Brian Shortsleeve for Massachusetts Before Healey Hotels There Were Kennealy Hotels
BOSTON, MA - Marine Corps veteran, successful business leader, and Republican candidate for governor Brian Shortsleeve today issued the following statement responding to comments by Mike Kennealy in today’s Boston Globe regarding the state’s migrant shelter system:
“Before there were Healey Hotels there were Kennealy Hotels The inconvenient truth is that as Housing Secretary, Mike Kennealy was the one who first opened hotels to illegal immigrants, and instead of demanding reforms, he urged the legislature to give him $130 million in taxpayer funds to expand the migrant shelter system before Maura Healey took office."
In a December 2022 letter to Democrat chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees, then-Housing Secretary Kennealy boasted of expanding the migrant shelter system, including “placing families in hotels with onsite social services staff.” He also demanded $130 million in supplemental funding for the shelter system. Nowhere in his letter did he suggest any reforms to protect taxpayers or limit eligibility for the program.
“At a time when we desperately needed to prioritize our own people, including families with children, pregnant women and homeless vets, Mike Kennealy was busily booking hotel rooms for illegal immigrants on the taxpayer dime. We are still living with the consequences of that failure made even worse by years of further mismanagement under Maura Healey.
“When I am governor, we will finally reform the emergency shelter system to ensure only U.S. citizens who are residents of Massachusetts are eligible. We will return the system to its original purpose, which was to provide temporary housing to families with children and pregnant women, while also prioritizing homeless veterans. To defeat Maura Healey, Republicans need a nominee who can offer a real contrast to her disastrous migrant policies. Mike Kennealy simply has no credibility on the issue given his own record.”