Massachusetts, and Boston in particular, is in a state of perpetual triage when it comes to the influx of migrants.
The sense of urgency started with the initial landing of 50 migrants on Martha’s Vineyard in 2022 and the securing of shelter at Joint Base Cape Cod. From then, it’s been a cycle of finding space (using hotel and motel rooms, college dorms and emergency shelters), seeing those spots fill up, and repurposing other spaces to house the growing number of migrants and homeless Bay Staters.
It’s always a crisis, and the ship of state keeps springing leaks. Migrant families had to bunk down at Logan Airport when the state shelter system hit its cap, until a new temporary solution was found with the takeover of the Melnea Cass recreational shelter in Roxbury.
The running tab on all this care and shelter is astronomical.
One problem in being in a constant state of overwhelm is the inability to plot an end game, to ask the question “and then what” as each new crisis is averted.
The migrant overflow shelter at the Cass center is already nearing its 400-person capacity, Mayor Michelle Wu told Java with Jimmy Wednesday.
The mayor said that putting up people at the Cass is temporary, as it displaces programs for those in the neighborhood. And the neighbors, as expected, aren’t happy about it. A visit by Gov. Maura Healey and Wu was met with shouts of “Shame on Wu” and “Shame on Healey.”
Healey, as the Herald reported, said in a news conference “We are here today because we really don’t have a choice. As you know, families continue to come into this country, continue to come into Massachusetts.”
The Cass will stop being used as a shelter by May 31, according to administration officials.
And then what?
There are city-owned buildings that could be utilized, and if they are, they, too, are likely to reach capacity.
And then what?
There are efforts to fast-track work authorizations and housing to give people in shelters more stable footing, but there are undoubtedly more people ready to replace them.
Are leaders hoping that migrants, once they’ve secured jobs, will realize just how expensive it is to live in Massachusetts and make for less-expensive states, as many residents have done?
Or are they hoping for a Hail Mary from President Biden in which the borders are closed and the brakes slammed on illegal immigration? In an election year that has some promise, but the risk of ticking off the progressives who are all for open borders may prove too great.
Healey and Wu will keep plugging up the leaks and continue to find and repurpose buildings into places where families can at least sleep and wash up. They will keep pleading for money, from the legislature and the feds. It may come, it may not.
“And then what?” is a question residents and taxpayers will continue to ask as cities and towns contort their budgets to pay for Biden’s folly.
Healey and Wu could accomplish a lot with an end run – by ceasing Boston’s sanctuary city status and repealing the right to shelter law. If the feds aren’t coming up with a solution, they must.
The alternative is a permanent state of temporary measures.
