Governor Maura Healey said the right-to-shelter laws' “original intent” was not to cover the “waves and waves of people,” including migrant families, who have come into the state in recent years.

The "changes are appropriate and needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state shelter system," Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday.

"I believe these changes are appropriate and needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state shelter system," she said.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is proposing new changes to the state’s right to shelter law as the state continues to wrestle with the cost of maintaining the program, which has housed thousands of Massachusetts residents and newly arrived migrant families in recent years.