By Jim Cline

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass (WGGB) -- State Sen. Stephen Buoniconti, D-Springfield, and Rep. James Welch, D-West Springfield, unveiled a 10-point plan on Monday to end a program that places homeless families in hotels and motels. 

They pointed out that the Quality Inn in West Springfield has become a welfare hotel. It's been housing 86 families. The Clarion next door has had 23 families and there were two more up the street at the Red Roof Inn. 

Thomas Salter is with the Shelter and Housing Search Division of the New England Farm Workers' Council. He agrees that it's a problem that needs to be addressed, and he thinks the legislators are on the right track. 

However he does not think the issue has much chance of passing. Salter thinks it's important that people seeking shelter prove they're residents of the state. 

"I've received calls from people in Florida," he said. "Asking me what paperwork they need to have when they get here so they can get X,Y and Z." 

One of the problems is Massachusetts has much better public assistance benefits that most other states.  So it's drawing people who need this help. And it's costing the state as much as $2,500 per month to house families in a hotel. 

"When I was first doing this," Salter said. "There was a 90-day length of stay imposed." He acknowledges that the economy has changed considerably. "Maybe you don't put a 90-day length of stay but you draw the line at five months and at the end of five months there's a serious assessment by a number of state agencies as to why that family is still there." 

Salter says they've changed a number of the rules that apply to families in shelters, but it's "pretty tough to enforce them in motels because there's no staffing"