Massachusetts Resident Enraged by Boston’s Plan to House Migrants in Former Veteran Housing

The city recently announced that it will be converting one particular building that was once used as veteran housing into a shelter for undocumented and unhoused migrants. And many of Boston’s residents are quite angry with the plan. 

But just like the other cities, Boston is seeing the arrival of more migrants than ever before. At the end of 2023, the Massachusetts governor reported that there were nearly 3,500 migrants participating in the city’s emergency shelter program. And they assume there are thousands more still living on the streets. 

In order to combat this issue, the Massachusetts state government has created the Emergency Assistance (EA) program that works to provide shelter for as many people as possible. Thanks to the EA program, the city of Boston has about 3,000 shelter beds, but each and every one of them has been full for months. 

It became glaringly obvious that something needed to be done. So over the past few months, the government of that state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston have been working hand-in-hand to find more shelters for the growing number of migrants and American citizens experiencing homelessness. Luckily, they’ve had some luck. 

The shelter could hold 400 people, or about 125 families, most of whom were migrants from outside the United States. This plan of action was undoubtedly helpful, but it still wasn’t enough. 

The Chelsea Soldiers’ Home has been run by the state for more than 100 years, but it’s since been retired from use and was actually scheduled for demolition in April. But the mayor and governor announced that, instead of tearing it down, they planned to reopen it to house the current overflow of migrant families.

Massachusetts resident Eileen Jeffrey wrote on Facebook, “Chelsea soldier home is now a migrant shelter- there are thousands of homeless vets – Are you kidding me!” and another, Mike Junior, wrote, “They were supposed to tear that building down but let’s put migrants in there, not our own soldiers, not our own people, not the ones who FOUGHT for OUR FREEDOM.”

However, according to state-collected data, only about 1,000 of the 18,000 people without shelter in Boston are identified as veterans. Of course, that’s 1,000 too many, but the state believes it needs to shelter as many people as they can, from anywhere and everywhere. 

Dr. Santiago explained, “Massachusetts has proven that we can take care of veterans and families experiencing homelessness in our state. This project [will] not impact the daily routines or services at the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Chelsea.”

On March 22, the Senate ruled that the state would offer an additional $350 million to the EA to fund the new shelters. However, they also initiated several added regulations, including one that stated people can only stay in a government shelter for nine months, unless they are pregnant, a veteran, or who are employed, in which case they can stay for up to one year. 

Julia Mejia, a City Councilor in Boston, told the press, “People who actually have more financial support, we need to do everything in our power to make sure that we are setting them up for success or whatever success looks like,” Mejia said that could even include providing shelter for the unhoused in one’s own home. 

Gov. Healey explained, “I am clear about is this is not sustainable. And we need help from the federal government. We need Congress to act, and we need the Biden administration to give us work authorizations on an expedited basis, and to make changes there that will assist us in caring for these people.”