'Beyond terrible': With overflow shelters full, families huddle in cars and at Logan

Massachusetts has historically been viewed as a model for its unique state-run family shelter system. But in a stark break from the past, many families now find they’ve been deemed eligible for shelter, a rigorous process in itself, yet they remain without a roof over their heads.

Facing record-high demand over the last year, the state placed a cap on the number of homeless families it can serve, adding new applicants to a waitlist. Last month, lawmakers ordered the Healey administration to create overflow shelters for waitlisted families. Officials complied and can now provide beds for 195 families.

But that is just a fraction of the need: As of Monday, there were 592 families on the state’s shelter waitlist. Plus, whole regions of the state have no local overflow shelters.

“There isn't really a safety net any longer. I mean if the safety net is: ‘You're approved and we'll call you — sometime,’ that's not a safety net,” said Emily Herzig, a senior paralegal at the Northeast Justice Center.

Across the state, advocates said some families have been sleeping in their cars, even as temperatures have dropped below freezing. It’s become common enough that one nonprofit developed a handout on how to safely spend the night in a vehicle during the winter.

Other homeless families are sleeping at Logan Airport. On a recent night, dozens of families, including children, slept on blankets while a regular stream of airport announcements played overhead, and suitcase-toting travelers passed by.

“It just feels really — I’m trying to think of the best word — barbaric,” said Catherine Ady-Bell, an attorney at the Central West Justice Center, who helps people access state benefit programs.

Even families who get into overflow shelters may encounter conditions that are far from ideal, advocates said. At one site, families must vacate each morning and do not have access to showers on site.

The growing list of families waiting to enter the shelter system is served by a patchwork of state agencies and nonprofit organizations doing what they can to help. But advocates said they're increasingly worried about families who lack the assistance they need.

Since early December, the state has opened three overflow sites, in Quincy, Revere and Cambridge. An effort funded through United Way of Massachusetts Bay has so far resulted in five privately-run overflow sites, including three in Boston and two in Worcester County.

All together, these sites can support just over 250 families, which the state estimates is about 800 individuals. A spokesperson for the state said the overflow sites are almost always full.

"We see families sleeping outside every single week. I think that in and of itself is an indicator that this problem is beyond terrible."

Rachel Hand

While some of the overflow shelters are hotel rooms or other private accommodations, others offer communal accommodations.

At one site, 200 cots line two rooms. A spokesperson for the state said officials are working to install temporary showers, so the staff can stop taking families elsewhere to bathe. The families must leave each morning and cannot return until evening. State officials acknowledged the overflow sites are insufficient for every family on the waitlist.

"We have opened multiple safety-net sites, but there remains an unmet need, and we urgently need more sites,” said Lieutenant General Leon Scott Rice, who oversees the state’s family shelter system, in a statement.

Advocates for unhoused families lament the fact that large swaths of the state have no overflow sites, citing western Massachusetts as one example.

Ady-Bell, of the Central West Justice Center, said it seems unfair that her clients have to travel hours away if they get into an overflow shelter. The burden of that travel, she said, falls hardest on children.

“They're now being yanked away from maybe what is the most stable part of their lives, which is their school, their classmates, their friends,” Ady-Bell said. “And then many of my clients are working — this is the working poor — and they're at risk of losing their jobs, which is totally counterproductive.”

State officials said they’re working to open more overflow sites, but they also pointed out that nearly three-quarters of waitlisted families are in Greater Boston. They also said a significant number are newly arrived migrants, a group that comprises nearly half of the families in the state shelter system. State officials have repeatedly asked city and town leaders, and community groups for more help.

“We continue to evaluate additional sites, while also working to help families exit [the shelter system] into stable housing every day,” Rice said in his statement. “We urge municipalities, community organizations, churches and others that might have spaces that can be used as safety-net sites for families to stay to please contact us."

When there’s no space in an overflow shelter, or families are unaware of these sites, parents often scramble to figure out where to spend the night.

“I've had clients who've had to go back to unsafe situations,” said Ady-Bell. “They maybe had an abuser and they're left with making really tough choices about where they can go.”

Many families are doubled up, staying with friends and relatives. Some churches and community groups have opened their doors, but most nights there are groups of people sleeping at Logan Airport because it is open 24 hours a day. Advocates said they also have clients who are sleeping in their cars.

“We see families sleeping outside every single week,” said Rachel Hand, executive director of Family Promise North Shore Boston. “I think that, in and of itself, is an indicator that this problem is beyond terrible.”

Hand’s organization developed a flier to help families safely stay in their cars overnight, including information about why it is unsafe to sleep while the engine is running, and how to select a good location to park at night.

Some advocates worry the lack of family shelter space is having a ripple effect. Herzig, of the Northeast Justice Center, noted the impact on community institutions.

“I am in pretty close contact with social workers at a hospital in our service area, and they are saying that even for newborn babies — which should be the first priority in the new waitlist system — they're being told [by the state]: ‘Yeah, the family's eligible, but can you just keep them, hold them there for longer,’ because they don't have a place for them,” said Herzig, who represents families north of Boston. “That's straining a small community hospital. It's kind of a crazy situation.”

The hospital didn’t respond to multiple interview requests.

State officials said they meet regularly with hospital leadership to coordinate services for homeless families. The state said hospital leaders have not raised concerns about keeping families with newborns longer than medically necessary because of shelter capacity.

As the waitlist outpaces both the rate at which families are leaving the shelter system and the expansion of overflow shelter, advocates said the strain on families and local institutions is likely to become more acute.