Record Number of Homeless Families in Mass

Hundreds of homeless families are living in motels on the North Shore and in the Merrimack Valley as the state’s housing crisis has pushed a record 1,015 families into homelessness, according to state data. Motels in Danvers have 108 families, or about 10 percent of the total number forced to live in motels, because the state’s 2,000 shelter units for families, including apartments and group housing, are full. Malden has the second-highest population in the region, with 83 families living in motels there. Chelmsford has 24 homeless/motel families, Saugus 21, Haverhill 14, Chelsea seven, and Salem one, according to data provided by State Representative Theodore Speliotis, a Danvers Democrat. Said Speliotis “These are families who have lost their homes, lost their jobs, and have to cram everything into one room. Nobody is happy about it.’’

At an average cost of $85 to $90 a night for a motel room, the state is spending about $2.8 million per month to pay for families to live in motels, the data show. Massachusetts law requires the state to provide housing for homeless families who meet income guidelines.

A year ago, there were 654 families living in motels. As jobs vanished in the last year, and foreclosure rates climbed, the number of homeless families surged. Most of the impact on local communities is in school costs. Homeless students, most of whom are from low-income families and change schools frequently, often require additional services, such as special education. But the single largest cost is transportation, local educators said. State law allows a homeless student to enroll in the school district where a motel is located or to be transported back to their original school district. In most cases, the school district where a motel is located and the child’s home school district split transportation costs, officials said.

Still, the high number of homeless families living in motels has led to skyrocketing transportation costs for local school districts. In Danvers, there are now 77 school-age children living in motels. Of that number, 42 are transported to their original school district, while 35 have enrolled in Danvers schools, officials said. Danvers estimates it could spend $205,000 by the end of the school year to bus homeless kids to their home school districts, compared with $49,000 last year, officials said.

Since July, as part of a long-term plan to end homelessness in Massachusetts, the state has provided financial assistance to families on the brink of losing their homes. “There are different levels of hardship,’’ said Phil Hailer, spokesman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development. “If we can help people on the cusp [of losing housing] to stay in their homes just a little longer, maybe their situation will stabilize.’’

When a family does become homeless, the state aims first to place them in one of 2,000 family shelter units across the state. When those are full, they are placed in a motel. Since the shelters have been full for more than a year, families now live longer in motels. “It’s not just a week or two,’’ said Hayes, of Homes for Families. “We’re looking at months.’’

-From “Making a life in a motel; In bad times, shelters can’t hold growing numbers of homeless”, by Kathy McCabe, The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009, http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/12/20/in_bad_times_crowded_north_shore_shelters_push_homeless_out_to_motels/, retrieved 12/21/909.

 

12/09