BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey announced Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, that the final hotel shelters across Massachusetts have closed, months ahead of schedule, and that she has formally ended the state of emergency declared in August 2023 to manage a surge in shelter demand.
“When we took office, families were being placed in hotels all across the state, and families were staying in shelter for months – sometimes years – at a time. There was no plan in place to reform the shelter system to handle the surge in demand, protect taxpayer dollars or help families leave shelter. We can all agree that a hotel is no place to raise a family. So we took action,” said Governor Healey. “As a result of my reforms and our efforts to help families get jobs and stable housing, we have fewer families in shelter than the day we took office, and all hotel shelters are now closed – months ahead of schedule. We’re saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and putting families on a path to self-sustainability.” ’
According to estimates, the Commonwealth spent nearly $1.9 billion on its emergency shelter system across fiscal years 2023 through 2025, including almost $955 million in FY 2024 and over $940 million in FY 2025 alone.
A statement announcing the hotel closures released by Governor Healey’s office yesterday stated that, “the Healey-Driscoll Administration inherited two dual challenges when it arrived in office in 2023: an unprecedented surge of families seeking emergency shelter and a flawed shelter system that was ill-equipped to handle such a surge.” In response, in 2023, Governor Healey declared a state of emergency and capped the shelter system at 7,500 families to avoid a projected surge to 13,000 by summer 2024.
“Governor Healey also worked with the Legislature to reform the Right to Shelter law to implement a six-month length of stay limit, require proof of Massachusetts residency and require that all family members have lawful immigration status, with limited exemptions,” the statement read. “Governor Healey also expanded workforce training and job placement for residents, increased case management to help families find stable housing, and imposed mandatory CORI checks for all adults before entry into the system.”
The statement went on to say that as a result of Governor Healey’s actions, the number of families in shelters and the associated costs have declined.
“The number of families in shelter is now lower than when Governor Healey took office in January 2023, and all hotel shelters closed as of Thursday,” Governor Healey’s statement read. “Since the start of 2025, triple the number of families have exited shelter (approximately 4,500) than have entered shelter (approximately 1,500). Approximately 85-90 percent of families seeking shelter are now longtime Massachusetts families.”
According to Mass.gov, at the peak of the crisis, the state operated more than 100 hotel shelters; that number had shrunk to 32 by April 30, 2025, before all were eventually closed. The Norfolk Rapid Shelter and Chelsea Rapid Shelter sites have also shut down.
Governor Healey’s Office concluded its statement by saying: “The reforms implemented by Governor Healey and the legislature will remain in place to ensure the continued sustainability of the shelter system and protect taxpayer dollars.”
