The last of three shelters in Lexington, which have housed hundreds of immigrants and local homeless families over the past year, will close its doors by June 30 as a result of Gov. Maura Healey’s updated shelter-closing plan.
Healey stated 32 shelters will close this summer due to decreased demand and as a cost-saving measure in a press release posted Monday. She previously directed those shelters to close by the end of 2025.
“I’m pleased that we are ahead of schedule, with more families getting jobs and moving to stable housing,” Healey said in the press release.
Three shelters opened in Lexington during a recent influx of refugees, particularly from Haiti and Venezuela. The first two emergency assistance shelters opened in the fall of 2023, followed by another at the National Guard Armory on Bedford Street in April 2024. The shelter at the Armory was a ‘Rapid Track’ shelter — a group shelter where families can stay for up to 30 days while working with case managers to find permanent housing. At its peak, the Armory hosted about 200 people, Bruce Neumann, president of Lexington’s Refugee Assistance Program, or LexRAP, told LexObserver.
The shelter at the Armory closed at the end of April. Families that couldn’t find permanent housing by its closure were transferred to different shelters, Tara Smith, press secretary for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, or EOHLC, told the Observer. The same will happen for families who don’t find housing by the time the remaining Lexington shelter closes in June.
Neumann thinks the decrease in demand for shelters could be due to Healey imposing a cap of 7,500 families on the state’s shelter system in 2023, which created a barrier for people seeking refuge here.
As the leader of LexRAP, Neumann has witnessed many families graduate from local shelters.
Twenty-five families that were living in the town’s remaining shelter found housing in Waltham and Lowell and are waiting for approval from HomeBASE for assistance. HomeBASE is a state-funded program that provides families living in emergency shelters up to $30,000 over a two year period to help pay for rent, utilities, furniture, and moving expenses.
LexRAP volunteers are also doing what they can to help. Neumann is currently assisting a Brazilian man, who operated a forklift for work when he lived in South America, obtain his forklift certification in the US so he can make a living. The group also provides English-language learning assistance and healthcare resources, among other services, to the many immigrants who pass through Lexington.
Over 200,000 of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants were living in the Bay State in the fall of 2024, during the refugee influx, Karissa Hand, Healey’s press secretary, told LexObserver in November.
Fast forward to today, the number of families living in Massachusetts shelters sits below 5,000 for the first time since July 2023, a report by Matthew Gorzkowicz, secretary of the executive office for administration and finance, and Edward Augustus, secretary of housing and livable communities, found.
Republican candidate for governor Mike Kennealy argued Healey is “too little too late” in closing shelters.
“Maura Healey’s migrant shelters have showcased her failed policies and poor judgment, and today’s announcement is no different,” Kennealy, who is also a Lexington resident, said in a press release Monday. “Maura Healey routinely breaks her promises, so we’ll have to see if she keeps this one and actually closes the remaining hotels this summer.”
Kennealy said he’ll establish residency requirements for Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter system so shelters exclusively serve local families. He also wants to “end the state’s sanctuary policies.”
Healey has reiterated, however, that “Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state” several times over the past six months. While there is no singular definition of what a sanctuary state is, it’s generally understood that sanctuary states work to protect immigrants by limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities such as ICE. Healey has stated that the commonwealth continues to work with law enforcement to uphold public safety.
Healey, Augustus, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll expressed their thanks to municipalities and shelter staff for their help managing the immigration crisis in Monday’s press release.
“We’re grateful to our team and partners for working so hard to help families leave shelter for stable housing, which is better for families and better for taxpayers,” said Driscoll.