An overflow site for illegal immigrants at a Roxbury recreation center in Boston is already reaching full capacity just more than a week after it first opened, according to the city’s mayor, Michelle Wu.
The mayor said she visited the center on Feb. 6 and spoke with immigrants and staff members to “see how things are going” at the newly opened overflow site.
“Yesterday, when I was doing a walkthrough I met some families who had most recently been in a hotel in Revere. So there’s a little bit of shuffling around,” Ms. Wu said. The mayor noted that many of the children in the complex are currently waiting to be enrolled in schools.
Roughly 75 illegal immigrant children were registered with the Boston Public Schools the first weekend that the Roxbury site was opened, she said.
Housing Only Temporary
“The first batch of those young people actually should be in school right now, they started today and then some of the newer young people who arrived will get registered as they get settled with case workers,” she said.The mayor later stressed that the overflow site is only a temporary operation.
“This whole situation is a temporary spot,” Ms. Wu said. “I think the state heard loud and clear that the pool is necessary for the community, for all the multigenerational activity that happens in the neighborhood.”
The complex is located in a traditionally marginalized and black neighborhood and is named after local civil rights champion Melnea Cass.
Overflow Site Sparks Protests
The decision, coming as the city experiences a widespread homelessness crisis, sparked protests, with some of those involved clashing with police.Amid a growing backlash, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has promised that the center will only be used to temporarily house illegal immigrants until May 31.
The Democratic governor has also claimed that the state’s right-to-shelter law is the reason officials continue to provide housing for illegal immigrants who arrive in Massachusetts.
During the podcast on Feb. 7, Mayor Wu acknowledged to Mr. Hills that displacing some of the recreational programs from the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex to make room for the immigrants wasn’t an “ideal” situation.
She noted that city officials had worked hard to identify alternative buildings for use as overflow sites for illegal immigrants. However, the Melnea Cass Center, already fully equipped with showers and bathroom facilities, emerged as the best option.
“This is not a problem about migrant families, this is a problem about housing that we had before anyone came, [a problem] that we have across every community,” Ms. Wu said.
