Gov. Maura Healey’s rivals on Sunday blaster her in response to Herald reporting that the administration had stopped sharing sure details about the state’s shelter system.
In response to the trio of conservative candidates, spending $978 million on the state’s Emergency Help shelter system in fiscal 2025 is tantamount to an indictment of the Healey Administration’s potential to handle the state’s different issues.
Former Baker Administration Secretary of Housing and Financial Growth Mike Kennealy mentioned the governor “continues to fuel this crisis.”
“Just shy of one billion dollars wasted because the Governor has been asleep at the wheel. She’s now taking a victory lap for moving migrants from hotels into government-subsidized apartments and calling that a solution. It’s not — it’s an insult to taxpayers and every Massachusetts family struggling to get by, and frankly, it’s offensive,” he mentioned.
Brian Shortsleeve, the previous chief administrator and appearing common supervisor of the MBTA below the Baker Administration, mentioned information that the state authorities now not publishes a daily accounting of how a lot the state is spending to shelter homeless households and pregnant ladies — simply because a state legislation mandating the info reporting has expired — is an outrage, however hardly the one unsolved downside in the meanwhile.
“It is outrageous that Maura Healey doesn’t want us to know how much of our money she’s spending on migrants. This, on top of the shady Mass Pike service plaza deal, the Mercedes cab contract, and the failure to audit the legislature. When I’m elected, people will get answers from every agency including the Governor’s office,” Shortsleeve mentioned.
Kennealy piled on, suggesting that the state is spending practically a billion {dollars} to accommodate migrants “while veterans sleep on the streets, the Cape fights for Sagamore Bridge funding, schools can’t afford proper air conditioning, courts can’t afford to properly function, and municipalities struggle to stay afloat.”
“Maura Healey’s priorities are so backwards it’s offensive to every hardworking resident of this state,” Kennealy mentioned.
Mike Minogue, a South Hamilton CEO and main GOP donor who launched the Bay State’s latest marketing campaign for governor earlier this month, mentioned that a part of the issue is that spending on the shelter system — like the remainder of state spending — has gone unaudited regardless of a brand new state legislation giving the state auditor authority to look into Legislative affairs.
“Taxpayer dollars have been misused for years. Enough of using hard-earned taxpayer money on benefits for illegal immigrants, political kick backs, and antiquated systems. We need the audit Bay Staters voted for. We need to shine light on the problem to really find the solution,” Minogue mentioned in a social media put up.
The GOP candidates’ remarks come after the Herald revealed that, by the final seven studies launched since fiscal 12 months 2026 began July 1, Healey Administration officers stopped together with key sections exhibiting real-time knowledge on how a lot the taxpayers paid for to accommodate hundreds of migrant households, for the assorted packages designed to maneuver households out of shelter, and municipal assist necessities such because the impression on native college districts.
Instead of that info, the administration now solely notes that the Legislature authorized $276 million on this 12 months’s state price range for the shelter system, in addition to the common quantity spent on households in shelter every week and the overall amount of money spent from a shelter reserve fund.
The since-changed bi-weekly studies had been first launched in 2023 after Healey declared a state of emergency within the Bay State as a result of variety of newly-arrived migrant households turning to the shelter system for housing. Massachusetts is alone among the many 50 states in guaranteeing a proper to shelter to pregnant ladies and households with babies.
In a observe included within the Sept. 22 shelter report, administration price range and housing officers write that they “have completed reporting requirements established by that line item.”
“Reporting on activities that are no longer ongoing, such as hotel shelter or spending from past fiscal years, may be found in previous bi-weekly reports,” the administration mentioned within the studies.
The governor’s workplace didn’t present a brand new touch upon the shelter prices or the assertions of the GOP candidates, as a substitute referring the Herald to a beforehand issued assertion by the Government Workplace of Housing and Livable Communities.
Within the assertion, an administration spokesperson informed the Herald that below the Gov. Healey’s management the state’s shelter system as undergone a number of main reforms, “such as a capacity limit, length of stay limit, residency requirements, and background checks,” which they are saying “have successfully reduced caseloads and costs.”
“We expect fiscal year 2026 costs to be hundreds of millions of dollars less than fiscal year 2025,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald
GOP candidate for governor Mike Kennealy (Employees Picture By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald, File)
