HomeBASE is a decade-old emergency housing assistance program run by the state’s housing office. But the system has been nearly impossible to navigate for many Massachusetts residents in need.
One week after the state created a shelter waitlist, the number of homeless families with nowhere to go is growing. The increasingly desperate task of providing for these families has largely fallen to community groups.
A Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied advocates' request to temporarily stop the state from implementing a waitlist in its family shelter program.
In the state-funded family shelter system, more than 10% of the households are now in hotels and motels without the usual support staff and services. While the state does work to provide food or cooking facilities, many families in these units do not have easy access to translation, transportation and case management, among other services.