Migrant families endure long, painful journeys to Massachusetts hoping for fresh start
BOSTON - Massachusetts has been struggling for months with how to integrate the thousands of migrant and homeless families looking for shelter in the state.
There are several organizations helping those families who have endured long, painful journeys to get to the Boston area. It hasn't been easy for any side in this ongoing crisis.
There are four families staying at Our Savior Lutheran Church in East Boston. The church started taking in families one night back in mid-August.
"That night I would say about 25 people arrived," Pastor Don Nanstad told WBZ-TV.
8 year trip from Haiti
One of the families fled from the violence in Haiti to Chile. Their 8-month-old child was allowed to go with them, but their 5-year-old daughter was barred from entering.
Over the next 8 years, the family made their way to the United States, passing through 10 countries, sometimes by public transit, sometimes by foot. Their daughter, now 13 years old, has joined them in East Boston.
The numbers of migrants at the church quickly grew. Some moved on to stable housing, but others remain while their belongings cling to the walls of the church. These are the fortunate ones.
Painful choices for shelter
"Many people are literally choosing, they're sleeping outside Wollaston station. They're sleeping in the airport. They're sleeping wherever they can find because they want something long term," said Hannah Hafter, an organizer with Episcopal City Mission. She's helping to spark an interfaith movement to provide shelter for migrants stuck in a brutally impossible situation.
"Basically you can have housing immediately for a short term, but you give up the chance to access the longer term shelter," Hafter told WBZ.
Those migrants who go to temporary respite centers are guaranteed 5 days of shelter, possibly up to one month. But, going in prevents them from getting onto an emergency assistance wait list for 6 months. That ever-growing list can lead to long term shelter.
Except, Hafter said, people aren't leaving the shelters due to Boston's housing crisis.
Immigration critics
Immigration critics say migrants only fuel the problem.
"It may be well intended, but... it does impact the ability of other people to find needed housing," Ira Mehlman, the media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) told WBZ.
"We do have to look at not just the interest of the people who are coming here but also the interest of the people, the receiving society. Who's going to be impacted most? And most often it is the people who can least afford it."
Mehlman believes the US shouldn't be encouraging people to take the long, and sometimes dangerous trip to America for the promise of free housing and services. He believes that sanctuary cities like Boston should foresee the financial burden that follows.
"You should expect that you're going to get a large share of the illegal population and as that happens, the cost and impact are going to continue to grow," he told WBZ.
Migrants struggle for jobs
This includes jobs, a task some immigrants are struggling to find.
"We applied for a program called Home Base that should help with renting an apartment but we need to have some kind of income first. I already have a work permit, but I have not been able to find work," migrant Jude Jeudy told WBZ through an interpreter at Our Savior Lutheran Church in East Boston.
Like other migrants, Jeudy has expertise in numerous trades, but there are barriers. Migrant Gabriel Jean said not being able to speak English well hurt his chances of finding work.
"Even if you apply for jobs, you don't get the jobs," told WBZ through an interpreter.
Gabriel Jean came to Boston with his wife and son. They passed through Brazil and Mexico to get here, sometimes through the woods.
"You are crossing people on the floor that passed away but you had to keep going," he said through an interpreter.
He's staying at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain. Kendy Valbrun is the program director there. His family migrated to the US from Haiti in the 1990s.
"I was lucky enough to find some of the recent families that I worked with here, jobs, by just taking them through a volunteer route," he told WBZ.
Think of it like an internship and a job tryout at the same time. As they work, Valbrun says they pick up English and are eventually hired.
"There are no words to say how I feel and how I can repay the pastor and church back," Jean told WBZ through an interpreter.
