Greater Fall River churches call on community to welcome migrant and homeless families

Audrey Cooney, The Herald News
·4 min read

FALL RIVER — A coalition of local churches is calling on their faithful to welcome migrants and other unsheltered families placed in SouthCoast communities.

“We believe, as Christians, that we are to open our arms to the stranger in our midst and the alien in our land,” said Rev. James Medley, Rector at Church of the Holy Spirit in Fall River.

Unsheltered families placed on the SouthCoast

Since 1983, Massachusetts has had a “right to shelter” law that requires the state to provide shelter to pregnant people and eligible families with children.

In August, Gov. Maura Healey said the state shelter system was in a state of emergency, largely due to an increase in the number of migrants traveling to Massachusetts and an inadequate number of shelter beds. Following her emergency declaration, the state began placing migrant families and pregnant women, plus unhoused families already living in Massachusetts, in temporary shelter in dozens of Massachusetts cities and towns. Most of the placements have been in state-funded hotel rooms.

Nine communities on the SouthCoast ­— Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Middleboro, New Bedford, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton and Wareham — are sheltering families through the state system. Some of them, like Fall River and New Bedford, were receiving unhoused families through the system long before the emergency declaration, while many of the smaller towns on the list are participating in the system for the first time.

The latest on the shelter crisis

On Oct. 16, Healey announced that the state shelter system was near capacity and would not be able to guarantee shelter for families once the system hits 7,500 families, which is projected to happen on Nov. 1. As of Monday, Oct. 30, there were 7,319 families being sheltered through the system.

Starting on Wednesday, Nov. 1, families in need of shelter will be placed on a waitlist, with the state prioritizing those with higher needs. They also will not be adding any additional shelter spots, the Healey administration has said.

Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston filed a lawsuit last week looking to halt the proposed changes to how the state shelter system operates, arguing that the changes are tantamount to altering the law without going through the correct legislative process.

Gov. Maura Healey introduces her new Emergency Assistance Director Lt. General (Leon) Scott Rice, (Rte.) who has served in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard in this Oct. 16 photo. He is expected to coordinate the state's response to the diminished capacity at emergency shelters throughout the Commonwealth and the delayed response to the crisis by the federal government.

Church coalition calls for compassion

Medley’s church is a member of the Greater Fall River Council of Churches, a group of 10 churches in Fall River, Somerset and Swansea.

This month, the coalition released a statement calling for the community to welcome the families being placed in the area through the state shelter system.

“Our congregations are diverse and encompass many political opinions, but the undersigned clergy believe that all people are one people, created in the image of the infinite God… As we are a nation of immigrants, we believe we must welcome those who come to our shores in the hopes of making a new life in which their children may grow free and strong,” the statement read in part.

The statement addressed some of the local opposition to the unsheltered families being placed locally:

“We understand, and have no wish to diminish, the feelings of challenge, upset, or even fear that this situation may raise in the members of our communities. When things change and we must confront new circumstances, these are normal responses. However, we also believe that love helps us overcome these issues that arise within us,” they wrote.

Medley said other members of the coalition were prompted to speak out in part by reports that Neo-Nazis were organizing protests outside of hotels that are housing previously unsheltered families, including on the SouthCoast.

“It was on some of the clergy’s hearts,” he said.

The council is currently putting together a working group for area churches to provide aid to the new families in an attempt to centralize and coordinate their efforts. Medley said many members of his congregation have been eager to help the newly arrived families; many of them are descended from Portuguese immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the last century.

A few have raised concerns that services being spend on the migrant and homeless families could have gone to local families in need instead.

“We can do more than one thing at a time. It’s not mutually exclusive,” Medley said. “The people in my congregation, we have a good relationship and if we disagree, we talk about things.”

In conversations with parishioners, Medley has stressed the fact that the migrant families are in the U.S. legally seeking asylum. Many of them are from Haiti, where violent gangs have largely taken over.

“We hope that the community will open their arms. And if they need to get mad at somebody, they can get mad at us. But don’t take it out to someone who’s already had to flee their country and is afraid for their life,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Churches in Fall River ask for compassion for migrant families