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Woke NBC commentator defends Mass. $30,000-per-family housing program that exploded from $9.5M to $100M after migrant arrivals — says migrants are 'only 35%' of recipients

Wednesday, May 6, 2026•
7 min read
MDN Staff
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Woke NBC commentator defends Mass. $30,000-per-family housing program that exploded from $9.5M to $100M after migrant arrivals — says migrants are 'only 35%' of recipients

Sue O'Connell posted a 500-word thread defending Massachusetts' HomeBASE program and accused critics of 'confirmation bias.' The internet was not impressed.

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BOSTON — An NBC Boston commentator decided this week that what Massachusetts taxpayers really needed was a 500-word explanation of why spending $100 million on a migrant housing program is actually fine. The taxpayers, judging by the response, did not agree.
Sue O'Connell — who makes sure to clarify in her X bio that she is a "COMMENTATOR, not a reporter" — posted a lengthy thread on Wednesday accusing independent journalist Jessica Machado of "confirmation bias" for flagging the cost of the state's HomeBASE program. O'Connell's defense of the program barely registered. Machado's original post earned 2,154 likes, 1,218 retweets, and nearly 150,000 views.
The internet, it turns out, can count.

What Machado posted

Machado, a popular conservative host with 45,000 followers, laid out the numbers — and it exploded. Over 2,100 likes, 1,200 retweets, and nearly 150,000 views:
HomeBASE gives families up to $30,000 each in housing subsidies. The program spent over $100 million in 2025, up from $9.5 million in 2022. The caseload grew from 1,473 families in January 2023 to 7,767 by April 2025 — a 400% increase. The numbers come from the state's own filings.

O'Connell's lecture

O'Connell quote-tweeted Machado with what read less like a rebuttal and more like a college op-ed that wandered off the syllabus. The engagement told a different story — a handful of likes, zero retweets, and a comment section that largely sided with Machado:

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Her core argument: migrants are "now a minority of recipients, about 35%." She said the spending jump isn't really 4x — it's "closer to 1.7x" if you pick a different starting year. And she argued that HomeBASE is cheaper than hotels, which is a bit like defending a $200 dinner by noting you didn't order the $500 wine.
She closed by challenging critics: "What's the actual proposal? No housing help for anyone? Kids on the street?" Then she told everyone to "use the Google machine."

The bigger picture O'Connell left out

What O'Connell's thread didn't mention: Massachusetts has spent an estimated $1.8 billion over two fiscal years on its emergency shelter system, driven largely by the migrant influx. The Globe reported the system topped $1 billion in FY2024 alone. Families in the shelter system were costing taxpayers roughly $3,500 per week each.
HomeBASE — the program O'Connell was defending — was the state's attempt to reduce those costs by shifting families out of hotels and into subsidized rentals. It's cheaper per family, yes. But the total price tag still exploded because the number of families in the system grew by 400%.
Telling taxpayers that migrants are "only" 35% of a program that went from $9.5 million to $100 million doesn't land the way O'Connell thinks it does. Thirty-five percent of $100 million is $35 million.

What Massachusetts taxpayers are actually paying for

While O'Connell was explaining why $100 million in HomeBASE spending is reasonable, here's what the state has already spent on the migrant crisis:
Massachusetts taxpayers have shelled out an estimated $1.8 billion over two fiscal years on emergency shelters. At the peak, the state was paying over $180 per night for hotel rooms — about $5,400 a month for a single room with no kitchen. Taxpayers covered three catered meals a day — $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, $31 for dinner — through no-bid contracts, including a $10 million deal with an East Boston catering company. Shelters were running up $100,000 a month in rideshare bills. Linen service, meeting room rentals, emergency alarm repairs — all on the taxpayer tab.
That's the context O'Connell's thread left out. HomeBASE is one line item in a crisis that has cost billions.
Meanwhile, a citizen-led ballot initiative to cut the state income tax from 5% to 4% is facing a legal challenge that could pull it from the November ballot entirely. Taxpayers want relief. The political establishment is fighting to block even a vote on it.
The message from Beacon Hill is clear enough: there's always money for hotel rooms, catered meals, and $30,000 housing subsidies — just not for the people paying for all of it.
Critics in the replies accused O'Connell of acting as a mouthpiece for the Healey administration and the Democratic establishment — the kind of commentator who defends every spending increase as necessary and frames every question about cost as cruelty. Some pointed to what they see as a longer-term political calculation: that Democratic leaders have little incentive to reduce migrant arrivals when those populations could eventually become part of their voter base.
O'Connell didn't respond to the pushback.
Machado posted numbers. O'Connell posted a lecture. The internet picked a side. And somewhere in the background, the Google machine kept a tally: $1.8 billion and counting.

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