CEO of Massachusetts Non-Profit behind Migrant Shelter Management Earned $417K in 2023

The CEO of one of the companies overseeing operations at hotels being used to house migrants in Massachusetts earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2023, according to tax filings.

Melinda Matthews, the president and chief executive officer of Eliot Community Human Services, the non-profit company responsible for providing management services to several Massachusetts hotels housing migrants, earned $417,970 in 2023. The earnings are comprised of a base salary, retirement and deferred compensation and other nontaxable benefits.

Eliot Community Human Services is currently providing services to three hotels serving as migrant shelters: Quality Inn in Revere, Quality Inn in Quincy and the Holiday Inn in Marlborough, where a former manager for Eliot, Jon Fetherston, recently exposed conditions at the hotel that include reported child rape and other violent incidents.

Fall River Reporter has requested a copy of the contract Eliot has with the state through the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. A response has not be received as of this time.

Office for Campaign and Political Finance show that Matthews made a $1,000 donation to Governor Maura Healey’s campaign fund in September of 2024.

Massachusetts is expected to spend more than $1 billion dollars on the migrant crisis this fiscal year, despite funding currently set to run out at the end of the month. The Healey administration is expected to file a bill to secure funding through the end of the fiscal year.