State report updates migrant, shelter crisis

More than 7,500 families being housed in dorms, hotels, shelters

LOWELL >> The state’s Emergency Housing Assistance Program biweekly report of Feb. 12 shows that of the 7,506 families in the shelter system, a little more than half are families with children who entered the country as migrant, refugees or asylum seekers. Homeless families with children from the commonwealth comprise the approximately 3,700 remaining families.

It’s unclear from the report, which covered data as of Feb. 8, whether migrant families that have been in the shelter system more than a year are considered residents of Massachusetts. According to the report, “the average length of stay for families in the system exceeds one year.”

In total, the state’s shelter system is providing emergency housing in shelters, hotels, dorms and other emergency facilities to support nearly 25,000 people in 96 communities across the state, of which more than half are children, many under the age of 5.

“It’s more families than our state has ever served — exponentially more — in our emergency assistance program,” Gov. Maura Healey said last August, when her administration declared a state of emergency due to an influx of migrant families in need of shelter and services. At that time, the program was already serving 5,600 families.

To date, Lowell has received 287 families, many of them at the Inn & Conference Center, located off Warren Street in Downtown Lowell. Since Dec. 1, the state has been leasing the vacant 252-room hotel from Umass Lowell as an emergency shelter for eligible families with children and pregnant individuals. The $4 million deal also has an option to renew for a second year. The state selected Common

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