LYNN — Shelters in the city are on the front lines of the Commonwealth’s emergency-shelter crisis.
Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency earlier this month due to the rapidly rising amount of migrant families arriving that are in need of shelter and services, and a severe lack of shelter availability in the state.
“It’s dire,” Lynn Shelter Association CEO Mark Evans said. “People are coming into Massachusetts at a really fast pace.”
According to figures the state provided in the announcement on Aug. 8, there are currently nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 people in state shelters, including children and pregnant women.
The Lynn Shelter Association provides services to more than 70 families in the area experiencing homelessness.
Centerboard CEO Mark DeJoie said that at his organization, which offers support for more than 100 families looking for emergency housing, the surge hasn’t been felt because the family shelters have been more or less at capacity for several years. He said that often means placing incoming populations in places like hotels outside of the city to meet the growing need for emergency housing.
“We’re scrambling to find habitable places to live,” DeJoie said. “We don’t have any more rooms.”
Evans and DeJoie said that part of the problem driving the crisis is the lack of affordable housing in the state, both for the incoming populations and those who are otherwise experiencing housing emergencies.
DeJoie said that given the lack of affordable-housing options, finding long-term housing solutions for families can be extremely difficult.
“That’s the problem,” DeJoie said. “(Even) if you could afford rent, there’s no place to go.”
According to Evans, family shelters across the state are being hit the hardest. He said many of the families deal with complications due to language barriers.
“There’s immigration issues, there’s language issues that we are confronting with the people we serve,” Evans said.
Evans said that his organization tries to give the people it serves as many resources as possible. He explained that many who have just come into the country need assistance navigating their legal status.
“They’re in flux,” Evans said. “We are trying the best we can to serve them… They just don’t know what their immigration status is.”
Evans said that the organization helps families place children in schools and helps those eligible find work, with the ultimate goal of placing families into long-term housing outside of the shelters.
Both DeJoie and Evans credited the state for being able to handle the crisis in a proactive way.
“Massachusetts is doing a really good of trying to accommodate these people,” Evans said. “But there’s just a lot of people coming in.”
