Last month, Trump administration officials announced a long-awaited proposed rule that encourages, but does not require, all public housing authorities and private property owners who rent to people using a Section 8 housing voucher to implement a work requirement and time limits for non-disabled, non-elderly adults in federally-funded housing.
Hallie Claflin
Hallie Claflin is a Report for America corps member covering Gateway Cities for CommonWealth Beacon. She is a Wisconsin native and newcomer to Massachusetts. She has contributed to a number of local, nonprofit publications in Madison, Wisconsin, including Madison Commons and The Badger Project. In 2023 she worked as a visual content news intern at Voice of America in Washington, D.C., where she covered national and international affairs. She previously covered rural homelessness, poverty, politics, state government, and statewide elections at Wisconsin Watch. She completed her degrees in both journalism and political science at the University of Wisconsin, where she became passionate about strengthening local news, pursuing solutions journalism, and holding state and local officials accountable. Hallie's coverage focuses on major policy issues like housing, transportation, and education in Massachusetts' Gateway Cities.
Posted inTransportation
Rail projects inching along in Western Mass. as MassDOT discusses hourly trains from Springfield to NYC
MassDOT, Amtrak, and rail agencies in Connecticut are discussing plans for an hourly train service between Springfield and New York City. MassDOT officials also provided an update on plans for Amtrak to add two daily Boston-Springfield services by 2030 as part of the proposed “inland route” along West-East Rail.
Posted inEducation
‘Climate of fear’: Student enrollment declining amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
Overall, public schools across Massachusetts — which has become a target of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration — lost over 15,000 students from fall 2024 to fall 2025, according to state data released in January. That brings total enrollment in the state to its lowest level in over three decades.
Posted inGateway Cities
Salem, Quincy receiving millions in tax credits for Gateway Cities despite no longer qualifying for the designation
Massachusetts has awarded more than $10 million in tax credits to market-rate housing developers in Salem and Quincy based on their status as Gateway Cities even though the two communities no longer met the criteria for that designation, according to funding records obtained by CommonWealth Beacon.
Posted inGateway Cities
‘Couldn’t come at a better time’: Six Gateway Cities to get economic boost in downtown districts
Malden, Holyoke, Fitchburg, Chelsea, Peabody, and Lowell were selected for the latest round of support last week. Each city will receive a three-year economic development fellow who will provide on-the-ground expertise, leadership, and planning to help support small businesses, real estate development, and arts and culture projects.
Posted inEducation
Healey has called for universal pre-K in every Gateway City by the year’s end. Providers say they won’t get there.
Seven of the 26 cities are not currently participating in the state’s pre-K implementation program. Child care providers in cities that are participating say that while it enforces a mixed-delivery approach highly valued by preschool advocates, universal access for every 4-year-old by the end of the year is a pipe dream.
Posted inHousing
Holyoke’s unsheltered homeless count hits new record as threats to federal aid loom
The state and federal funding landscape continues to shift while homelessness in Western Massachusetts has reached unprecedented levels in the aftermath of the pandemic. Holyoke had the highest unsheltered count in all of Hampden County this year, according to preliminary numbers.
Posted inLocal Government
Everett’s new mayor inherits major development projects
Few cities have experienced the kind of growth Everett has seen in the last seven years. Now, further transformation of the city’s once-blighted Lower Broadway district will be overseen by newly elected mayor Robert Van Campen, who was inaugurated on January 5.
Posted inHousing
Trump administration targets program for chronically homeless residents, sparking fear for vulnerable populations in cities like Springfield
The overhaul has been temporarily and partially blocked by a federal judge, but the move is impacting local administrators of the federal program across Massachusetts and has threatened millions of dollars in funding for permanent housing and thousands of beds for the chronically homeless.
Posted inGateway Cities
No way in and no way out: Beacon Hill hasn’t kept track of which communities qualify for Gateway City status
Despite lawmakers’ good intentions, state statute fails to create an enforcement mechanism to periodically review each city’s eligibility. Over time, some cities have met the state’s criteria without being added to the list, while others no longer qualify yet continue to reap the benefits. Oversight of the designations seems to have been lost.
Posted inGateway Cities
Our top five Gateway Cities stories of 2025
This year, CommonWealth Beacon ramped up its coverage of Massachusetts’ former industrial cities by adding a new Gateway Cities reporter role in its newsroom. Our reporting in 2025 shed light on major policy issues both new and old that have rattled cities like Holyoke, Leominster, and Lynn.
