BOSTON - After a superior court ruling Wednesday gave Gov. Maura Healey the go-ahead to cap spaces at state's emergency shelters, she is looking ahead to ways to help relieve the housing shortage in the state.

With state shelters nearly full, Healey is promoting her affordable housing bill as a way to get more affordable options on the market so families can move to permansnt housing. 

"Of the 23,000 individuals in emergency shelter, over half of them are Massachusetts families who have come on hard times," Healey said. "The wait lists alone for places like this and places we’ve visited are really big. It just speaks to how desperate are across the state."

Migrants from war-torn countries are flocking to Massachusetts, putting even more strain on the shelter system when there is already a housing crisis happening in the state, causing prices to skyrocket and leaving many people out of options.

"Every community I know has a wait for public housing," said state Sen. Michael Moore, D-Worcester.

Some families stay in temporary shelters for months or a year, causing the number of people the state is housing to grow. Healey is hoping to put money into rehabbing existing public housing to quickly open up units.

"Its very important we all know what’s going on with the migrant issue," Moore said. "We have senior housing, and public housing in general, to take some pressure off of that to have 43,000 units to be brought up to a livable standard. Why weren’t we doing this 10 years ago?"

As temperatures trend colder and shelter capacities near their limit, legislators will discuss these options, but are still a long ways away from a permanent solution.