Catholic Charities Inn, an emergency homeless shelter in Brighton, is expected to be entirely evacuated Friday, a week after elevated levels of airborne mold prompted the state to relocate about half of the families, many of them migrants, while the motel was being cleaned.
The state decided to transfer the remaining 23 families during the mold remediation to avoid any disruption the construction may cause on site, said Kevin Connor, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which secured the former motel for homeless families.
“Our goal is to provide a safe and nondisruptive environment for families,” said Connor. “We are grateful to Catholic Charities for maintaining continuity of care as families are transferred to alternative shelter locations as this site is remediated.”
It was unclear why the building was only partially emptied at the end of March. Air testing had identified elevated airborne mold in 24 rooms last month, according to the state.
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The state reopened the former motel as a shelter last summer and hired Catholic Charities to provide case management to the homeless families it took in.
The Brighton motel is owned by JHM River LLC, a Lexington-based firm affiliated with the company that owns the Woburn hotel where the shelter residents were moved last week, according to state documents. State contracts and city records indicate they are both part of Lexington-based Jamsan Management.
Nikul Patel, the registered agent for both companies, did not respond to calls and emails from the Globe on Thursday.
The hotels are among the many facilities and public buildings that have been repurposed to accommodate Massachusetts’ rapidly growing population of homeless families. Massachusetts has a unique right-to-shelter law that requires shelter be provided to homeless parents with children and to those who are pregnant. The Healey administration has begun to impose limits on the aid, however, as a housing crisis has coincided with the surge in immigration that has brought thousands of newcomers to Massachusetts over the last 18 months.
The Brighton shelter alone is expected to cost the state nearly $2 million this fiscal year, according to the contract.
Considering how much the state is paying to lease the Brighton motel, it should have been checked for mold and remodeled before it was used as a homeless shelter, said Thomas Kearney, who told the Globe that until recently he lived in the shelter with his two sons, one of whom has cancer.
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“I am grateful to have somewhere to live,” Kearney said. “But I expect it to be safe for my sons.”
Mold can trigger cold symptoms and wheezing in people with allergies and can exacerbate existing respiratory problems, such as asthma. It can also cause a rare but life-threatening infection in someone with a compromised immune system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kearney moved out of the shelter in early March after raising concerns about mold. Another former resident, Kimrah Minuty, told the Globe she began complaining to Catholic Charities about mold immediately after moving into the building last summer.
Individuals who complained got their rooms tested or cleaned, Catholic Charities and state officials confirmed, but air quality tests were not done throughout the motel until March. After the results confirmed elevated levels, the state demanded the landlord fix the problems and test any areas that had not still not been tested for airborne mold, according to a letter from the housing office to the property owner.
Catholic Charities officials interviewed last week could not explain why only about half the shelter’s families were being relocated. They stressed that they did not own the building.
“Catholic Charities will continue to serve the families at the locations where they are staying,” said Jessica Heslam, a spokesperson for Catholic Charities on Thursday. “The staff is doing everything possible to reduce disruption and ensure continuity of services for everyone.”
Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at Stephanie.Ebbert@globe.com. Follow her @StephanieEbbert. Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her @fernandesglobe. Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.