A Cambridge state representative says the migrant crisis has reached a “real boiling point” and is blaming the secretary of state for refusing to consider shifting an overflow shelter at an old courthouse into a 24/7 operation.
Rep. Mike Connolly, a Democrat whose district encompasses the old courthouse in East Cambridge, told the Herald on Saturday that he, city officials, and the rest of the city’s state delegation, have been “begging” Secretary William Galvin for weeks to run the shelter around the clock, but Galvin hasn’t budged.
The conflict has reached a point where the Cambridge City Council, Public Schools, Health Alliance and Public Health Department will be sending a letter to Galvin this week to make their request publicly known, Connolly said.
“The city of Cambridge has truly gone above and beyond,” he said. “Our complaint is the state is actually standing in the way of allowing us to do all we can to serve this vulnerable population.”
“It’s reached a real boiling point I think for a lot of us who are trying our best to navigate a very challenging situation for everyone,” Connolly added.
Connolly’s comments came after the United Way of Massachusetts Bay announced Friday that it awarded a grant to La Colaborativa, an immigrant social services nonprofit, to open a day shelter in Chelsea for families who’ve been spending nights at the Cambridge courthouse.
The United Way’s grant program has launched eight overnight and daytime sites since its creation in the fall, with locations predominantly in Greater Boston.
La Colaborativa’s day shelter, which will accommodate up to 200 individuals is expected to open Tuesday and operate five days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The organization will provide families and individuals “a safe, welcoming daytime space, as well as basic essentials such as coordination of food assistance, hygiene items, infant supplies, clothing, and other basic household necessities,” according to a release.
“As we’re facing an unprecedented state of emergency, it’s critical that all residents have access to safe, dignified shelter, especially over the frigid winter months,” La Colaborativa CEO Gladys Vega said in the release.
Connolly called the development a “very welcome opportunity” but the need to turn the old courthouse into a 24/7 operation remains dire, especially in the case of children who get sick at school and have to go home during the day, he said. The building, which also houses the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, has served as an overflow shelter for about 60 homeless families and pregnant women, including newly-arrived migrants, since December.
Galvin spokesperson Deb O’Malley, responding to a Herald inquiry Saturday, said Gov. Maura Healey’s office ultimately makes the final call about the shelter’s hours even though the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office owns the building.
Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/Boston Herald
Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin speaks in 2022. (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
O’Malley pointed out how the shelter’s hours were extended last week from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. “to accommodate children staying there” and their school start times. A signed agreement between the Healey administration and the secretary of state’s office dictates the hours and many of the operational responsibilities, she said.
“The Governor’s office makes any calls about the operations of the shelter, but they haven’t asked to expand the hours beyond the expansion that was agreed to last week,” O’Malley said.
After being asked about the hours of operation, Healey’s office referred the Herald to Galvin’s office.
Connolly said Galvin’s office has been “very responsive” in explaining the secretary’s position but he declined to share communications he’s had.
“It has resulted in migrant families (being left) in a position where they’re truly wandering the streets, not speaking the language, freezing cold with children,” Connolly said of the building not being open around the clock during the week. “To me, that is unconscionable.”
The shelter already operates 24/7 on the weekends, holidays, and snow days.
The Registry of Deeds, which is open from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, operates in a “totally separate” part of the building and has a separate entrance from the shelter, Cambridge Housing Liaison Maura Pensak said last week. Extending shelter hours “does not … impact the business of the registry,” she said.
“Although we’ve worked with the state to figure out where families can go, there isn’t one site in our city that can handle people being there every day,” Pensak said.
Healey’s administration has pumped $173,000 worth of upgrades into the building which once housed probate and family courts but those moved to a different location in 2020. The side of the structure being used as a shelter was largely left untouched for three years.
Connolly said he can’t “fathom” how the shelter can’t run when the registry is open, especially with an upgrade being the addition of a temporary wall with a fire door to separate the building in half.
Healey turned to the state-owned building as the number of people seeking emergency shelter under Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter law exceeded her self-imposed limit of 7,500 families.
Cambridge residents are eager to help out in the crisis, being an “original sanctuary city,” Connolly said. He declined to name specific communities that have “complained” about migrants.
On Thursday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu stood firm in her stance that the state-run Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex in Roxbury is not an appropriate site for a temporary overflow shelter for migrants who had been sleeping overnight at Logan Airport.
“We should not be using community centers for migrant shelter,” Wu said.
Connolly highlighted the shelter at the Cass, saying “the state went into the community center and they took it over 24/7, and that was a very painful thing for the Roxbury community by all accounts.”
“Here we have a vacant space in the city of Cambridge and we have (city officials) and the state delegation all collectively saying to the state ‘Can’t you make this 24/7?’ and the response from the state has been ‘No, we can’t,’” Connolly said. “That really shows the contrast of how this needs to be managed better.”
