State leaders press for migrant funding

BOSTON — Members of the state's congressional delegation are calling on the Biden administration to provide more funding to help cover mounting migrant costs.

In a letter to Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Reps. Seth Moulton and Lori Trahan are among lawmakers calling for approval of the Healey administration's request for $34.5 million in funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Shelter and Services Program.

The lawmakers said Massachusetts — the only state in the nation with a "right-to-shelter" law — has almost 7,500 families in its emergency shelter system, with hundreds of others living in the state’s overflow sites or on waiting lists for shelter.

"With shelter facilities at capacity, families have been forced to sleep outdoors and in cars, in a state with below-freezing temperatures for months of the year," they wrote. "Some have turned to airport lobbies and hospital emergency rooms for makeshift shelter. The commonwealth is now running out of shelter funding and faces a shortfall in its shelter budget for the upcoming fiscal year."

Massachusetts is wrestling with a record influx of thousands of migrants over the past year amid a historic surge of immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Healey declared a state of emergency in August and deployed the National Guard to help deal with the influx. Her administration set a 7,500-family cap on the number of people eligible for emergency housing last October. Hundreds of families are currently on a waiting list for housing.

The governor has set new restrictions on migrants and other homeless families who are being housed at large-scale “overflow” sites that were set up in response to the shortage of beds in state-run shelters.

In May, Healey signed a supplemental budget that will divert $251 million into the shelter system and to cover housing, food and other migrant costs. The spending plan authorized a transfer of another $175 million from an escrow account set up to cover emergency housing costs if needed.

It also limits migrants to nine months, with up to two, 90-day extensions for those who are employed or participating in a work-training program or are a veteran or pregnant woman, among other situations.

Under Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter law, the state is required to provide emergency housing to individuals regardless of their immigration status. The state is spending about $75 million a month — or roughly $10,000 per family — to provide housing and other needs for migrants and other homeless families in emergency shelters.

Healey and Democratic legislative leaders have resisted calls from Republicans and others to scale back or temporarily lift the right to shelter requirements amid claims that it is drawing more asylum seekers to the state.

Despite requests from Healey and members of the state’s congressional delegation for more federal funding, the Biden administration has only provided about $7 million to the state for emergency shelter and other migrant needs.

"While this is more than triple the $1.9 million the commonwealth received in 2023, it hardly makes a dent in the over $900 million that the commonwealth expects to spend on shelter in the upcoming fiscal year," they wrote.