Gov. Healey's emergency shelter spending within Beacon Hill's budget for now

Gov. Maura Healey’s administration said it has spent just over $109 million on emergency shelters and related services over the last four months, according to data through mid-October. The pace of spending is so far within Beacon Hill’s budget for this fiscal year.

Tara Smith, a spokesperson for Healey’s housing agency, said the cost of the emergency assistance program will continue to decrease because all hotel shelters have closed and recent reforms will “lower caseloads, lower costs and help more families find stable housing.”

“As a result of these reforms, there are less people in the shelter system now than when Gov. Healey first took office, and costs will be hundreds of millions of dollars less this fiscal year,” Smith said in a statement.

There were 2,047 families in emergency shelters as of Thursday, down from more than 7,600 families at the peak in July 2024, according to state data.

The shelter program saw a surge in demand starting in January 2022, amid an influx of migrants to Massachusetts, soaring housing prices and general cost of living increases.

Of the $109 million the state has spent since July, more than $56 million went to short- and long-term shelter locations and related services, state data shows.

The spending details were released to WBUR through a public records request, months after the Healey administration stopped publishing a regular, public accounting of how much it was spending on the system that houses homeless families.

The administration also has spent over $50 million on programs designed to help families exit the emergency shelter system. That includes $45 million on HomeBase, the rental assistance program that’s seen a spike in demand since Healey took office, and $5 million on payments to regional agencies.

The state spent another $1.7 million on “other services,” a category that has previously included education supports and work programs for families in emergency shelters.

The fiscal 2026 budget that Healey signed in July included $276 million for the emergency assistance program, which was created in the 1980s to temporarily house homeless families with children and pregnant women. Another $57 million was set aside for HomeBase.

State data shows shelter caseloads have dropped since President Trump implemented restrictive policies at the border, and Healey put in place rules designed to reduce the number of families in the shelter system and block anyone not lawfully present in the country.

The Healey administration spent $978 million in fiscal 2025 and $894 million in the prior year on the emergency shelter system and related services, according to state data.

The state was spending an average of $1,182 a week per family in shelter as of Oct. 30, according to a separate report released earlier this week.

Since July 1, the Healey administration stopped including key sections in biweekly reports that detailed in real-time how much taxpayers were paying for shelter services. A state law mandated that the administration report the real-time data only through fiscal 2025.

Beacon Hill lawmakers appear on track to again require the governor to provide the public with more shelter spending details.

Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican who backed the creation of the biweekly reports, said the spending details have served as an “atlas” for lawmakers tasked with crafting and scrutinizing budgets.

“I think without exposing the tremendous amount of money that was being spent, you would not have seen the Legislature or the governor act on certain reforms when it comes to shelter stays,” Fattman said in an interview. “I find it to be a best practice. It was put in place in response to the emergency. It shouldn't stop.”