The state’s emergency shelter system is strained, catalyzing Gov. Maura Healey to announce a state of emergency last week.
With that came a plea for local residents and decision-makers to consider opening up unused spaces to migrant families — who are coming to Massachusetts in growing numbers — both for short-term and long-term housing.
The state says that interested individuals can reach out to the Brazilian Workers Center.
“If you have an extra room or suite in your home, please consider hosting a family. Safe housing and shelter is our most pressing need,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll on Tuesday. Beyond that, she asked higher education leaders and business owners to get involved.
“If you're a local official, a college president, a business owner, or a faith leader with an available building or space in your community, please work with us to offer it as a shelter site,” she said.
The administration added that the state is seeing more than 100 migrant families applying to the emergency shelter system each day.
As Massachusetts waits for federal help, personal connections and local intervention may be the best solutions for immediately helping new asylum seekers — many of which fled countries because of economic turmoil and violence,
At Hartford Street Presbyterian Church in Natick, interim pastor Katie Cole had a friend who worked for the state and connected the church to the Brazilian Worker Center earlier this summer.
The church was able to prepare bedrooms in their Sunday school spaces, which aren’t used during the summer, for families.
“We'll get a call saying, 'Can you take some families? They'll be there in a couple hours,” Cole said.
The 11 families they’ve hosted at the church since June are all Haitian, and all have children. Volunteers from the church, members of the Brazilian Worker Center and Agencia Alpha, a legal services provider, assist families when they arrive. Most stay for a few days, as they fill out an application for the state’s emergency shelter system.
The Sunday school space includes a large dining area and a shower. A play area outside has been a relief space for the 21 children who have stayed there, ranging from 2 months to 12 years old. A deacon and congregant both speak Haitian Creole, and spend time translating. Families can cook in the kitchen, and many parishioners have dropped off prepared meals.
“Every family has been grateful for this place to stay, and everybody's recognized that staying in a church basement is nobody's long-term plan,” said Cole.
“Every family has been grateful for this place to stay, and everybody's recognized that staying in a church basement is nobody's long-term plan.”Interim pastor Katie Cole
She said the majority of the congregation has immigrated from different places worldwide.
“We know what this is like. We have the capacity to extend a welcome to folks who don’t know anybody here right now,” Cole said.
There are also 15 to 20 host families who have been sheltering newly arrived families on weekends, the state said. Newly arrived immigrants stay in those spaces for two to three days.
The Brazilian Worker Center — where the Boston welcome center is located — recruits host families, determines their suitability, onboards them, and matches them in appropriate circumstances with newly arrived families, said the state. That program may be expanded to include actively recruiting new families and organizations. Host families are subject to background checks.
That welcome center and the other at Eastern Nazarene College will support any family staying with local residents with necessities like shoes, toiletries, diapers and small toys.
"In an effort to ensure that families experiencing homelessness have access to safe and secure shelter, the Brazilian Worker Center has been connecting some newly arrived families with host families as part of their partnership with the Office for Refugees and Immigrants,” said a spokesperson for the state’s department of Health and Human Services.
