Our investigation found one cause of the prolonged vacancies is the flawed online waitlist system the state rolled out four years ago. "I think it's the most horrible, horrible, inefficient program." David Hedison, Chelmsford housing authority Massachusetts reports the number of families with children staying in emergency shelters has almost doubled in the past year to 6,386. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in August to deal with the wave of homelessness. Massachusetts is spending $45 million a month to house people temporarily at hotels, shelters, college dorms and a military base. The vacancies are aggravating a statewide housing crisis. As 184,000 applicants wait for state-subsidized housing, apartments like this one in Fall River sit empty. About 730 of those have not been rented for at least a year. That’s the amount of time the state allows local housing authorities to take to fill a vacancy. So the vacant apartments translate into millions of Massachusetts taxpayer dollars wasted due to delays and disorder fostered by state and local mismanagement.Īs of the end of July, almost 1,800 of the vacant units, including some with at least three bedrooms, had been empty for more than 60 days. The state pays local housing authorities to maintain and operate the units whether they’re occupied or not. Traducido en español por El Planeta, Boston's Latino daily.Īs they wait, a WBUR and ProPublica investigation found that nobody is living in nearly 2,300 state-funded apartments, with most sitting empty for months or years. In a state with some of the country’s most expensive real estate, Libby is among the 184,000 people - including thousands who are homeless, at risk of losing their homes or living in unsafe conditions - on a waitlist for the state’s 41,500 subsidized apartments. The vast majority of the apartments had been empty longer than 60 days. It’s like the system’s broken.” There were 48 units vacant at the end of July in Fall River's Maple Gardens development, a 25% vacancy rate. She thought she found a potential solution nearly a year ago: She applied for state public housing, a type of subsidized housing that’s almost unique to Massachusetts. Libby earns only a little more than minimum wage working at a hardware store and often has to take unpaid time off when she doesn’t feel well. She can’t find anything else she can afford. It’s like the system’s broken.” Deb Libbyīut Libby’s landlord, who has been trying to get her to leave, now wants her out by the end of the month. She rented an apartment - a converted garage - and spruced it up, patching the walls and repainting all the rooms. Libby, 56, moved to Worcester four years ago, in part to be closer to the doctors treating her for pancreatic cancer. Deb Libby is running out of time to find a place to live.
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