Right-to-Shelter Lawsuit Filed in Massachusetts

UPDATE:

Judge Declines to Issue Preliminary Order Halting Changes to Right to Shelter Law

A Superior Court judge declined to issue an order temporarily blocking the State’s proposed changes to the Right-to-Shelter Law. The ruling, which follows an emergency hearing in Lawyers for Civil Rights’ class action lawsuit, finds that the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities failed to give the Legislature 90 days advance notice of the proposed changes, but that Plaintiffs lack “standing” to challenge this failure in court. For this and other reasons, the Court denied the requested temporary relief.

LCR is evaluating next steps for the litigation. In the meantime, the ball is squarely in the Legislature’s court to respond to this humanitarian crisis.

The case is Alcarraz et al. v. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, et al., Suffolk Superior Court No. 2384CV02449.

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Class Action Lawsuit Filed to Stop Massachusetts From Undermining Right-to-Shelter Law

Destitute Families With Children Seek Emergency Court Order Preventing Nov. 1 Cut-Off

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 destitute families and pregnant women. In response, Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a class action lawsuit to preserve and protect the law.

Filed on behalf of three families on the brink of homelessness, the lawsuit seeks an emergency court hearing and a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop the State from undermining the Right-to-Shelter law. As the Complaint outlines, the unprecedented 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.”

These changes are unprecedented and will have a profound impact on hundreds of vulnerable families. Under well-established law, the State is required to seek input from the public and from affected families before altering this program of life-changing and life-saving importance. This is precisely why the class action lawsuit filed today focuses on flaws in the State’s process of making and implementing its proposed changes.

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Right-to-Shelter Lawsuit Filed in Massachusetts