Is the state is playing three-card monte with migrants?
A January 9 article published in The Sun Chronicle stated that North Attleboro and a few other surrounding towns would be moving migrant families out of local make-shift hotel emergency shelters. Upon initial reading, the title seemed to suggest that these families had graduated from the system and were moving on to independent living. However, the truth of the matter is not quite so rosy.
According to the article, the towns of North Attleboro, Mansfield, Plainville, and possibly Foxboro and Franklin are merely shifting the families onto another facility in a neighboring town. The stated reason for the exodus, according to a letter each town received from the state, was “to consolidate supplemental shelter sites” and move families to shelters that have “on-site providers,” which are “nonprofits or other organizations that provide services or facilitate services such as booking and paying for hotel rooms to shelter families. The providers are eventually reimbursed by the state.”ii
| Moving from | Families | Families moving | Moving to | Current # Families | Date of move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Attleboro | 67 | 67 | Norwood | 10 | Jan. 23, 25 |
| Mansfield | 38 | 38 | Stoughton | 194 | Jan.17 |
| Plainville | 56 | 15 | Sharon | 56 | No date given |
How long can the state sustain this ruse? In the article, North Attleboro and Mansfield officials said they don’t think they’ll receive any more migrant families and that those local hotels will no longer be part of the Emergency Assistance Housing system. Really?
Late last year, Governor Healy predicted that the number of new migrants coming to Massachusetts and requiring Emergency Shelter services would decrease due to the colder temperatures.iii However, according to data from the state’s Emergency Assistance Placement Data dashboard, the numbers have remained high and steady, above 7,500 since late October.
Now, with Healy’s recent $375 million negative “adjustment” to the Fiscal Year 2024 budget iv, including cuts to local Fire Fighting Services and MassHealth, one wonders how the state can continue supporting thousands of non-citizens at the expense of Massachusetts taxpayers.
Lawmakers seem to have been caught off-guard by the decrease in projected tax revenue (an eventuality that anyone living here could have predicted), and are scrambling to blame everything except our wide-open Right to Shelter laws.
Healey’s top budget official, Matthew Gorzkowicz, said:
“None of the budget reductions are the result of the recent emergency shelter crisis.” v
Any thinking person knows that is a lie.
By Citizens for Truth
Sources:
[i] https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/migrant-families-being-moved-out-of-attleboro-area-towns/article_fbfad7ae-42e8-571a-81df-5b6a82e876ff.html
[ii] https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2024/01/01/26-families-head-off-cape-shelter-consolidation-state-bourne/71603095007/
[iii] https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/11/22/massachusetts-overflow-shelters-healey-migrant-influx/
[iv] https://budget.digital.mass.gov/govbudget/fy24/?_ga=2.251953034.2033520008.1705333063-1792303396.1693339584&_gl=1*dihkm6*_ga*MTc5MjMwMzM5Ni4xNjkzMzM5NTg0*_ga_SW2TVH2WBY*MTcwNTQyNTcyNS4xMjIuMS4xNzA1NDI4MzU2LjAuMC4w
[v] https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2024/01/08/gov-healey-announces-375-million-in-budget-cuts/
Massachusetts First 
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