Healey declares state of emergency for ‘unsustainable’ migrant housing crisis

THE RATE OF MIGRANTS coming into Massachusetts, fleeing unsafe countries and looking for work and housing, is “unsustainable” without intervention from the federal government, Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday. She declared a state of emergency, the state’s first since the 2020 start of the Covid-19 pandemic, to marshal state resources and issue an “urgent and formal appeal” to the federal government for assistance with the influx.

More than 5,500 families with children are living in state funded shelters, hotels, dormitories, and other emergency facilities across Massachusetts, up from 3,100 families needing the services last year, Healey said at a press conference. All told, more than 20,000 people are living in state shelter.

These families, which include very young children and pregnant women, represent a “humanitarian crisis,” Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said, surrounded by immigration and housing leaders. 

Massachusetts is the only “right to shelter” state in the nation, which guarantees emergency housing for homeless families that qualify, though other limited shelter guarantees exist in regions like Washington, DC,  in cases of severe weather. A worsening migrant crisis, with many immigrants coming to the state from Venezuela and Haiti, is also exacerbating a housing crisis.

“It’s more families than our state has ever served, exponentially more than our state has ever served, in our emergency assistance program,” Healey said at a press conference. “Those numbers are being driven by a surge in new arrivals who have been through some of the hardest journeys imaginable. They are the face of the national — international — migrant crisis. They’re here because where they came from is too dangerous to stay. They’re here because Massachusetts has and will always be a beacon of hope, compassion, humanity and opportunity.”

Some 80 cities and towns are hosting migrant families, Healey wrote in a letter to US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, with 1,800 families residing in hotels and motels. “We are reaching capacity here,” Healey said.

The administration has scrambled to address the crisis by bulking up its emergency shelter system, opening “welcome centers” in Allston and Quincy and new shelter sites on Join Base Cape Cod, Healey said. The state has also funneled money to local immigrant aid organizations that assist migrants with housing and legal issues. Municipalities are scrambling to buy up and secure rooms in motels.

All that notwithstanding, Healey and her team said the state is buckling under the load and needs federal support.

The state of emergency would involve utilizing and operationalizing “all means necessary” to secure housing and shelter for the families. Along with asking state level partners and organizations to contribute, Healey is “delivering an urgent and formal appeal to the federal government for intervention and action.”

Healey called on the Biden administration to provide funding, but critically to remove barriers and expedite federal work authorizations. Work authorization delays are creating a devastating backlog, the administration said.

“The truth is our new arrivals are most eager to work,” Healey said. “The last thing they want is to be dependent. And, frankly, we could use their help. So many states are encountering significant labor shortages. But unfortunately, we’re seeing wait times for work authorizations stretching from several months to several years and longer.”

Lenita Reason, the executive director of the Brazilian Worker Center in Boston, is herself an immigrant. She understands the glacial immigration and work approval process, as she was formerly undocumented, “not because I wanted that but because the system took so long.” The migrants coming in now need help to “be able to work and to provide for themselves,” she said.

The center, a non-profit organization devoted to advancing immigrants’ labor and human rights, was the state’s first “welcome center” and has operated for about two months. Reason said the organization has seen a crush of people needing assistance – over 500 families in a month.

On Tuesday, the administration also announced the new Massachusetts Migrant Families Relief Fund, managed by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and The Boston Foundation. This fund will be able to help deliver emergency financial assistance for essentials like food and shelter, clothing, diapers, hygiene items, and transportation. It will help fund screenings and translation services, legal assistance, work authorizations, job training, and support community-based organizations providing direct services, Healey said.

Driscoll said Eastern Bank has pledged $100,000 to the fund, and Blue Cross Blue Shield has pledged $50,000.

The lieutenant governor and local organization heads called for donations at welcome centers and shelter sites, as well as donations of time or gift cards for grocery stores or pharmacies. Those with extra rooms could sponsor and host families. 

Speakers at the press conference cheered Massachusetts’ role as a “right to shelter” state. “True to our values, we will step up and lean into this opportunity to help those in need,” Driscoll said. 

Some argue this is a crisis of Massachusetts’s own making, with the 1983 law both guaranteeing shelter and ensuring migrants flock to the state to receive it.

“Our homeless shelters are maxed out. Hotels across the state have been converted to shelters. And the problem is growing on a daily basis,” said state Rep. Peter Durant, a Spencer Republican running to replace Anne Gobi in the state Senate, in a statement prior to the announcement. “Worse yet, all of this assistance is being taken away from our legal residents and it is a potential safety risk for the children. It is time to repeal the Right to Settle law, so Massachusetts will stop being a magnet state.”

When asked by a reporter if she would push to eliminate the law, Healey said, “I was never going to end it, nor do I have the authority to end ‘right to shelter’ in the state. I do want to make clear … that we are reaching capacity and we need to figure out innovations and alternatives to deal with what really is a humanitarian crisis, a geopolitical crisis, and one that does not seem to abate. ”