State Spends $2400 to House Family?

Does this even make sense? Common sense seems lacking.

Housing a homeless family in a hotel room at that rate is a monthly cost of $2,400 to the state. Both city officials and Guerra said housing the family in a Brockton apartment would cost less than that.



Brockton homeless family moved to Middleboro motel
By Maria Papadopoulos
Enterprise Staff Writer


MIDDLEBORO — The same day a story ran in The Enterprise about their homeless plight, Ramon Guerra says the state moved him and his four young children from a Brockton motel farther away to another motel in Middleboro.

Guerra, who drives his four children, ages 6 to 13, to two schools in Brockton, said that weekday trip has now increased by 32 miles.

“It’s crazy. It’s frustrating,” said Guerra, 38, whose family has been homeless since 2009, on Sunday.

On Friday, staff at the Quality Inn in Brockton – where Guerra and his four children had been housed in one cramped room since March – told the family to leave, Guerra said.

The motel provides emergency housing for homeless families. It is the same motel where an 18-month-old boy fell from a second-floor window in March. The boy, who survived the fall, had been living there with his mother and 5-year-old sister, but and was taken into custody by the state after the accident.

“They told me, ‘Listen, pack up your stuff, because you’re out of here. You got a transfer,’” said Guerra, 38. “I said, ‘Where am I getting transferred?’”

The Enterprise on Friday published a front-page story about Guerra and his family living in one city motel room on Belmont Street. His children had been dealing with flea bites and living off frozen food heated in a microwave. The family was crammed into a room roughly half the size mandated by state law.

Guerra said he and his children are now sharing one room, similar in size to the Brockton room, at the Days Inn in Middleboro. He said the two beds in the Middleboro room are smaller – full size compared with the queen-size beds his family had slept on in Brockton. There is also one refrigerator, a microwave and a bathroom.

Guerra said he received a transfer letter on Friday from Ellen Lively, homeless coordinator at the Brockton office of the Department of Transitional Assistance.

The letter did not state the reason for the transfer, he said.

Lively and a spokeswoman from the state Department of Transitional Assistance could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Jennifer Manley, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

A Quality Inn manager on Sunday referred all questions to the hotel’s general manager, Sidd Bhowmik, who could not be reached for comment.

The state spent $161.4 million on family shelters in fiscal 2011, up $10 million from the year prior. Already the state is on pace to spend $175.6 million in fiscal 2012, including $56.8 million on HomeBASE, a rental subsidy program for homeless families.

But just three months after rolling out HomeBASE, the program has already required a major cash infusion, and the Department of Housing and Community Development has suspended benefits for new applicants retroactive to Oct. 28, citing “unanticipated demand” for services.

Earlier this month, Gov. Deval Patrick approved an additional $39.2 million in funding for emergency housing assistance in a mid-year spending bill, including $18.2 million for the Home BASE program that increases funding for the new initiative to $56.8 million in fiscal 2012.

Since the program’s launch in August, requests for shelter and housing assistance skyrocketed from 500 to 1,000 in August and 932 in September, according to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The program was designed to move families out of temporary shelters and state subsidized hotel and motel rooms into more permanent housing and surround them with the support services necessary to help them pay rent and keep their homes.

As of March, there were 166 homeless families living in Brockton hotels, at an average cost to the state of $80 a night.

Housing a homeless family in a hotel room at that rate is a monthly cost of $2,400 to the state. Both city officials and Guerra said housing the family in a Brockton apartment would cost less than that.

“This has become a cash cow for hotels. I’m looking at the safety issue and the health issue,” Board of Health Executive Director Louis Tartaglia said Thursday.

Tartaglia said he is seeking guidance from the state, but is having difficulty getting it. He said he would not issue any citations until state officials return his calls and explain whether the state sanitary code applies to emergency housing.

Meanwhile, Brockton can provide school transportation for Guerra’s children from Middleboro to Brockton, Brockton Superintendent of Schools Matt Malone said Sunday.

Malone said that it is the responsibility of the district where a child was living when they became homeless to provide transportation.

“It’s unfortunate that these situations happen all the time. When they’re brought to us, we address them in a humane manner and with empathy,” said Malone, who urged Guerra to call his office on Monday to set up transportation.

But Guerra said he wants to continue driving his children to school. He also wants his children to continue attending school in Brockton, where he said his children are thriving.

Guerra said he and his children have been homeless since 2009, after he lost his job as a truck driving instructor in Florida the year before. He said he lost the job after he had two elbow replacements and that his left arm has metal rods in it.

Before living in area motels, Guerra said his family lived in a partially subsidized apartment and a family shelter in Brockton. He hopes to live in an apartment with his children soon.

“I just tell them this (motel) is a place for now, until we get a home,” Guerra said. “I just don’t get their hopes up.”

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.