Posted inGambling
‘It couldn’t come at a worse time’: Legislature strips casino mitigation funds amid municipal budget woes
The move falls in line with the Legislature’s penny-pinching efforts to alleviate state budget pressures amid a host of federal funding claw backs nearly a year into the second Trump administration. Gateway Cities with budgets already nearing a breaking point will now lose out on funds they have used for nearly a decade.
Posted inHealth Care
State audit claims 2023 maternity unit closure in Leominster was preventable
The issue appears to be a spat about accounting records, but it highlights the struggles health providers had during the height of the first COVID waves, when frontline medical personnel were stretched thin, and how the business of health care has made it increasingly difficult to deliver services like maternity care across the state.
Posted inPolitics
How incoming mayor Robert Van Campen will write Everett’s next chapter
In a closely watched upset, City Councilor Robert Van Campen beat DeMaria by 9 percentage points. His promise to restore trust and accountability in City Hall wasn’t hard to sell. But Van Campen has a tough act to follow, despite DeMaria’s scandals.
Posted inHealth Care
Suspension of maternity services at Mercy Medical Center sparks fears of permanent closure
Mercy Medical Center in Springfield announced last week that it plans to temporarily halt maternity and newborn services at its Family Life Center starting December 8, sparking fears the hospital will be next in a decade-long trend of statewide maternity unit closures in a region where labor and delivery options have already dwindled.
Posted inEducation
Half of Holyoke’s middle school students started the year at a new school. The other half were ‘left behind.’
In 2019, Holyoke set out to build two new middle schools. But after months of heated debate, the ballot measure to fund the project was voted down by the community. Some say the outcome is a testament to how limited fiscal capacity, insufficient state funding, and local tax constraints work to prevent Gateway Cities from building equitable, modern school facilities.
Posted inState Government
Lawmaker representing Randolph seeks to loosen Gateway City eligibility criteria
Census counts and income thresholds haven’t stopped state Sen. Bill Driscoll, who represents the town of Randolph, from trying to secure its Gateway City status. He has introduced legislation that would revise the eligibility criteria of a Gateway – something previously attempted but never done successfully on Beacon Hill since the Legislature codified the designation in 2009.
Posted inThe Download
The Download: When communities lose trust: One year after Steward Health’s bankruptcy and the death of two hospitals
New from CommonWealth Beacon HOUSING WOES: Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration has stayed away from the long-term housing goals that were a point of pride for her predecessors. But as she […]
Posted inHealth Care
When communities lose trust: One year after Steward Health’s bankruptcy and the death of two hospitals
One year after Steward Health Care’s demise, the Nashoba Valley and Dorchester communities are grappling with strained EMS services, diminished access to care, and trust that has been broken. Local leaders, hospital staff, and residents say they are a testament to the devastation that lingers after communities lose their critical infrastructure.
Posted inEducation
State school building program favors wealthier districts, leaving lower-income urban students in aging, dilapidated buildings, according to new study
Despite efforts by the Legislature aimed at adequately funding school building projects, “students in Boston and the Gateway Cities continue to learn in buildings that are deteriorating, lacking in basic features, and often cramped and overcrowded,” according to a new report by the MassINC Policy Center.
Posted inHealth Care
Two years after the closure of Leominster’s maternity unit, a region is struggling
It’s been two years since Clinton Hospital’s maternity unit closed. The fallout of the closure paints a complicated picture in a state without maternity care deserts. But experts and advocates say recent losses and impending cuts to Medicaid make maternal health care access in Massachusetts something that stands to get worse.
Posted inEducation
Report highlights persistent challenges in early child care workforce
Despite “fragile progress,” the Commonwealth’s early child care system continues to suffer from a workforce problem, according to a new analysis published by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The report makes several policy recommendations and highlights that the state is losing out on billions in tax revenue.
Posted inEnvironment
Western Mass. cities working to prevent sewer overflows amid funding challenges and intensifying rain
All three cities have made multi-million-dollar efforts in recent years to prevent sewer overflows, but as climate change continues to worsen heavy rain events, inevitable overflow events are working against their progress.
Posted inHousing
Over 10 years in the making: Fitchburg cuts the ribbon on affordable housing project for artists
The city of Fitchburg has finally cut the ribbon on a nearly 13-year affordable housing project for artists. The post-industrial era city that suffered from the long-term decline of manufacturing has embraced arts and culture as a way to restore its standing as a vibrant hub of North-Central Massachusetts.
