Judge Debra Squires-Lee addresses attorneys during a Nov. 1, 2023 hearing seeking a temporary restraining order in Suffolk Superior Court, on the Governor's emergency shelter capacity. Photo by Chris Christo | Boston Herald Staff / Pool photo

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request to put a temporary hold on the Healey administration’s plan to cap the number of families in the state’s strained emergency shelter system.

The decision followed an emergency court hearing on Tuesday, during which Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston argued that the administration was “undermining” the state’s right-to-shelter law and did not fulfill a requirement that Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus give the Legislature a 90-day notice of the major policy shift.

Judge Debra Squires-Lee’s decision means that the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities may begin turning away families from shelter when the state reaches 7,500 families in its Emergency Shelter system, which is expected to happen this week.

“We respect the court process and believe an appropriate outcome was reached. The state does not have enough space, service providers or funding to safely expand shelter capacity,” EOHLC spokesperson Kevin Connor said Wednesday.

Andrea Park of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute said she was disappointed in the decision, and will continue to ask the administration to rethink the plan. Park said the governor’s team should “at least hold off” until some of Healey’s new approaches, including housing vouchers that families can use while moving out of shelter, go into effect and free up room for new shelter entrants.

“We think it’ll be really dangerous, especially for children right in the coldest time of year,” Park said. “People on the ground can help them think of another solution, or at least hold off and let some of these other things go into effect that they’ve been trying to do, like facilitating more exits. Is there some more congregate space that we can figure out how to set up where people can at least be safe from the elements while they’re waiting, if they do set up a waiting list?”

The judge wrote that the plaintiffs – three families in or looking to find housing in the shelter system represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston – did not have the standing to enforce the 90-day notice, and said that it is up to the state legislature.

“The notice proviso is intended to afford the Legislature the opportunity to appropriate additional funding for the program. The evidence before me, however, is clear – more than a month ago, the Governor specifically requested additional appropriations for the emergency assistance program and the Legislature has failed to act. In these circumstances, the predicate purpose of the 90-day proviso has been fulfilled; and, in all events, it is for the Legislature and not the clients of the program to enforce any claimed non-compliance,” she wrote.

Gov. Maura Healey filed a supplemental budget in September requesting $250 million to help prop up the shelter system that is strained under an influx of new families, about half of whom are new immigrants.

Massachusetts is the only state in the country that guaranteed housing for qualified families and pregnant individuals under a 1983 right-to-shelter law.

The administration’s representation said during the hearing that the appropriated $325 million for the Emergency Assistance program would not be enough to get the shelter system through the fiscal year, which began in July. They budgeted for a shelter caseload of around 4,100 families, Assistant Attorney General Kim Parr argued on behalf of Augustus, and the system was nearing capacity at 7,389 as of Tuesday and projections show the number of families could grow to 13,471 by next June.

If the current caseload of around 7,500 stayed the same through the fiscal year, Parr said, the state would still need an additional $210 million to keep the shelters running.