‘COVERT’ MIGRANT MOVES SLAMMED
GOP pols push for transparency
Migrant families who’ve stayed overtime at a Cape Cod hotel will be moved out by the end of the month and into an unknown destination, prompting some lawmakers to call for full transparency from the Healey administration on shelter locations.
Town officials in Yarmouth have received word that all 39 migrant families staying at Harborside Suites will be relocated to “various shelters, all of which will be staffed by Emergency Assistance shelter provider agencies,” on April 23 and 25.
The motel sparked controversy in the popular summer vacation beach town by housing families since last September — a violation of a local bylaw that limits temporary stays to less than 30 days.
Town Administrator Robert L. Whritenour alerted residents in an update Tuesday that the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has scheduled the transfers and officials were “actively informing families of the upcoming moves.”
“Further details about the specific destinations for each family will be communicated closer to the transfer dates,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the state housing office confirmed to the Herald that the families will be moved out of Harborside Suites to shelters off the Cape but declined to disclose what towns and cities they will be in.
“Due to the confidentiality of the families in shelter we will not be revealing the location of shelter sites,” the spokesperson said.
Republican lawmakers tell the Herald they believe the closed-door operations are a disservice to towns and cities that will be receiving migrant families in ensuring they have the proper resources to serve them.
“Housing and relocating migrant families at taxpayer expense shouldn’t be a covert operation,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, RGloucester, said in a statement yesterday. “The cities, towns, and regions that are going to have to deal with any burdens of accommodating them need as much advance notice as possible.”
Moving the migrant families out of Yarmouth is part of “ongoing shelter consolidation efforts,” according to the state housing office. Harborside Suites has been staffed by the National Guard but lacks a contracted service provider.
Families will be relocated to “sites with service providers who provide 24-hour staffing, support services, and re-housing case management to incentivize exiting the shelter system,” the housing office spokesperson said.
“The goal of site consolidation is to reduce overhead costs,” the spokesperson added, “reduce the number of shelter sites, streamline resource allocation, simplify coordination, and to improve service delivery for residents in shelter.”
Yarmouth Building Commissioner Mark Grylls issued a violation notice to Harborside Suites last October.
The motel sought a reversal, but the Zoning Board of Appeals late last month approved upholding Grylls’ notice — a delayed action from January when motel attorney Mark Boudreau told board members families were slated to be moved by the end of February to a “larger facility in the Foxboro area” that would “provide better opportunities for food and room.”
“We would move today if we could,” Boudreau said on March 28. “The migrants that are there, they are ready to move.”
Boudreau highlighted how motels that housed migrants in Bourne and Wareham, which he represents, were “completely evacuated.” He maintained that the future shelter for the Yarmouth migrant families is “within a 20-mile radius of Foxboro.”
State Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, said he had not received any communication from the state on whether the Yarmouth migrants will be relocated to his district which also includes Foxboro and Norton, as of Wednesday.
Roughly 450 migrants are residing in Foxboro, with dozens of children enrolled in the town’s public schools, maxing out the shelter system there, Barrows said. Migrants that had been in Mansfield were relocated to Stoughton, he added.
“It would be helpful to the communities where these are going to land to know ahead of time so they can make the appropriate adjustments with transportation, with necessary supplies that maybe many of these people don’t have,” Barrows said. “Two weeks is better than two minutes, but again, there needs to be some forward-thinking here.”
Top Beacon Hill Democrats are still racing to tie up a spending bill that could shuttle more money to the state’s emergency shelter system just as funding for the program could run out in the next week.
Massachusetts lawmakers have said that the $575 million allocated this fiscal year for the emergency shelter system is expected to dry up by mid-April, though the date could change depending on when bills come due. A report released earlier this week showed the administration has already spent $504 million on emergency shelters as of April 4.
The state is just one family shy of housing 7,500 in its emergency assistance shelter system, with 7,499 being recorded yesterday. As of last week, 76 hotels and motels were providing living accommodations.
“There is no justification for withholding information from the public regarding the destinations for these migrants,” MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale said in a statement. “The Democratic supermajority bears responsibility for this crisis and they’re not being straightforward with how they’re handling it.”
State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, is calling on the state to perform background checks on migrants to determine if any individuals being moved into residential areas “pose a public safety or public health risk.”