The residency requirements could effectively end the law as it's currently applied, meaning newly arrived immigrants could be ineligible.

Governor Maura Healey said the right-to-shelter laws' “original intent” was not to cover the “waves and waves of people,” including migrant families, who have come into the state in recent years.

BOSTON - The heavily scrutinized right-to-shelter law in Massachusetts would change significantly under a new proposal shared by Gov. Maura Healey Wednesday. The policy that became law in 1983 guarantees emergency housing to homeless families and pregnant women.