Over the past week, Chelsea has dealt with the impact of nearly 300 migrants, primarily from Haiti, who have been either dropped off or directed to the city for emergency services.
To deal with the influx, the state contracted with local non-profit La Colaborativa to serve as an immigrant welcome center after the newly opened welcome center in Allston was overwhelmed by arriving migrants.
“Over the last two days our triage department has provided wraparound services for 250 individuals, the majority of whom are Haitian immigrants,” stated an email from La Colaborativa that was sent out last week. “These services include: food, housing, health assessments and rapid reemployment.”
Since last week, La Colaborativa has continued to coordinate emergency services for the migrants. Temporary shelter housing has been set up, primarily at hotels in Saugus, Everett, and Revere.
Alex Train, Chelsea’s Director of Housing and Community Development, said the plan is to consolidate that temporary shelter housing at the enVision Hotel in Everett.
The Rev. Myrlande Desrosier, who heads the Everett Haitian Community Center, has also been assisting La Colaborativa and local agencies with the migrant influx.
Chelsea is well versed in accepting and helping migrant populations, but the events of the past week have been at a different level.
“The influx of new arrivals, particularly from South and Central America, has been a longstanding trend in the community,” said Train. “Over the course of the last fall, we started to see new arrivals in very small numbers coming into the city, the majority of which had familial connections to the city of Chelsea.”
On Wednesday night, July 5, Train said the city was alerted to a large influx of new arrivals, predominantly from Haiti, that had arrived in Massachusetts to the Allston welcoming center and were redirected to Boston Medical Center as the welcoming center was overwhelmed.
“Because of a new policy at Boston Medical Center, where the hospital no longer allowed (the migrants) to stay overnight, they were directed to Logan Airport and ultimately to Chelsea,” said Train. “Since then, La Colaborativa has mobilized to coordinate the necessities – food assistance, healthcare, and shelter in coordination with the Commonwealth. Approximately 300 new arrivals have been temporarily housed in shelters by La Colaborativa under the direction of the Commonwealth.”
Train noted that the migrants have been vetted by immigration and customs officials, and that a large number are children and pregnant women.
In a statement from Governor Maura Healey’s office, state officials said they have been working closely with La Colaborativa on an orderly process to transition the families to hotels, and that the governor’s office continues to work with local, federal, and community partners to expand the capacity of the emergency assistance program and find long-term solutions.
“It has been encouraging to witness how La Colaborativa stepped up to be a partner with the Healey Administration’s plan to welcome families to Massachusetts during this crucial time,” said State Representative Judith Garcia. “Working in coalition with the state government and Reverend Myrlande DesRosiers’s team at Everett Haitian Community Center, they’re helping our new neighbors settle in and navigate the resources available to them. My office is ready to support this effort in whatever way we can.”
While local, state, and community organizations have stepped in to help, Train said such unpredictable large influxes of migrants can put a strain on resources of the city and its local partners.
“This recent infusion of migrants has seemingly overwhelmed the state’s resources, including systems that have been set up to accommodate new arrivals,” said Train. “Therefore, we are working closely with Governor Healey’s office and other Commonwealth agencies, along with La Colaborativa, to ensure that the necessary federal and state resources are allocated to support the new arrivals with basic necessities.”
Predicting when Chelsea or other area communities might be hit with a similar large stream of migrants is difficult, Train said.
“One of the major realizations over the past week has been that the influx of new migrants is extremely difficult to predict in the current political landscape,” said Train. “There are governors that are busing folks up to Massachusetts, California, and New York from the southern border states. But for other communities, making sure that there are local models that can be deployed in conjunction with the state temporarily to bring in support is important.
“In this instance, we are not sure what we would have done if it wasn’t for La Colaborativa, because it would have taken the state a number of weeks to get the necessary resources in place.”