Migrant Crisis in Massachusetts: Shelters, Costs, and Aftermath

The Massachusetts migrant crisis began in 2022, when a sharp rise in arriving families overwhelmed the state’s Emergency Assistance shelter program, prompted Governor Maura Healey to declare a state of emergency in August 2023, and ultimately cost roughly $1.8 billion over two fiscal years before all hotel shelters closed and the emergency ended on August 1, 2025. The system that replaced it is smaller, stricter, and operating alongside a federal immigration enforcement campaign that has reshaped daily life in several Massachusetts cities.

How the Shelter System Was Overwhelmed

Massachusetts has guaranteed emergency shelter to families with children and pregnant women since 1983, under Chapter 23B, Section 30. Unlike New York City’s court-enforced right to shelter, the Massachusetts program is “subject to appropriation,” which lets the legislature cap funding and adjust the entitlement.¹ That difference became the lever the state eventually pulled.

Caseloads had been climbing before Healey took office in January 2023. By October 2022, 3,412 families were enrolled, and the state had already resumed using hotels and motels to house them. New arrivals then accelerated, climbing from about 68 families a day in March 2023 to more than 100 a day by that July.² At the point of the state of emergency, roughly half of the families in the system were migrant families and half were long-term Massachusetts residents facing homelessness.³

Caps, Waitlists, and Stay Limits

In fall 2023, the administration announced the system could not hold more than 7,500 families, roughly 24,000 people. Starting November 1, 2023, the state stopped adding new shelter units and launched a waitlist with a four-tier triage system prioritizing women with high-risk pregnancies, families with infants, families with serious medical conditions, and those at risk of domestic violence.⁴ Healey appointed retired Lieutenant General L. Scott Rice as Emergency Assistance Director to run the response. Without the cap, officials projected the system would have reached 13,000 families by summer 2024.⁵

In April 2024, Healey signed legislation adding $426 million in funding and imposing a nine-month limit on EA shelter stays, the first durational cap in the program’s history. Veterans, pregnant women, and people who were employed or in job training could get a 90-day extension.⁶ Other changes followed:

Temporary “respite centers” for waitlisted families, with stays initially capped at 30 days and later cut to five days by August 2024.²
A requirement that all family members prove Massachusetts residency and lawful immigration status, with limited exemptions.⁵
Mandatory CORI background checks for all adults before shelter entry.⁵
Required participation in workforce training, job searches, English classes, or housing searches, reviewed every 60 days.⁷
A revised priority list favoring veterans, people with specific medical needs, domestic violence victims, and those made homeless by disasters or no-fault evictions.²

A separate program, the Work Authorization Legal Clinic launched in November 2023 with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, served more than 1,000 migrants in its first week and connected them to MassHire employment services.⁸ Even so, by April 2024, of roughly 11,000 immigrants who had entered Massachusetts in 2023, only about 2,700 had received work permits and roughly 500 had been placed into jobs.⁹

What It Cost

Before the surge, annual spending on the EA program ran between $100 million and $200 million. By August 2023, monthly spending alone had reached about $45 million.¹⁰

Fiscal year 2024 spending reached $856 million, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.¹¹ FY25 spending climbed to $942 million, bringing the two-year total to roughly $1.8 billion. Direct shelter costs accounted for $801.5 million of the FY25 figure, with another $98.7 million going to exit programs such as HomeBASE.¹² At peak, the state was spending an average of $3,870 per week per family.¹³

For fiscal year 2027, Healey proposed $259 million for the EA system, a sharp drop reflecting lower caseloads after the hotels closed. The proposal also added a $7.5 million “Family Shelter Diversion” line item to keep families out of shelter entirely.¹⁴

How the Emergency Ended

At the peak, Massachusetts leased more than 100 hotels and motels as shelters. The wind-down ran ahead of schedule. By July 2025, the number of families in the system had fallen below 5,000 for the first time since July 2023.¹⁵ On June 30, 2025, the state closed 24 hotel shelters in a single day. The final four closed on August 1, six months ahead of schedule.¹⁶ The Norfolk Rapid Shelter at the former Bay State Correctional Center and the Chelsea Rapid Shelter also closed.⁵

Healey formally terminated the state of emergency on August 1, 2025. By then, the total number of families in shelter was lower than when she took office in January 2023, and the administration reported that 85 to 90 percent of remaining families were long-term Massachusetts residents. From January through August 2025, about 4,500 families exited the system while 1,500 entered.⁵

Exiting families moved through 91 non-hotel group shelter sites that remain open, about 2,000 state-subsidized apartments, and HomeBASE, which provides up to $30,000 in rental support over two years. About half of the 11,300 families that exited emergency shelters over the preceding two and a half years were supported by HomeBASE, which grew to nearly 7,800 enrolled families. The program faced a projected $18 million shortfall, prompting the state to pause an expansion that would have offered a third year of help.¹⁷

The Shelter System Today

As of March 2026, there were 1,522 families in EA shelter units, with roughly 3,300 units available statewide. The state is rebidding contracts with up to 50 nonprofit shelter providers for the first time in roughly two decades, targeting 3,000 to 3,200 units beginning July 1, 2026.¹⁸

Rules are tighter than during the crisis. Stay limits have been cut from nine months to six, with limited hardship extensions. Adults in each household must take part in at least 30 hours per week of “self-sufficiency activities” such as employment, education, or job training. The overflow “Rapid Shelter Track” was deactivated in January 2026, though providers must be ready to reactivate it if demand climbs.¹⁸

