By Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
A recalibration in Massachusetts shelter policy could mean the former Best Western’s days as emergency housing are numbered.
New placements at Concord’s Elm Street shelter, temporarily paused last month due to a cockroach infestation, will resume once the property owner and the shelter’s non-profit operator remediate the problem, a state spokesperson said.
But Gov. Maura Healey said on November 22 that the state will phase out the use of hotels to supplement its shelter system in fiscal 2025 and 2026 in favor of “shifting to a more cost-effective and supportive portfolio.”
Hotels and motels “have proven to be the most expensive shelter model and do not provide an ideal environment for long-term shelter to help families get back on their feet,” Healey’s office said.
Hotel rooms often lack space for services, which “can be isolating and [make] it more difficult for case management staff to engage with families,” the governor’s office said.
The Concord Bridge reported on November 22 that the state planned to halt new arrivals at the Inn at Historic Concord while the roach problem is addressed.
Bridge reporting also surfaced reports of other issues in shelter residents’ living spaces, including septic backups, mold, mildew, and leaky or damaged sinks and toilets.
Current contracts for the Concord site will lapse on June 30, 2025.
In an email last Monday morning, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said he did not have a specific date for the Concord shelter’s closure. But he said families and communities will be notified “well in advance [in] order to support as many families as possible to exit to safe and stable housing prior to a site closure.”
The spokesperson said the number of families living at the Concord shelter had dipped to 77, down from 104 on October 30.
