Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system reached capacity amid the ongoing immigration crisis.
The emergency shelters are prepared to provide temporary housing to 7,500 families.
Those seeking shelter will now be put on a waiting list.
WCVB reported that 3,806 families are staying in hotels, 3,650 are in traditional shelters, and 61 are in temporary emergency shelters.
“Today, the family shelter system has reached 7,500 families, and we are at the point where we do not have enough shelter units, service providers, or funding to continue to safely expand,” said Emergency Assistance Director General Scott Rice.
“Families will continue to be placed into shelter until the end of the day, and beginning tomorrow, families will be placed into shelter as units become available. If there are no available shelter units, families determined eligible for emergency assistance will be placed on a waitlist. Our administration continues to provide arriving families with resources, basic necessities and support, and we are working with community partners to connect them with safe, overnight options.”
In August, Massachusetts Governor Governor Maura Healey (D) declared a state of emergency after a migrant surge overwhelmed social services.
The emergency was caused by “rapid and unabating increases in the number of families with children and pregnant people — many of them newly arriving migrants and refugees — living within the state but without the means to secure safe shelter in our communities,” Healey said.
“Many of these families are migrants to Massachusetts, drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need,” Healey stated in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
She also placed blame on “a confusing tangle of immigration laws, an inability for migrants to obtain work authorization from the federal government, an increase in the number of people coming to Massachusetts, and the lack of an affordable housing supply in our state.”