Federal Immigration Enforcement in Massachusetts

As the shelter crisis wound down, federal immigration enforcement in Massachusetts intensified. Two large ICE operations hit the state in 2025:

Operation Patriot in May 2025 produced 1,461 arrests. Governor Healey’s office reported that 46 percent of those detained had no criminal charges or convictions.¹⁹
Operation Patriot 2.0, a four-week operation in September 2025, produced 1,406 arrests. ICE said the operation targeted “transnational organized crime, gangs and egregious illegal alien offenders,” naming MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Trinitarios, and 18th Street gangs. The agency said over 600 of those arrested had significant criminal convictions or pending charges, and 277 had previously been ordered removed by an immigration judge. Healey’s office reported that about 57 percent of those detained had no criminal background.²⁰¹⁹

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agency intended to “flood the zone” in sanctuary jurisdictions, and the Department of Homeland Security publicly criticized Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s sanctuary policies, alleging they “harbor criminals.” Wu defended the city’s policies and testified before Congress in March 2025 in defense of local laws limiting cooperation with ICE.²¹

Healey responded with Executive Order No. 650, which requires judicial warrants for ICE entry into non-public areas of state facilities, limits state resources for civil immigration enforcement, and restricts participation in federal 287(g) agreements unless there is a “clear public safety need.” She also demanded that ICE provide complete information for every person arrested in the state since January 2025 and filed legislation to prohibit enforcement in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and courthouses.¹⁹²²²³

Fallout in the Schools

The combined effect of enforcement activity and family departures has landed hardest on public schools. Between October 2024 and October 2025, statewide enrollment fell by roughly 15,000 students, with English learners accounting for nearly half the decline.²⁴ Total K-12 enrollment dropped to slightly above 900,000, the lowest since the early 1990s.²⁵

Gateway Cities have been hit hardest and have the least room to absorb the loss. Chelsea lost about 350 students and faces an $11 million budget shortfall. Lynn lost more than 600 students between January 2025 and January 2026 and reported a $9 million gap. Revere saw a 4.5 percent enrollment drop, and the share of English learners among departing students jumped from a typical 30 to 35 percent to 43 percent.²⁶

School leaders attribute the declines largely to fear of enforcement. Chelsea officials reported ICE agents appearing on street corners and in school parking lots, and an ICE arrest occurred near a Lynn elementary school in June 2025. In Chelsea, 25 percent of transferring students reported their families were self-deporting to another country, 25 percent were moving out of state, and 50 percent were transferring to other Massachusetts districts. Because English learners generate additional state aid through the Chapter 70 formula, their departures create both educational and financial gaps, and superintendents have been lobbying state legislators for a one-time funding stabilization.²⁶

The legislature also funded a Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative, allocating $5 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget for legal representation for immigrants facing deportation. By late March 2026, attorneys had taken on more than 400 cases, with nearly 700 people qualifying for services and thousands more calling the program’s hotline.²⁷

1
Commonwealth Beacon. How Right to Shelter in Mass Differs From NYC
2
WBUR. Massachusetts Shelter System Changes Timeline
3
WGBH. Mass Shelters Hit Capacity Sending New Migrant Families and Unhoused to Waitlist
4
Mass.gov. Governor Healey Announces States Emergency Family Shelter System Will Reach Capacity
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Mass.gov. Governor Healey Announces Successful Closure of All Hotel Shelters, Ends State of Emergency
6
PBS. Massachusetts Debates How Best to Keep Families Housed Amid Migrant Crisis
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Chapter 23B, Section 30
8
Mass.gov. Healey Driscoll and Biden Harris Administrations Team Up to Assist More Than 1000 Migrants at Work Authorization Clinic
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WBUR. Immigrants Work Authorization Massachusetts
10
WBUR. Massachusetts Family Shelter Finances
11
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Examining Recent Trends in Rental Assistance and Emergency Assistance Shelter Spending
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Boston Herald. Mass Emergency Shelter Spending Over $940M for FY25
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Boston Herald. Mass Emergency Shelter Spending Over $940M for FY25
14
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. MassBudgets In-Depth Analysis of Governor Healeys FY 2027 Budget
15
WCVB. Bay State Correctional Emergency Shelter Hotels Closing July
16
WWLP. Gov Healey Concludes Emergency Shelters Program
17
WBUR. Massachusetts Shelter Hotels Close State Rent Subsidy HomeBASE
18
NBC Boston. Massachusetts Emergency Homeless Family Shelter
19
Mass.gov. Governor Healey Demands Transparency From ICE on Arrests in Massachusetts
20
ICE. ICE Federal Partners Arrest More Than 1400 Illegal Aliens in Massachusetts During Patriot 2.0
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The Guardian. Trump Administration Immigration Crackdown Massachusetts
22
General Court of Massachusetts. House of Representatives Passes PROTECT Act
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General Court of Massachusetts. Senate Passes PROTECT Act
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Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. Mass Public School Enrollment Is Down 14K Nearly Half Were English Language Learners
25
WGBH. Is ICE Causing a Drop in Student Enrollment School Leaders Say Yes
26
Commonwealth Beacon. Climate of Fear Student Enrollment Declining Amid Trumps Immigration Crackdown
27
WBUR. Massachusetts Immigrant Legal Defense Funding Senate