Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey commissioned an independent review of security at state-run shelters and signaled an openness to residency requirements for the emergency assistance program after facing blowback for a lack of widespread criminal background checks in the system.

Gov. Maura Healey said Friday the state will conduct full criminal background checks on all emergency shelter residents, explaining she requested more thorough vetting months ago but the checks never happened.

Gov. Healey said she was recently informed that CORI checks at Massachusetts shelters weren't happening. WBZ-TV's Tiffany Chan reports.

As of Friday, Healey is now calling for CORI checks to be done on all emergency assistance applicants. That new information came as a shock to many local leaders, including State Senator John Velis. Being of service has always been Bell’s greatest joy. She started off as a school bus driver before joining the PVTA.

A spokesperson for the Healey administration said that the state was already conducting limited background checks on residents of the emergency assistance shelters, the governor has now ordered that the checks include a check against the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information database. That process is often called a CORI check.

Whether it’s incompetence, intransigence, or negligence, changes must be made,” House Minority Leader Brad Jones said.

Maura Healey said Friday that it's "absolutely unacceptable" that criminal background checks she ordered last spring at Massachusetts shelters never happened. The Boston Globe reported Thursday that Healey's administration has not been conducting CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) checks on people staying in the state's homeless shelters,