Family Homelessness is increasing in Massachusetts1
Click here for the complete fact sheet. |
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Across the state, 10,500 families including over 20,000 children were homeless in 1999; more than 100% increase since 1990. |
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More families are becoming homeless even as 20-30% of the parents in family shelters have jobs and as fewer of them receive welfare benefits. |
| Homelessness in Boston is on the rise.2 |
| On the night of December 9, 2002 the City of Boston conducted its annual homeless census count. It found: |
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6,210 men, women and children were homeless, a 41% increase over the last decade. |
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2,328 parents and children in Boston were staying in an emergency or transitional family shelter setting, an 8.3% increase in just one year. |
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The number of children in shelter has increased by 71% in 10 years—1,367 Boston children in shelter in 2002, up from 800 children in shelter in 1992. |
| Motels are temporary shelter for
hundreds of families.3 |
| When shelters are full, families overflowing the shelter network are placed in roadside motels where they will usually stay for months. Families are placed miles from friends, families, schools, and jobs. Motel rooms lack refrigerators, stoves or microwaves. There is no play area, and little public transportation to get children to school or parents to their jobs. |
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By the end of the 1990s, the state had ended the use of homeless motels. |
| Then, family homelessness again began to rise, shelters became full, and the state once more turned to these motels. |
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In March 2000, about 12 families were placed in motels. By the end of 2002, the state was sheltering
over 500 families in motels every night. |
| Scattered-Site Shelter Apartments versus Motels |
| |
Hotel/Motel |
Scattered Site |
| Cost |
$100-$110/night |
$88-$92/night |
| Included In Cost |
Shelter
One room for all family members often without kitchen facilities; for large families, two rooms are paid for. |
Shelter
Multiple bedrooms as needed, kitchens, common areas, children's play spaces. |
Case Management
see below (additional costs) |
Case Management
Case managers available 40 hrs/week at office site during regular office hours and available 24 hrs/day by pager. |
Housing Search
see below (additional costs) |
Housing Search
Regular support for finding housing included in cost. |
| Additional Costs |
Housing search provided through an outside contract (Housing Assistance Program (HAP)) |
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| Additional Costs |
Health, nutrition, and other emergency needs; DPH's For Families programs, Boston Health Care for the Homeless, and others provide supports including connection to community resources for families in some of the motels. |
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| Location and impact on costs & services |
Motels located on the North Shore, MetroWest, and other areas are often far from the families' home communities. In many cases, they are difficult to access by public transportation. |
Ideally, DTA can place families in apartments located in or near the families' original communities, minimizing disruption in
school attendance and access to community services. |
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| Housing costs are skyrocketing.4 |
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In 2002, Massachusetts was the most expensive state in the nation for renting an apartment, and Boston the fifth most expensive city. |
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The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Boston increased from $875 in 1991 to $1,550 in 1999 – a 77% increase. |
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Even in neighborhoods once thought of as low-rent, the average asking price for a two-bedroom apartment has skyrocketed to $1,300 (Dorchester/Roxbury). |
| Households with the lowest incomes face the worst housing shortage.5 |
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The number of housing units affordable and available to extremely low income households fell dramatically during the 1990s. By the end of the 90s, there were almost 1 million fewer units nationwide available to households with incomes below 30% of area median income than there had been at the beginning of the decade. |
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For every 10 households with extremely low incomes there are now only 4 available housing units they can afford. |
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In the Northeast, the shortage is even more severe with fewer than 37 units affordable and available per 100 extremely low-income households. |
| Housing costs are increasing faster than income.6 |
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Families with incomes below $21,000 in 1997 dollars experienced no increase in income between 1985 and 1995, while rents adjusted for inflation rose by 42%. |
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Rents in eastern Massachusetts rose another 13% between 1996 and 1998. |
| People are spending more for housing.7 |
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Between 1990 and 1998, the number of rental households in this state spending more that half their income on rent increased by 21%. |
| The State is spending less on housing.8 |
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The state’s housing agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), spends millions less on affordable housing today than it did in the late 1980s. The combined state/federal spending on affordable housing has dropped from more than $800 million in 1989 to
around $550 million in 2001 (in inflation adjusted dollars). |
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The biggest cuts have been in housing programs targeted to extremely low-income renters. The state slashed its rental assistance programs by 69% between 1989 and 2002, from more than $100 million then to about $35 million today. State spending on public housing declined from just over $40 million in 1989 to about $30 million today. |
| Funding levels for DHCD over the past decade |
| FY 1989 |
$410 million |
| FY 1995 |
$183 million |
| FY 2002 |
$239 million |
| FY 2003 |
$197 million |
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| Federal spending on housing has declined dramatically.9 |
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Even as the population has grown and housing production costs have increased, HUD’s budget for housing has been slashed. HUD’s FY02 budget of $34.3 billion is only 41% of the FY76 budget of $83.6 billion. |
