Massachusetts housing officials will hold a hearing in Springfield Monday on controversial regulations concerning the homeless. WAMC’s Paul Tuthill reports
Advocates for the homeless say the state is restricting eligibility for emergency shelter in order to reduce the number of families that must be put up in motel rooms at a cost of $3,000 per month. The states Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development, Aaron Gornstein said while the state is focusing on homelessness prevention programs and developing more affordable housing, he insists no one is put in harms way
The state currently has 17 hundred homeless families sheltered in motel rooms, that number has held fairly steady over the last year.