Usually homeless families go to the DTA office when they become homeless and are assigned to a family shelter or if no family shelter placement is available will often put them up in a motel room. They generally do not get a choice for their placement. As a former advocate for homeless families I can tell you that some families were placed in shelters in places such as Marshfield but their children would commute back to Boston for school (as they lived in Boston when they became homeless and intended to get housing in Boston and under federal law they have the right to continue to go to school at their last permanent residence.) Of course the host city didn't like this as the host city had to pay for the transportation to the school they went to, and the school they went to had to pay for the transportation back to the shelter they lived in. (The homeless family did have the option to send their child to the school the shelter was in, but often chose not to exercise that option.)