Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced the closure of all remaining hotel shelters in the Bay State amid the formal termination of her executive emergency focused on the state’s Biden-era migrant influx.
Meanwhile, Mike Kennealy — her Republican rival in the 2026 gubernatorial sweeps who also served as the state’s housing secretary under GOP Gov. Charlie Baker — is telling the Democrat, “I told you so.”
Healey described her emergency order period as a success, saying that when she took over from Baker, “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,” Healey said, as the state employed hotels, community centers and even a defunct prison to house the influx.
IT’LL UPEND THE COMMUNITY: PA TOWN ROILED BY TALK OF MIGRANT HOUSING IN CIVIL-WAR ERA ORPHANAGE
In 1983, then-Gov. Michael Dukakis signed what remains the nation’s only statewide right-to-shelter law, which set in motion the conditions for such a migrant housing crisis.
Healey and the Democratic-majority legislature in Boston revised Dukakis’ law to a six-month limit on that right, and to require proof of residency as well as proper immigration paperwork with some exceptions.
Kennealy said he warned Healey about a “potential, looming migrant crisis – I warned her in writing.”
“She didn’t listen,” he posted Tuesday, accusing Healey of “playing politics” with the Biden-era migrant crisis and “selling false hope” to migrants and taxpayers.
“The hotels may be closed for now, but the crisis lives on through the HomeBASE program and runaway spending,” Kennealy said, adding that if elected he will “audit and fix it.”
Kennealy’s comments came weeks after a report showed Bay Staters will spend as much as $1 billion cumulatively on the state’s emergency shelter program in FY-2025, with migrant families making up a significant share of those receiving assistance.
The costs work out at about $3,496 per week per family, or around $1,000 per person per week for the program, known as the Emergency Assistance system, according to the state’s Executive Office for Housing and Livable Communities.
A Healey spokesperson told the Boston Herald on Monday that the governor “inherited a disaster of a shelter system” from Kennealy, whom she said offered scant substantive advice.
“Gov. Healey is the one who took action to implement a length of stay limit, mandate criminal background checks, require residents to prove Massachusetts residency and lawful immigration status, and get families out of hotels,” Karissa Hand told the paper.
A Kennealy spokesperson told the paper the now-candidate had warned both Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll of the impending crisis in-person.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
