QUINCY, MASS. (WHDH) – A group of about 50 migrants slept outside the Wollaston MBTA station in Quincy Monday night.
The belongings of the migrant families – most or all from Haiti – were piled up outside the subway station on Tuesday. They had to leave the hotel rooms where they had been staying on Monday because emergency aid funds had run out.
“Unfortunately, that meant that, to my knowledge, there were about 50 people sleeping outside, many of them children,” said the Rev. Annie Gonzalez of the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Thanks to a grant from the United Way, volunteers from the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network had covered the cost of temporary housing, but now the grant money has run out.
“We knew the day would come when we could no longer fill that gap,” Gonzalez said.
On July 9, Governor Maura Healey announced that migrants seeking protection would no longer be allowed to sleep in the terminals of Boston’s Logan International Airport.
“It’s a bit depressing because of the children. The children just don’t deserve this,” said Wisler Sol, a migrant from Haiti.
The volunteer organization helping these Haitian migrants said the governor should give the green light to set up emergency shelters to address this humanitarian crisis.
“I think she has the power to make a change. Even though the blame can be placed on many systems and levels of government, I hope she does something because I believe she can be the one to get these families off the streets,” Gonzalez said.
Healey said the state’s emergency shelter system would have to be limited to 7,500 families because it had exceeded its capacity.
“It is horrific that families were sleeping outside last night. We have asked the nonprofit that supports them to bring them to our Family Welcome Centers today so they can be referred to a temporary respite center,” Healey’s office said in a statement.
One of these centers is located nearby at Eastern Nazarene College.
However, under the state’s policy, which is partly aimed at controlling costs, a family staying in one of the state’s recreation centers for a period of five days or less is not entitled to apply for more permanent accommodation in an emergency shelter for a period of six months.
“This is a way to punish them and prevent them from coming into the system in the first place,” said Jeff Thielman, president and CEO of the International Institute of New England. “Preventing people from staying in a nursing home where there may still be beds available is wrong.”
The United Way of Massachusetts said it had awarded the community group a $75,000 grant along with the Boston Foundation. The United Way continues to fund up to a dozen shelters across the state.
The T reported no problems and stated that it was committed to a clean and safe transport system for its passengers.
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