Group files class action lawsuit against Massachusetts officials for artificial “cap” on emergency shelter services

BOSTON – State officials charged with implementing Massachusetts’ landmark “Right-to-Shelter” Law have announced that on November 1, 2023, they plan to impose an artificial “cap” on services and begin denying emergency shelter to families and pregnant women. In response, Lawyers for Civil Rights today filed a class action lawsuit.

Filed on behalf of three families that LFCR says is on the brink of homelessness, the lawsuit seeks an emergency court hearing and a Temporary Restraining Order to stop the State from not continuing the Right-to-Shelter law.

The group feels that the changes proposed for the emergency shelter program are being rushed into place, without any public process or required notice to the Legislature.

“When the Legislature funded the program, it specifically required the State agency in charge (Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities) to give the Legislature 90 days notice of any changes—time for the Legislature to evaluate and potentially prevent the changes.”

“It is illegal and unconscionable for the State to rush these changes into place and force homeless families into the streets just as the winter months are approaching,” said Oren Sellstrom, Litigation Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights. “The law requires the State to proceed in an orderly manner, to hear from the public, and to give the Legislature a chance to weigh in on—and potentially forestall—these draconian changes.”

Proposed changes to the Right-to-Shelter Law include:

Imposing an artificial “cap” on the total number of shelter spaces and units the State will provide to homeless families as part of its emergency housing assistance program; and

Creating a “waiting list” for families eligible for emergency shelter.

“Without court intervention, these material changes will cause immeasurable harm to desperate children, families, and pregnant women who are eligible for emergency shelter today but will be denied that right as of an arbitrary November 1 deadline,” added Oren Sellstrom, Litigation Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights. “They will be turned away from emergency shelter, with every day bringing new threats to their safety, health, and wellbeing.”