PEABODY — In response to a motion made by City Councilor-At-Large Anne Manning-Martin at the Jan. 9 City Council Meeting, Police Chief Thomas Griffin gathered all data on calls, arrests, and specific charges made at the three hotels serving as shelters for homeless families, many of whom are migrants.
Peabody police were made aware of the shelters in the Spring of 2023, according to the report made by Griffin. His report includes data from Jan. 1, 2023, to Jan. 30, 2025, where 31 arrests and criminal complaints took place between the three sites.
One, the Springhill Suites on Newbury Street, ended its shelter operation on Dec. 31 of last year, while the other two, the Holiday Inn also on Newbury Street and Extended Stay on Jubilee Drive, are still shelters.
Manning-Martin was motivated to collect information on these hotels due to recent incidents at similar shelters in the Greater Boston area that have been featured in The Boston Globe and Boston Herald.
“I want to be able to get more information from our police chief in order for us to provide whatever additional support we can to our police department to keep families safe there,” she said.
The state started using hotels and motels as a part of its Emergency Assistance shelter program, which became stressed due to an influx of migrants into the state, with 2,314 families currently in one of these shelters, according to data on the program’s website.
Gov. Maura Healey announced in November that the increasing expenses of the program made it necessary to change how the state’s shelter system operates, including phasing out these hotels throughout the coming year.
“We just can’t keep doing what we’re doing — these expensive hotels,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said to WBUR in Nov. “And frankly, it’s not good to be in a hotel, a 10’x 12′ room for a year plus.”
According to Griffin’s report, Citizens Inn manages the Extended Stay location, where “their clients occupy 15 rooms, and they use another room for an office.” Similarly, the Springfield Suits site, managed by Centerboard from Lynn, only used a small percentage of rooms for shelter, and it is difficult to determine which calls were from migrant families and which were from other individuals.
However, the Holiday Inn location, also being managed by Centerboard, was converted into a full-time shelter. As a result, these venues have seen increased activity that has necessitated an emergency response.
Some of the more violent situations include an arrest for two counts of aggravated assault and battery on a pregnant individual and aggravated rape, a juvenile summons for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and an arrest for strangulation.
“Obviously, there’s more people at these facilities right now than normal, so there is an increase in our activity there, and I think that’s reflected in some of the numbers,” said Griffin. “Hopefully, they can get these folks into more permanent housing; I think it’s a difficult situation for families to live long-term in a hotel room.”
Manning-Martin commended Griffin and Peabody Police Department for handling the increase in phone calls despite not having an advanced notification of the hotels being converted into shelters.
“After allowing this to spiral out of control in both cost and crime for two years, consuming community resources while endangering many, the Legislature is now looking to provide leadership from the back when public safety screamed for them to be out front—they are embarrassingly late to the game,” she said.
This data will be communicated to city council members at Thursday night’s City Council Regular Meeting, where they will be able to discuss what sort of response this information might warrant.
