An asylum seeker who received $30,000 in taxpayer funds to pay for housing costs (deposit, rent, etc.) has already run out of money in one year and is now seeking taxpayer-funded housing elsewhere.
Her name is Nadine, according to a profile by The Boston Globe, and she came to the U.S. from Haiti in 2021. She then lived in a “shelter apartment” with other families up until she was approved for Massachusetts’ HomeBASE program.
“HomeBASE helps families who have been found eligible for Emergency Assistance (EA) Family Shelter by providing up to $30,000 over a 2-year period,” according to the program’s website.
Massachusetts: We all know about the staggering cost of living faced by citizens of the commonwealth, so how are migrants able to find housing outside of Maura’s motels? Well, have you heard of the HomeBase program? pic.twitter.com/5r4bnQ6Iax
— New England National Party (@TheNenp) June 2, 2025
The program originally offered an additional $15,000 for the third year, but that portion of the program was cancelled in June.
After being accepted into the program, Nadine, her 4-year-old son, and her boyfriend subsequently moved into a three-bedroom apartment that she chose, costing a whopping $3,000 a month in rent, 66 percent of which was paid for by the program.
It’s not clear why, given her financial difficulties, she chose to rent a three-bedroom apartment instead of, say, a two-bedroom or, even better, one-bedroom apartment.
Everything was copasetic afterward until Nadine lost her job in April and her boyfriend moved out, leaving her strapped for cash.
HomeBASE “was a dead end for me,” she told the Globe.
She has since turned to a volunteer refugee resettlement organization for rehousing.
“At the Immigrant Family Services Institute, Elizabeth Davis-Edwards, the founder and CEO of the volunteer refugee resettlement organization WelcomeNST, ran through a documentation checklist with Nadine: asylum status, work authorization, driver’s license,” according to the Globe.
“When Nadine pulled out her driver’s license, providing the final proof of qualification for rehousing, the interviewers broke out in cheers and applause. Her family is one of 10 who have been matched so far to a volunteer resettlement team, which will raise rent money and help Nadine find a job to eventually support herself and her son,” the paper notes.
Nadine was thrilled.
“NST was really my only option,” she said as she smiled in relief.
Although this is all great for migrants, critics have said asylum seekers like her are depriving needy Americans, particularly the homeless, of the help that they too could use and desperately need.
Can you imagine being this Massachusetts homeless mother, unable to find housing and running from her abuser while migrants are flown into your state, housed in a hotel for two years and then moved into luxury apartments using HomeBase? @MassGovernor how do you sleep at night… pic.twitter.com/YsXRxsr1av
— Jessica Machado (@jessmachadoshow) June 26, 2025
“The Commonwealth is now paying up to $30,000 in rent subsidies to migrants with little to no vetting, no long-term housing solution, and no accountability built in,” local radio and TV reporter and podcaster Jon Fetherston complained in a tweet.
“Meanwhile, homeless veterans, low-income seniors, disabled residents, and families on public housing waitlists are left begging for scraps…often told ‘there’s just no money’ or ‘we’re doing the best we can,’” he added.
Critics have also noted that HomeBASE is costing taxpayers far more money than simply housing migrants in shelters was costing them.
“Massachusetts is on pace to spend $97 million on the HomeBASE program in the current fiscal year, a tenfold increase since FY2022, when the state spent approximately $9.5 million housing at-risk families,” according to a press release from the Massachusetts Republican Party.
“The migrant shelter crisis is not over, and cost-shifting is not leadership,” party chair Amy Carnevale said in a statement. “As much as [Massachusetts Gov.] Maura Healey would like the public to think she is improving the system, the data tells a different story. Instead, this is simply shelters by another name: Taxpayers are giving migrant families nearly limitless free rental assistance.”
“Meanwhile, federal action means these families won’t be receiving work permits anytime soon. It’s time for voters to reject Maura Healey’s failed approach and return a Republican governor to the corner office, where bipartisan reform will bring this human tragedy to an end,” she added.
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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