office.
