REGION

Finding emergency shelter

More families who can't afford housing being placed in motels

By Alexander Reid , Globe Staff, 12/2/2001

uests at the Seashore Motel are usually transients who need a place to spend the night before heading back on the road. But the Nantasket Avenue establishment has also become a refuge for homeless families from across Massachusetts.

Homeless families are overwhelming the state's emergency shelter system and are setting up makeshift households in places like the Seashore Motel.

They bring with them microwave ovens, hot plates, and small refrigerators. They buy groceries from local markets and wash their clothes in laundromats. They also bring hopes of finding more permanent housing.

Pamela Glynn, a cashier at Home Depot, moved to the Seashore with her two children in mid-October after being evicted from her apartment in Hingham.

''My husband and I divorced and I couldn't pay the rent without his income,'' said Glynn, 39. Her children, Michele and Bryan, attend school in Hingham. ''We paid $1,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. I can't afford that and there's nothing else out here that's cheaper.''

The trend is being driven by a spike in the number of homeless families needing emergency shelter in the past six months. State officials expect the numbers to increase further.

''It's a dynamic caseload; it's always changing,'' said Dick Powers, spokesman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance. ''People have all sorts of problems forcing them out of their homes. As the economy gets worse we'll see more.''

The increase follows a period in which the number of homeless families needing emergency shelter decreased dramatically. In 1993, the number of families living in motels peaked at 450, but by the summer of 1996 there weren't any families living in motels. In August 1999, the state placed eight families. In mid-June of this year, the state housed 95 families in motel rooms. By early November, the number more than tripled to 344 families, and last week, there were 297 families living in 27 motels in the eastern portion of the state alone.

In Southeastern Massachusetts, families are being housed temporarily at motels in Braintree, Brockton, Hull Mattapoisett, Raynham, and Wareham. About one-fourth of the families do not receive public cash assistance.

Motels are the most readily available alternative when there is no space left in the state's family shelter system. Across Massachusetts, there are 928 state-funded rooms in shelters for homeless families. But families are staying in the shelters longer because of difficulties finding places to live. This leaves little capacity for new families coming into the system.

The average stay in a motel is 30 days, according to Powers. Rooms are leased at market prices. At the Seashore Motel, a room costs $71.50 a night.

Often families are moved to motels a long distance from their home communities. Glynn was initially moved into a room at the Carriage House on Route 1 in Peabody. She commuted every day to Hingham, where her children attended school. ''Luckily, we had a car so I could drive them every morning to school, wait for them, and drive back to Peabody in the afternoon,'' she said. ''I was glad when they transferred me down here to Hull, because it's closer.''

Jaime Lubanski, 24, of Chelsea, has been staying at the Seashore with her husband and two children since mid-October. Lubanski has spruced up the room with touches of home. A Halloween pumpkin sits outside the door. Christmas decorations and lights adorn the windows. Inside the room are family photos and a large toy chest. Two Christmas stockings hang from the wall.

Lubanski lived with her mother in a three-bedroom apartment in Chelsea until a family dispute. The Department of Transitional Assistance placed them in a Revere motel, but Lubanski protested. ''I just couldn't live there with cockroaches crawling all around,'' she said. ''So they moved me down here. I'd never even heard of Hull, but I like this room. It's clean.''

She has prepared her new home for an extended stay. Food supplies are stacked on shelves. Perishable items are kept in a mini-refrigerator. She cooks with a hot plate and microwave. During the day, she stays in the room with Timothy, 5, and Samantha, 3, while her husband goes to Chelsea, where he works as a loader on a shipping dock.

''It's not an ideal situation for us, but hopefully we won't be here forever,'' Lubanski said. ''I'm not looking for a free ride. It's just that we can't afford what's out there.''

The hope for homeless families living in motels is for space to open up in a family shelter, but those prospects are slim. Marge Telford, director of the Plymouth Area Coalition for the Homeless, said it is not uncommon for families to spend more than six months in the agency's Kingston shelter. The shelter has 10 bedrooms.

The other alternative for families living in motels is to find an affordable apartment, but those prospects are also slim, as rents in many communities can easily exceed $1,000 a month. Caseworkers encourage people to call local housing authorities to inquire about Section 8 certificates, but most of them are already taken, said Beth Bresnahan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

The state is preparing to accommodate more families. The department's motel room budget, which was $3.1 million last year, is estimated at $15 million for the current fiscal year. Powers said the money would allow the state to help up to 600 families.

This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's South Weekly section on 12/2/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.