A new viral video circulating on social media appeared to show an American homeless man begging to be allowed entry into a migrant shelter in Massachusetts, New Bedford Guide reported. According to the news outlet, the shelter’s officials denied the local man access.
“Can’t afford to live here, but y’all going to bring some other motherf***ers here? That doesn’t f***ing add up. It doesn’t make no f***ing sense,” the man reportedly yelled at shelter officials outside the camera’s frame.
“I’m f***ing homeless. I work a full-time job, 40 hours. And can’t pay to live here,” he continued. “How the f*** are you all going to bring somebody else here? Don’t make no f***ing sense. None.”
Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey came under fire recently for her decision to shut down a state-owned recreation center located in Roxbury, one of Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, in order to convert it into a temporary migrant overflow shelter, Blaze News previously reported.
The decision, announced in late January, was made in response to an increase in illegal immigrant arrivals camping out at Boston’s Logan Airport. WBUR reported that on some evenings, 100 to 200 migrants were sleeping on the floor in the airport’s international terminal.
Healey told WHDH that the call to turn the recreation center into a migrant shelter was “just born out of necessity.”
Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu initially pushed back on the state’s plan over concerns it would further negatively impact the struggling community. Ultimately, Wu sided with Healey, stating that “there are no good options.”
“For the first community where this is being proposed to be Roxbury, a community that over so many decades has faced disinvestment, redlining, disproportionate outcomes. It’s very painful, and it’s painfully familiar,” Wu said.
Facing backlash from the local community, Healey pledged that the recreation center would be reopened to the local community by May 31. However, it is unclear where the migrants currently residing in the makeshift shelter will be relocated once the center resumes its regular operations.
Local residents gathered at the community center last week to protest, holding signs that read, “Help Boston kids first,” “Our city, our spaces,” and “Why Roxbury? Try Wellesley,” referring to an affluent town in Norfolk County.
The state’s homeless shelter system reached capacity in November, providing accommodations to approximately 7,500 families. Reports from WCVB suggested that another 656 homeless families are currently on the waiting list seeking shelter.
Massachusetts is the only state with a right-to-shelter law.
Paul D. Craney with Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called for reforms to the current measure, noting that it is “the magnet that brings” migrants to the state.
“[Migrants are] getting a lot of generous taxpayer-funded welfare benefits just by showing up,” Craney told Blaze News. “Without the governor adding some basic reforms to our very generous taxpayer benefits, this will continue. This is just going to get worse for the state because the governor refuses to make the policy decision, which is rather political, to confront her president, who has created this problem.”
Craney noted that the state’s decision to convert the Roxbury recreation center was viewed as a “slap in the face” to some residents.
“Roxbury is a really disadvantaged area of Boston,” he explained. “The rub for a lot of people is, ‘Why did you pick this one part?'”
“Some of these urban areas really rely on their community centers to keep the youth in an environment where they can have something constructive to do,” Craney remarked.
“We’re encouraging people in Massachusetts who want to see reforms done on the migrant issue to go to our website at MassFiscal.org and then they can send an email to their lawmakers demanding that we add a residency requirement to the right-to-shelter law,” he added. “That will help turn off the faucet. That will help turn off the flow coming to the state.”
Neither the governor’s office nor the mayor’s office responded to a request for comment from Blaze News by the time of publication.
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