Families in Cambridge Shelter Begin to Find Housing, Easing Bottleneck

The monthslong bottleneck in Massachussetts’ emergency shelter system is finally beginning to dissipate after state officials imposed a five-day limit on families’ stays in temporary respite centers.

Of the 42 families currently staying in the Cambridge TRC, 29 have signed leases for permanent housing, City Housing Liaison Maura Pensak told the City Council on Monday.

Pensak also said that none of the four TRCs across the state are at their maximum capacity — a welcome shift for case workers and officials who have struggled for months to transition families out of the facility.

Of the families at the Cambridge TRC that have secured housing, however, none will be staying in the city, Pensak said.

The state allows for a 30-day extension on top of the initial five-day limit for families who have applied for rental units. But this stands in stark contrast to Cambridge, where many wait for years to make it to the top of Cambridge Housing Authority’s lengthy affordable housing waitlist.

Instead, Pensak said, more families are using funding from HomeBASE — a state program that provides up to $45,000 over three years for families to use for rent and relocation expenses — even if that entails moving out of the area or the state.

“It’s both finding a unit that is really affordable in the long term, and making sure that you stretch HomeBASE as far as you can go,” Pensak said. “The less expensive the unit is to begin with, the longer you’re going to be able to stretch that money.”

The flow of families out of the shelter comes after several residents told The Crimson that they were living in poor conditions and unsure about when they would be forced out of the facility. Though the state imposed the five-day limit in July, it went largely unenforced at the Cambridge TRC.

But Pensak said that the limit is now successfully transitioning families out of the TRC, and in some cases, into the regular shelter system. She added that the TRC has begun to accept new families after pausing intake for several weeks.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.