As shelter funds dry up, migrant families are sleeping outside T station in Quincy

Dozens of migrants have reportedly been sleeping outside the Wollaston MBTA station in Quincy as advocates work to help the families find stable living conditions. 

Thousands of Haitians have fled their home country as major gang violence continues to persist there. Many end up seeking passage to Massachusetts, despite the continued warnings from state officials that there is no room in the state’s shelter system. 

Families have been gathering outside the Wollaston station, which services the Red Line in Quincy, in part due to its proximity to a state-run “welcome center” on the campus of Eastern Nazarene College. These centers are open during the daytime hours to provide services and connect migrants with shelter options. 

About 50 migrants, largely from Haiti, slept outside the station earlier this week, according to reports from WHDH and WCVB. The Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network had been using grant funds from United Way to pay for hotel rooms for the migrants, but those dollars dried up and the families were forced back outside. 

The emergency shelter system has been at or near capacity for months, with those waitlisted being told to find beds at “temporary respite shelters.” But earlier this month, the Healey administration implemented new rules limiting the amount of time that families can stay at the overflow shelters to five days, unless a special extension is granted. 

A spokesperson for Healey told WCVB that the administration had asked the volunteers working with these migrants to bring them to the welcome centers so that they can be referred to overflow shelters. 

To help the families staying outside Wollaston station, volunteers worked with a nearby church to secure space on its grounds for them to pitch tents. Two days later, citing “neighborhood complaints” of “unsanitary and potentially unsafe activity,” Quincy officials told the families that they could not camp at the church, sending many back to the T station. 

Advocates with BIJAN are pushing Gov. Maura Healey to tap rainy day funds to help open up new shelter beds. 

“I think she does have the power to make a change, so while there’s lots of blame to go around to many systems and levels of government, I hope she will take action because I think she can be the one to get these families off the street,” Rev. Annie Gonzalez of BIJAN told WHDH. 

The administration is also facing new pressure from the state’s Republican party. On Tuesday, Mass. GOP officials announced that Chair Amy Carnevale had submitted formal information requests to the state relating to 600 public safety incidents.

The requests seek information regarding how nearly $1 billion was spent. Carnevale accused the Healey administration of withholding “critical information” about incidents involving police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. 

“Today, the Massachusetts Republican Party is standing against the veil of secrecy and the obstructionist efforts of the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Democratic supermajority. We stand with the Massachusetts press corps in declaring: enough is enough. The public deserves transparency. Release the details on the vendors profiting from this crisis and the public safety issues affecting our communities,” Carnevale said in a statement. “On behalf of Massachusetts residents, we are demanding accountability.”