Investigation: State to Spend $61 Million Putting Homeless in Hotels

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ashley Klann, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Putting homeless families in hotels is costing the state millions.

Massachusetts spends millions putting homeless families in hotels and motels across the state – a costly, problematic, and temporary fix to a large scale issue. As the state’s legislature works to produce next year’s budget, one representative is looking at another solution for this growing problem. Other than local aid, this issue saw the largest increase in the state’s budget for fiscal year 2013.

Currently, there are roughly 1,500 homeless families living in hotels and motels across the state. As various legislation and economic shifts hit the Bay State, numbers have fluctuated. In September of 2009, there were 1,000. A year later, there were 800, and in June of 2011 there were 1,641 homeless families living in hotels.

“Massachusetts has gone through several phases over the years,” said Kelly Turley Director of Legislative Advocacy at the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. “We’ve seen a lot of fluctuation due to different legislation and changes in the economy.”

“Instead of spending $3000 a month putting families in hotels and motels, it would probably be in our best interest to take a great portion of the money and put it into programs that will assist families to move into apartments,” said Representative Paul J. Donato (D Medford). Donato has been highly involved in working with this budget item recently. "The problem becomes that we sometimes try to find an easy solution – to put them in hotels and motels. All of those venues add cost and lead to other problems."

The Patrick/Murray administration also released recommendations for lowering the amount of money needed for housing the homeless in the 2013 fiscal year budget. According to their estimates, the state will aid 12,300 families with the HomeBASE program and the Shelter Budget, and 3,000 families with reinvestment into public housing and preventive measures. Next year, the number of homeless families will increase, but the administration plans to spend less from the shelter budget and more from more stable sources.

In Central Mass.

When analyzing the cost of housing homeless families in hotels and motels in Central Mass. the numbers are staggering. Currently, there are 76 homeless families in Worcester County living in hotels, and 22 in Worcester.

“If you figure you have 22 families in a hotel and assume they’re there for a minimum of 120 days, that’s $264,000, if you look at that over a year,” said Grace Carmark, Executive Director at the Central Mass Housing Alliance (CMHA). “We’ve done a pretty good job in Worcester to keep those hotel numbers down.”

Carmark said that the state negotiates with different vendors for hotel arrangements, but the usual cost about $100 a night. “You can do the math and see the crazy amount of money,” she said. “We tend to look at hotel and shelter time collectively. For some, they might have been a fire victim and they can get back out quickly, but some may be in that position for a longer period of time.”

Resources also play a large role in determining the length of time that a family stays in a shelter.

“The average length of stay is nine months in hotel and shelter combined on a state-wide basis,” Carmark said. “We spend a lot of time researching how to best serve them quickly, and the conclusion is that homeless families need income for affordable housing. When there are resources, it’s easy to move them quickly.”

Another Solution

The Massachusetts House Ways and Means committee apportioned more money for families being housed in hotels, and loosening restrictive language. Currently the number for this aid is set at $16,636,800 under Housing and Community Development and will face the Senate soon before the governor’s approval.

While Representative Paul J. Donato (D Medford) is firm on his position to expand the reach of aid, he thinks there is a much better solution to the state’s problem.

“There’s certainly an overall better solution. Take the money being pumped into hotels and motels, and put in into Section 8 and other options,” Donato said. He cited the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) as an example.

Donato sponsored Amendment 715 that extends the inclusion of families living in shelters.

“Right now what we’re doing is putting people in hotels, motels, and shelters. The original bill from ways and means said ‘hotels and motels.’ I added the word ‘shelters,’” Donato said. “We’re trying to move people out of those facilities to some sort of permanent position – a home either through Section 8 or other designated living facility.”

According to Bill Miller Executive Director of Friends of the Homeless, this issue has been a hurdle in the past.

“The state’s plan is to house people more quickly – to invest in that rather than motels, but they have not been able to get ahead of the need or demand for the services,” Miller said.

Language in the budget has been carefully scrutinized to make sure all needs are met in the best fashion. Grace Carmark of CHMA is hoping that it doesn’t leave some ineligible.

“I think the level of funding that was provided in the budget for housing support certainly acknowledges the crisis we’re in,” Carmark said. “Our concern is that the dollar amount funding levels were reasonable, but the restrictive language that would make some ineligible for assistance. One thing that was proposed in both budgets was an 8 month time limit for stay in a shelter once you become homeless.”

Carmark stressed the need to push for more prevention funding.

“The only people who could appeal that would have to show that a disability had prevented them from being housed. For some it’s income issues, but that’s obviously not a disability. Both budgets have very strict categories for who is eligible so folks who are overcrowded or evicted for non-payment of rent may not be eligible but would still be homeless all the same,” she said.

Overall, Carmark says that the only constant with this issue is that it’s difficult to tackle. Needs are different, and resources are limited.

“The one thing we’ve learned is that no families are the same,” she said. “I applaud the state. Under the past Patrick-Murray administration, Massachusetts has been moving away from cookie cutter solutions and making funds more flexible.”

Shelter As a Right

One important issue that sets Massachusetts apart is its label as a “right to shelter” state.

“I was told that other than local aid, this was the area in the budget that saw the biggest increase. And, it is all in family homelessness. This is partially because shelter is an 'entitlement' in Mass.,” said Miller at Friends of the Homeless. Under this rule, families are guaranteed a spot somewhere, so when shelters fill up, they turn to hotels.

“This is at the core of the motel crisis -- this guarantee,” Miller said. “It is very expensive and not good for the families as they can’t cook, and they are not near kid friendly communities. They also have to be bused to schools at a greater expense.”

Good but not Great

While placing families in hotels and motels may not be the best solution, organizations set up to aid homeless families say that it’s better than nothing.

“It’s costly but obviously it’s also humane. It makes it a much more costly system, but we’ve been very proactive in Worcester in meeting the families of hotels and housing them quickly,” Carmark said.

“Even though they’re not ideal places, it’s important that they’re there and have some place to go,” said Turley.

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

Email to a friend Permalink