Democratic Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts is moving to require shelters to limit how long they allow migrants and the homeless to stay as the state is about to exceed capacity, according to Politico.
Homeless families and migrants will now have to reapply for their spot at any state-run shelter and soon the former Chelsea Soldiers Home every month to try and stem overflow problems, according to Politico. The new rules will go into effect on May 1 and Democratic state House Speaker Ron Mariano said during a press conference Monday with Healy and Democratic state Senate President Karen Spilka that the measures were necessary to prevent the shelters from sinking “under its own weight.” (RELATED: Feds Have Showered Blue State With Tax Dollars To Fix Homelessness. It Keeps Getting Worse)
“All three of us understand that this program needs constraints or it’ll sink under its own weight,” Mariano said. “We’ve all arrived at different positions at different times. But it seems as if we’re all going basically in the same direction.”
Democratic Massachusetts Governor-Elect Maura Healey celebrates victory and delivers a speech during a watch party at the Copley Plaza Hotel on election night in Boston, Massachusetts on November 8, 2022. – (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Lawmakers in the state House and Senate are meeting soon to discuss a supplemental budget and the new changes to the emergency shelter program, according to Politico. State representatives picked their negotiators on Monday and state senators are expected to do the same Thursday.
By October 2023, Healy announced that she was placing a cap on the number of homeless and migrant families allowed in the shelters at 7,500 and only a month later, the shelters began putting people on waitlists, according to PBS. Between December 2023 and February, over 2,000 migrants had registered to stay at the state shelters, according to CBS News.
“From December 7 to last week we already had 2,000 new people registered with us. So, it’s not a simple affair. It’s everyday hundreds of people are coming to all of the sites,” Dr. Geralde Gabeau, executive director of the Immigrant Family Services Institute, told CBS.
Massachusetts is the only state in the U.S. to have a right-to-shelter law in place since 1983, according to MassLive, a local media outlet. The state has eight sanctuary cities including Boston, Chelsea, Springfield, Holyoke, Amherst, Northampton, Orleans and Lawrence.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Sept. 2022 after the state Legislature approved $12 million in funding to shuttle migrants to democratic states. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott similarly sent busloads of migrants to states like New York in protest of President Joe Biden’s border policies.
Healy called on Biden and Congress to help states deal with the growing influx of migrants, according to Politico. “I just continue to press for action by the federal government — by Congress — and for President Biden to use all options that he’s got on the table,” Healey told Politico Playbook in a statement.
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