Overwhelmed by the influx of immigrants, Massachusetts officials have mobilized the National Guard to find more accommodation. Aid organizations claim they are at their breaking point, and several protests exist.
Governor Maura Healey called up 250 soldiers of the Massachusetts National Guard to assist in the movement of the most recent round of asylum seekers to shelters all around the state on Thursday.
However, like the problem gripping the Big Apple, Massachusetts currently lacks far too much housing and support to handle the inflow.
State Senator Jamie Eldridge told CBS News that Massachusetts’ non-profit organizations are currently strained to the point where they are unable to hire more people.
The National Guard can help with the lack of workforce. However, the state can only build new shelters, which the locals bitterly oppose, and does little to address the housing crisis.
The Yarmouth Resort motel, where the state plans to reserve 100 rooms for immigrant families, many Haitian immigrants uprooted by natural catastrophes, attracted dozens of protesters on Saturday.
More than 1,500 additional shelters and temporary hotels have been established across the state since 2022, including the motel in Yarmouth.
According to a statement from the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, the administration explores every option to expand family shelter capacity to meet rising demand.
Officials estimate that there are currently about 20,000 people living in state shelters, or roughly 6,000 families.
The challenge to house the large number of migrants who have arrived in New York City for the past year is mirrored by the situation in Massachusetts.
At least 400 people rallied in Staten Island last week to voice their opposition to converting a closed Catholic school into a temporary shelter with 300 beds.
More than 104,000 migrants from the US border have been transported to the five boroughs in the last year, and the city is currently housing approximately 56,000 of them.
Last month, the extraordinary inflow caused hundreds of migrants to camp outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, which had been converted into a processing facility.
