Emergency Motel Housing – Massachusetts

Massachusetts to end placing of homeless in motels, By Jennifer B. McKim, January 2, 2013, Boston Globe: “The state government plans to eliminate a controversial emergency shelter program that places about 1,700 homeless families in motels and hotels paid by taxpayers, but housing advocates are worried officials will not be able to come up with better alternatives.Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary of the state Department of Housing and Community Development, said the state aims to phase out the program — now near peak levels — by June 30, 2014. Homeless families are placed in motels when the 2,000 rooms in the state’s family emergency shelter system reach capacity…”
State to stop using motels as shelters, By Ethan Forman, January 3, 2013, Salem News: “Town officials will know more in a conference call next week about state plans to phase out the use of motels as temporary homeless shelters here and across the state. Town Manager Wayne Marquis, who sits on an advisory board to the governor’s Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, said the call will detail how the state plans to end the use of motels as emergency homeless family shelters by June 30, 2014. By then, Marquis said, it is expected that ‘all contracts (with motels) will be over and it will be no more.’…”