The Healey administration planned to activate 50 members of the National Guard to support new “townhouse-style” housing options at Joint Base Cape Cod for families experiencing homelessness, officials said Friday afternoon.
The new housing options — which can immediately accommodate 16 families and up to 60 if needed — come as Gov. Maura Healey said the state is experiencing a “steady rise” in shelter demand due to the rising cost of housing in Massachusetts, more people arriving from other countries, and delayed federal work authorizations.
The administration also said it planned to open a “Family Welcome Center” in Allston as a central entry point for families struggling to access basic necessities. It will connect them with essential supplies, services, and transportation to a safe place to stay like the units at Joint Base Cape Cod, the administration said in a statement.
“Our administration has been working hard to meet this unprecedented need and use every resource at our disposal to help families,” Healey said in a statement. “That’s why we are establishing a Family Welcome Center to serve as a central entry point to connect families, particularly newly-arrived families, with the support they need, as well as turning to Joint Base Cape Cod as a temporary, emergency shelter option.”
The welcome center is based out of the Brazilian Worker Center’s office and will serve as “the primary referral mechanism for families to travel to [Joint Base Cape Cod],” the administration said. Dedicated staff members will be charged with assessing families and determining their eligibility for housing at the base.
“In addition to shelter intake services for JBCC, the Family Welcome Center will provide basic necessities including food, baby formula, and diapers,” the administration said in a statement. “In the coming weeks, Family Welcome Center offerings will expand to include connection to health services, and assistance with enrollment in Department of Transitional Assistance programs, MassHealth, WIC, and other supports.”
The 50 National Guardsmen will assist “state and local authorities, support base operations, and ensure the security of the base complex,” the Healey administration said.
A Massachusetts National Guard spokesman said the service members assigned to the shelter mission “will support base operations and ensure base security as part of an inter-agency effort led by the Healey-Driscoll administration.”
Housing units at Joint Base Cape Cod were described as “townhouse-style” with furnished accommodations and shared green space for recreation. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency was in the process of contracting with a vendor to provide shelter program staffing, janitorial services, laundry, linens, and medical services.
More than 1,100 families were living in state-funded motel rooms, according to data last updated on Thursday by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’ Division of Housing Stabilization.
Eighteen families entered the emergency assistance shelter system on Thursday, 10 families went directly to shelters, and 10 families were placed presumptively, according to the data.
The housing crisis in Massachusetts is pushing the state’s most vulnerable families into “precarious housing situations’ and increasing demand for emergency shelter, said newly-appointed Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus.
“The new Family Welcome Center and additional shelter at Joint Base Cape Cod will help us relieve pressure on our emergency family shelter system with an inter-agency response to meet the needs of residents and families,” Augustus said in a statement.
The state also opened temporary housing at Joint Base Cape Cod in September 2022 to house 35 migrants who landed unannounced on Martha’s Vineyard after Gov. Ron DeSantis orchestrated their travel from San Antonio, Texas.
Some of the migrants stayed at the base for roughly three weeks before they transitioned into other housing situations.
Joint Base Cape Cod is a MEMA-designated emergency shelter and its existing infrastructure provides temporary accommodations that are “well-equipped to meet the safety, security, and privacy needs of families,” said Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy.
“The growing demand for humanitarian support has been met with a collaborative spirit and ingenuity reflective of our commonwealth’s best values,” Reidy said in a statement.