FEMA Awards $7.3 Million to Massachusetts for COVID-19 Homeless Care Costs

BOSTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will send more than $7.3 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for the costs of providing outpatient care sites to homeless populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $7,339,766 public-assistance grant will reimburse the Commonwealth for setting up and operating isolation and recovery sites in Everett, Lexington, Northampton, Pittsfield, and Taunton for homeless individuals who contracted COVID-19 between April 2020 and May 2021.

By contracting temporary nursing staff to monitor the health, safety, and welfare of homeless individuals at these sites, they served to reduce capacity pressures on hospitals, since hospitals could safely discharge stable COVID-19 positive homeless individuals to these sites.

“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with these costs,” FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich said. “Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and our success as a nation.”

FEMA’s public-assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency. So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.5 billion in public-assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the Commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.