BOSTON — Massachusetts will begin evicting dozens of migrant families from emergency shelters on Friday under new restrictions Gov. Maura Healey’s administration announced last month.
The state is now limiting stays in overflow shelters to five days for migrants and offering to pay for plane tickets and other travel expenses for those who want to leave.
The new rules, which took effect Aug. 1, also created a prioritization system for long-term family shelters that favors Massachusetts residents over recently arrived immigrant families.
A spokesperson for Healey’s office told Boston 25 that the first round of eviction notices went out to 57 migrant families. They have until Friday to leave their shelters which the state is now calling “temporary respite centers”.
Boston 25 News recently aired images last week of migrant families spending the night outside Boston Medical Center.
On Thursday, a vigil was held at the State House in protest of the new rules.
“They’re going to be sleeping on the streets. They don’t have a place to go,” said Jeffrey Thielman, Executive Director of the International Institute of New England. “They’re going to be in the Wollaston T stop. They’re going to be outside different welcome centers.”
The families facing eviction are staying at overflow shelters in Lexington, Cambridge, Chelsea, and Norfolk.
The Healey administration said the new policy “will help open up space at temporary respite centers so that families have a place to stay temporarily while they work with case managers to identify alternative housing.”
Boston 25 News has also been asking how many migrant families have accepted plane or bus tickets to leave Massachusetts in recent weeks, but the state has not yet answered that question.
“They’re not leaving Massachusetts from what I’m hearing. They’re not. Maybe the state has different data. It’d be great to see that data, but I’m not seeing it,” Thielman added.
A recent report released by The Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative group, projects Massachusetts will spend $1.8 billion over the next two years to manage a growing number of migrants coming to the state.
Healey has made it known that Massachusetts is out of shelter space and cannot continue on without change.
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