Massachusetts spent more than $1.96 billion on Emergency Assistance shelter across fiscal years 2024 and 2025 — a program that ran roughly 3x its FY22 baseline. Most of that money was authorized by emergency supplemental budgets AFTER the spending happened. The defensible single number is not "cost of immigration" — it is the EA shelter line, plus a few smaller programs that explicitly cover non-citizens.
The annual spending trajectory
| Fiscal year | EA program spend | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FY22 (pre-surge) | ~$200M order of magnitude | Boston Globe |
| FY23 (Jul 22 – Jun 23) | ~$325M reported | Same |
| FY24 (Jul 23 – Jun 24) | ~$894M actual (some reports cite ~$955M with all wraparound) | Mass Fiscal / EOHLC |
| FY25 (Jul 24 – Jun 25) | $706.8M through Apr 17, 2025; projected $1.064B at year-end | Fox News on $1B FY25 projection |
| FY26 (Jul 25 – Jun 26) | $276M base appropriation | Mass FY26 line 70040101 |
| Two-year tab (FY24 + FY25) | ~$1.96B | New Bedford Guide; NBC Boston |
The per-family cost
The state's own weekly cost reports — published by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities — set the per-family figure at $3,389 per week as of late 2024 / early 2025. That is approximately $176,000 per family per year.
| Period | Weekly cost per family | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-2024 | $2,932/week | Fall River Reporter |
| Late 2024 / early 2025 | $3,389/week (~$176K/yr/family) | Mass Fiscal / EOHLC |
| Per-person (peak) | ~$1,000/week per individual | Same |
| Daily room rate (state hotel contract) | $214/day for shelter, food, case management | Boston Globe |
For context: $176,000 per family per year is roughly three times the median Yarmouth single-family-home property tax bill, or roughly twice the median Yarmouth household income.
The supplemental budget paper trail
The Healey administration funded the EA expansion through a series of emergency supplemental budgets — most of them passed AFTER the spending had already occurred under the right-to-shelter mandate.
| Date | Amount | Source of funds | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 19, 2023 | $250M | Transitional Escrow | First emergency supp |
| April 26, 2024 | $426M | Transitional Escrow | Installed 9-month length-of-stay cap. Vote: House 117–36, Senate 29–9 |
| Feb 28, 2025 | $425M | General fund mix | Required eligibility-verification reforms. Providers Council |
| FY24 supps total | ~$676M | Transitional Escrow | Plus base appropriation |
| FY24 + FY25 supps | ~$1.1B | Mixed | On top of base |
Every one of these supplementals was an after-the-fact authorization. The state spent the money first under the right-to-shelter mandate; the Legislature voted to refill the bucket. That is the legal opposite of "appropriation precedes obligation" — the basic rule that supposed to govern public spending.
Where the money went
At peak, more than 100 hotels statewide held "Bridge Shelter" contracts with the Commonwealth. The Boston Globe's August 2024 ownership investigation identified two family hospitality groups holding the majority of high-volume contracts, with documented above-market nightly rates. State-paid rates included:
- $229/night Holiday Inn Express, Waltham (vs. $110 published rate)
- $165/night Days Inn, Salisbury
- $210.25/night hotel, Pittsfield (~15 rooms)
- $198/night hotel, Great Barrington (~15 rooms)
The Commonwealth also paid $9.9M in FY25 alone to deploy National Guard troops staffing shelter sites. At the August 2023 peak, up to 250 Guard personnel were activated.
What this has to do with Yarmouth
Two things, both direct.
First: Yarmouth has actual lived experience with this program. The state attempted to place migrant families at the Yarmouth Resort on Route 28 in August 2023 — halted by code-enforcement issues — and did house six migrant families at the Yarmouth Harborside Suites from September 2023 through April 2024. The Select Board pushed back publicly. This town isn't theorizing about state shelter policy; it's lived through it.
Second: when the federal government cuts grants to a state, those cuts cascade. State backfills first. Then towns backfill. Yarmouth is being asked, on the same May 19 ballot that contains override Questions 1 and 2 plus a library debt exclusion, to take on additional federal-funding-cut risk. The same property taxpayer is the absorber on every line.
That's the pitch. Vote NO on Question 4. See exactly what Yarmouth has at risk.