‘We looked’: Audit report criticizes Healey administration’s handling of emergency shelter system

BOSTON — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s Office released an audit report on Tuesday that highlights what they are calling contract mismanagement and the improper and unlawful use of the emergency shelter system.

That audit found a contract for food services was done in a no-bid fashion. It says the executive office of housing and livable communities failed to provide adequate oversight for food delivery services which resulted in overpayments on nearly 10% of deliveries. “There is a difference between a true emergency that is short-term and just executing a contract for several months and citing it as an emergency,” DiZoglio tells Boston 25 News.

The report also found that a company that provided transportation during this period charged taxpayers several million dollars—citing that it was unlawfully executed for longer than it should and was never put out for bid.

“We looked and we found that there was for example a bus ride that had been taken that was over four thousand close to five thousand dollars for a trip that was taken just a few miles down the road,” said DiZoglio. “We looked at some of the exorbitant fees that were being charged with respect to rides being given and then when we compared those rides with other options for transportation other transportation options were available at just a fraction of the costs,” she added.

Governor Healey announced closures of emergency shelter systems on Monday and said the number of families in shelters dropped below five thousand for the first time since July of 2023. It’s a decrease she says is a result of reforms.

“I haven’t seen it yet so we’ll take a look but, you know I could tell you this when it came to the shelter situation, the Baker administration was dealing with this and there was a big surge during their time that continued as I took office, and we’ve worked really hard to do a few things,” Governor Healey tells Boston 25 News. “One, we came forward with reforms because the then existing shelter system didn’t have the infrastructure to handle families in Massachusetts even without a surge and so we’ve made a lot of reforms and as a result you see numbers going down for folks who are in shelter,” Healey added.

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