Massachusetts’ statewide housing agency inked at least four no-bid contracts in the past year to stand up services at state-run emergency shelters amid an influx of migrants, including a $6.8 million deal with a Cape Cod cab company to provide free transportation to shelter residents.

The contracts are part of a trove of more than 60 the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has signed and offer a glimpse into how hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to house and provide services to thousands of homeless families with children and pregnant women, including migrants from other countries.

Only one of the four no-bid agreements is still active, a roughly six month contract with Mercedes Cab Company to transport homeless families “to meet their rehousing and stabilization goals,” according to a copy of the agreement released to the Herald.

Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in August, a move that allowed her administration to use no-bid or “emergency contracts” to quickly find services while competitive procurement processes played out in the background.

A spokesperson for the state’s housing department said the Healey administration used no-bid contracts to “move quickly” to provide food, shelter, and other services to families in need because of federal inaction in Washington.

“These services are essential to our ongoing work to transition arriving immigrants into jobs, housing and out of the emergency assistance system. These are families who have come here lawfully through the federal system, and we continue to urge Congress to step up to address this federal issue,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Herald.

Mercedes Cab Company is based in North Truro off Route 6 and run by Raphael Richter, according to state records. The business has been around for more than four decades and focuses on ambulatory and wheelchair non-medical transport, traditional taxi services, charter buses, home to school buses, and emergency transportation.

Richter did not respond to multiple inquiries sent Thursday to a phone number and two email addresses listed in his name on state records.

The company has provided transportation at 30 shelter sites across Massachusetts, representing about 1,000 families, according to the state’s housing department.

With the no-bid contract scheduled to expire April 13, the Healey administration has opened up a competitive procurement process to find future shelter-related transportation services, according to the state’s housing department.

In a justification for the no-bid contract signed by Housing Secretary Ed Augustus, state officials said shelter facilities are required to have access to public transit “or that the shelter provide transportation sufficient to meet rehousing and stabilization goals for each family.”

But in many cases hotels do not have access to public transportation nor are they capable of providing transportation services to homeless families, the justification document said.

“Neither (the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities) nor the (Executive Office of Health and Human Services) are equipped to ensure that access to transportation is adequate in hotels and motels without providers,” the document said. “Through this emergency contract, homeless families placed in these hotels and motels will have access to transportation.”

Another $10 million no-bid contract to provide food to families in hotels and motels with East Boston’s Spinelli’s Ravioli expired March 31 after running for more than seven months. Spinelli’s Ravioli has provided more than 460,000 meals to families and children across 30 shelter sites since August 2023, according to the state’s housing department.

Spinelli’s Ravioli, Greek Kitchen Management, Commonwealth Kitchen, and Stock Pot Malden have since been awarded contracts to replace the no-bid agreement held solely by Spinelli’s Ravioli, according to the state’s housing department.

Emergency shelter providers are required to ensure families’ access to food, baby formula, kitchen facilities to prepare up to three meals a day, or in the absence of cooking facilities, pre-prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner, according to a justification for the no-bid food contract.

But most hotels serving as shelters are either not capable of or prohibited from providing families access to refrigeration or cooking facilities, the document said. State agencies are also not “equipped to ensure these services are being successfully delivered,” according to the contract justification.

Both the state’s housing and health and human services agencies originally coordinated food deliveries to unstaffed hotels and motels through various nonprofits and volunteers.

“This is not a viable solution for any sustained period due to high costs, unreliable infrastructure, and challenging administration,” the justification of the no-bid contract said.

The state’s housing office also agreed to a nearly $1 million no-bid contract with Worcester-based Ascentria Community Services to provide “supportive services” at temporary emergency shelters.

The deal, which started in July 2023 and expired in January, came as the state was looking to quickly increase the number of shelters and ramp up supports at those locations, according to a justification for the contract.

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“Entering an emergency contract with Ascentria is necessary to meet (the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’) statutory obligations to ensure necessary provision of shelter and supportive services to families in the (emergency assistance) program during the state of emergency,” the document said.

Ascentria CEO Angela Bovill said the Healey administration asked the company on July 20, 2023 “to help with the migrant crisis” and the organization responded by becoming an emergency shelter provider. Ascentria “swiftly” coordinated shelter and wrap-around services for newly-arrived migrants like cultural orientations, English classes, and employment supports, Bovill said.

“It was anticipated that this would be a short-term response; however, when it became clear that there would be an extended need, we were encouraged to become an EA shelter provider. We quickly developed a proposal and submitted it and just recently received a confirmation award letter,” Bovill said in a statement to the Herald.

Ascentria and seven other resettlement agencies in Massachusetts have since hammered out deals with the state to launch a $10.5 million program to move 400 migrant families out of state-run shelters and into stable housing by the end of the year.

A fourth no-bid contract codified a $5 million grant program with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay that has since funded multiple overflow shelter sites.