People staying in the state’s emergency shelters could be required to leave as early as September — sooner than many advocates thought.capping shelter stays at nine months turns out to be retroactive, state officials told WBUR. That means the clock started ticking for shelter residents back when they first arrived in the shelters.
"It really feels like it's going to throw people into chaos to be told, 'Sometime over the summer: you have to find someplace, any place, to go, or you're going to be on the street.'" Still, Dieufort Fleurissaint, a pastor and executive director of the nonprofit True Alliance Center, said the new deadline could lead people to seek shelter at places like Logan Airport or Boston Medical Center, where many arrivals have gone for help in recent months.