ICYMI: Shelter Whistleblower Jon Fetherston Urges U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to Investigate Massachusetts Shelter System

BOSTON, MA - The Massachusetts Republican Party is drawing attention to a letter by Jon Fetherston, a former shelter director charged by Governor Maura Healey with housing hundreds of migrants in 2023 and 2024, sent this month to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for a federal investigation of the Massachusetts shelter system.

In his letter, picked up by Newsmax, Fox News, and The Blaze, Fetherston reports that a “dangerous and corrupt” system put in place by Healey led to more than 1,000 violent incidents — and those are just the ones the public knows about.

“To this day, no one has been held accountable,” Fetherston told The Blaze.

Fetherston, who was honored as Republican of the Year during the MassGOP’s Lincoln-Reagan Reception in May, gained prominence after going public with news that a migrant father repeatedly raped his daughter while staying at his hotel, which was being paid by the state to house hundreds of migrants received under the Biden-Harris administration.

He said officials are still “aware of other women and girls who were assaulted in shelters that had no adequate safeguards, supervision, or response protocols.”

In January, the Healey administration released documents showing that more than 1,000 incidents of violence occurred inside state-funded migrant shelters — including sexual assault, domestic violence around children, and countless drug overdoses.

Despite Healey’s declaration that migrants are leaving the shelter system, a new report from her administration shows a tenfold increase in spending on the HomeBASE program, which offers up to $45,000 in rental subsidies for individuals facing homelessness.

The MassGOP joined Fetherston in calling for a federal investigation to hold state officials accountable for what he calls a “systemic failure of leadership that endangered the vulnerable.”

The MassGOP said Fetherston’s letter raises urgent questions that can no longer be ignored:

• Who made the decision to transfer dangerous individuals between shelters inside the system?
• Who pressured local police to avoid intervening?
• How many of these dangerous individuals have been transitioned into the HomeBASE system?

“Federal investigators should explore whether blue states like Massachusetts are sweeping their mismanagement of the migrant crisis under the rug. While migrants themselves are the victims of horrific crimes committed in shelters set up by Maura Healey, taxpayers continue to suffer as she simply moves them into permanent, taxpayer-funded apartments,” said MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale.