By Saturday, roughly 200 migrants who had been sleeping overnight at Logan Airport will be residing at the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex, a development that one city staffer described as a “terrible situation.”
An initial 75 individuals arrived at the Roxbury recreation facility Wednesday night, and they received a full orientation and a case management screening. Additional groups were being taken from Logan to the Cass Thursday and Friday, with the total number of migrants there expected to reach 200 by the weekend.
Officials are gaining an understanding of how long the families have been in the country, what their needs are and how they can be supported, said Ajay Singh, a policy advisor for the Mayor’s Office.
In the coming days, officials will continue to relocate migrants until the facility reaches its capacity of around 400, Singh said during a meeting held Thursday for faith leaders to get a better grasp of the migrant influx and how they can help support the individuals and families.
Singh echoed similar sentiments that Gov. Maura Healey expressed Wednesday before the state opened the Cass as a temporary overflow shelter, that there are “no good options related to space,” for migrants.
“It’s just a terrible situation,” Singh told faith leaders. “I know the ethos of how y’all sort of bring together your congregations, I think, is the same ethos that we have in the city: welcoming strangers in a strange land and having a safe and warm place for people to sleep and having those basic needs met is really, really crucial.”
“At the same time,” he continued, “I think it’s a real challenge that the Cass is the first site that’s being closed for overflow conversion given the history in Roxbury. It’s a really painful choice for local residents and the same for the city and for the mayor. We are trying to hold all of those things, and at the same time, the decision has been made so we are stepping up to ensure all families are supported.
Healey has promised the shelter will be only temporary through the end of May before the state converts it back for recreational use. Included in the governor’s plan is money to upgrade the facility.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu thanked Healey Wednesday for her “leadership in an impossible situation,” two days after she said taking resources from an underserved community was “painfully familiar.”
Roughly 90 cities and towns are providing emergency shelter for migrants statewide, and other safety-net sites are running in Cambridge, Quincy and Revere, while the United Way also has those types of sites in Greater Boston and Central Massachusetts.
Most migrant families taking up residence at the Cass must be on a state waitlist for emergency assistance, which is topping out at around 600, Singh said. Many of them are Haitian-Creole and have small children, he added.
All of the migrants being housed came here “lawfully,” said Geralde Gabeau, founder and executive director of Mattapan-based Immigrant Family Services Institute.
“They are very young families simply seeking for a place that could welcome them so they can start living their lives,” Gabeau said. “They have lost so much from Haiti all the way to here, and so many of them have spent years struggling before they make it here.”
She added: “The only thing that they are asking is for people to be very compassionate and understanding and willing to show them that they are human beings, and they are worth our time.”
Gabeau said her organization is seeking an “army of volunteers” to teach the migrants English, help connect them with employers and provide transportation for medical and legal appointments.
Local mother Keisha Effee received national airtime on Fox News Thursday morning when the station highlighted the situation at the Cass.
Effee spoke out about how her four boys are no longer able to participate in various activities at the center for free. The mother said she stopped by the center late Wednesday night and saw “a lot of police.” When she came back early Thursday morning she noticed large pieces of paper had gone up on the windows, blocking the view of what’s going on inside.
“These people came from the airport here, probably on boats, probably on buses and probably all for free. Now they’re getting stipends, and they’re getting what else?,” Effee said on ‘Fox & Friends.’ “This is not the answer to help them. Now it’s going to destroy our community more and mess up our children more. Like, this is sad.”
The city, working closely with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, is close to securing alternative sites for all of the programming that had been displaced, Singh said. Officials had gained initial alternative space as of Tuesday night for lacrosse, tennis, soccer, baseball and handball programs.
A youth track-and-field club, Boston United, is closing on a deal for an alternative practice space at the Reggie Lewis Center.
Rev. Laura Everett, executive director of Massachusetts Council of Churches organized Thursday’s briefing with faith leaders and is collaborating with the Immigrant Family Services Institute to learn what their congregations could do to help.
“Particularly because the folks seeking refuge have been asked to stay, they did not have a choice in this, they have been asked to stay in a majority Black neighborhood, we need our majority white churches to step up big and hard right now,” Everett said.
