Getting Answers: Migrants evicted from overflow shelter after 5 days

BY OLIVIA HICKEY

MONDAY, AUGUST 12TH, 2024

WESTERN MASS NEWS

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Changes to the state’s emergency family shelter rules went into place earlier this month, including a five day maximum stay for people in overflow sites. So how is this impacting resources in our area?

Overflow shelters in the eastern part of the state; Chelsea, Lexington, Cambridge, and Norfolk have these policies in place.

Western Mass News spoke with Erin Forbush, Senior Director of Housing and Shelter in ServiceNet which has several shelters in Western Massachusetts, two family shelters in Greenfield, two family shelters in Pittsfield and an individual shelter in Pittsfield. She explains families in their shelters fall under the nine month length of stay policy.

“We’re working with all the families to find them housing as soon as possible which is what we’ve always done,” said Forbush.

For months, Governor Maura Healey has spoken out about the rapid growth of emergency shelters in the commonwealth being unsustainable and unaffordable, she said the brief stay will allow people some relief while accessing services.

She also called a state of emergency last year due to the uptick in immigrant families arriving to Massachusetts.

She and others including Laurie Millman from the Center for New Americans are calling on the federal government for more support.

“If the national government is going to do this, it needs to support the state governments that are doing the welcoming and all of us that are on the ground teaching English providing legal services coaching people through jobs,” explained Millman.

The administration has implemented other programs to allow people to leave emergency shelters like offering work authorizations for immigrants, English classes and job placements.

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