An East Boston church has become a place for displaced migrant families to stay now that the state’s new emergency shelter policies are in effect. Among them, a five-day limit for newly arrived migrants at state centers.
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A church in East Boston, Massachusetts is taking in dozens of migrants who have nowhere to go, barred by new restrictions on the state emergency shelter system.
With shelters at capacity and new measures limiting the length of stay in these places, some families have no place to go.
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Faith leaders have mobilized to try to help.
The families staying at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in East Boston told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra that they have gone through everything, from sleeping in train stations, other shelters and even on the streets. The church opened its doors to them this week.
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About 35 people arrived at the church this week. Leaders say that these families come from Quincy and they are doing everything possible to give them shelter, but it is still uncertain how long they will be able to do it.
“We got a call Monday evening that there's this group of Haitians that were pushed out of tents so they couldn’t stay there anymore,” explained Pastor Don Nanstead.
The floor of Our Savior's Lutheran Church has become the bed and play place for children. Dozens of families now call this place their home.
Lunes Balthenemy told us in Spanish that even though they don’t have beds, they appreciate the help this site is providing.
“Nobody finds housing in five days,” Nanstead said. “They are in and out again, this group would be in back sleeping outdoors by the weekend.”
This week faith leaders including pastors from the church met virtually to address this situation, calling for the community to help these families and other churches to open their doors
“There's a lot of space in a lot of churches, big churches that have extra building that they used in the day but not at night,” Nanstead said.
But others say this can’t be the long-term solution.
Sandra Aleman is president and founder of the East Boston Community Kitchen, which operates out of the church. With people currently living in the basement and on the second floor, she worries that the church is not sustainable as a living quarters.
"They have come from shelters, from the airport station, from different places who had nowhere to sleep and the place where they were was a tent camp," Aleman told us in Spanish.
State officials say as of Friday 161 families at respite shelters have received exit notices for the five-day stay limit, and so far 27 of them have left the system.
