The variety of folks arriving in Massachusetts looking for shelter is “actually going down,” Gov. Maura Healey mentioned Thursday as federal lawmakers continued their push for extra assist from the Biden administration.
Emergency shelters reported 7,531 households staying at websites throughout the state, with 3,818 residing in inns and motels, 3,656 at conventional shelter websites, and 57 in momentary areas, in line with information final up to date Wednesday.
Healey mentioned the variety of folks arriving at Logan Airport “have really dropped significantly” and “things are better than they were before.”
“I don’t know what that’s about entirely. Some of it, I think, has to do with the weather. We’ve had families who have been staying and housed in Florida and in Virginia, who left to come here, some of whom have now returned. So, you know, it’s a situation that’s very fluid,” Healey mentioned throughout an interview with WBUR.
After the interview, a Healey spokesperson mentioned the state is seeing about 25 households arriving in Massachusetts every day looking for emergency shelter.
“That’s down from approximately 35-40 families per day in the late summer. Please note that many but not all of the families arrive through Logan,” the spokesperson mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities mentioned there have been 191 households on the waitlist for emergency shelter as of Wednesday. There had been 507 households who left emergency shelter between Sept. 1 and Monday, the spokesperson mentioned.
Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation saved up their push Wednesday for extra federal {dollars} from the Biden administration, arguing in a letter that inside states dealing with an inflow of migrants will not be receiving an “equitable” share of assist as border states.
The Bay State, the delegation wrote, is in a “particularly precarious position.”
“The United States has been experiencing a virtually unprecedented number of new arrivals, with an increasing trend of migrant families ending up in interior states like Massachusetts. This shift in migration patterns has given interior states a larger role in the immigration process,” the letter mentioned.
Healey mentioned she can also be persevering with her advocacy for extra federal cash and touted latest workshops the place new arrivals acquired assist with work authorization functions. Close to 2,000 folks have been processed for work authorizations, Healey mentioned.
“It means that they’re that much further along in terms of getting their clearance and their paperwork to do so,” she mentioned on the radio. “The sooner they’re working, the sooner they’re out of shelter space, and we’ve had a lot of support and interest from employers who are eager to hire people. So that’s good. That’s actually really good for economic development in our state and growth.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”