South Middlesex Opportunity Council is helping Framingham migrants. What they're doing
FRAMINGHAM — A major breakthrough in the city's ability to handle the ongoing migrant crisis took place last week, as it now has a emergency care provider for families staying at two hotels.
The South Middlesex Opportunity Council is handling all food and services for the homeless population that is staying at the two unnamed hotels, having taken over from the city last week.
Since July, more than 130 homeless individuals have been moved into Framingham hotels. Many of them are ethnic Haitians who are seeking asylum in Massachusetts due to ongoing violence in their native country. Because they have been granted asylum in the state, the migrants need to have housing provided, due to a state law that mandates the state provide housing to all homeless families that have at least one child under age 21.
Due to more homeless families coming into the state, the state's emergency housing system has been overwhelmed, leading to state officials placing large populations of migrant families in hotels, spread throughout the commonwealth.
'Lack of communication': Framingham reports about 40 Haitian migrants are staying in a city hotel
During a Sept. 5 City Council meeting, Mayor Charlie Sisitsky said the city has had to scramble to provide some level of care and resources to the migrants, who had recently been placed in Framingham and had received little support from the state beyond basic shelter.
City struggled to consistently deliver food to migrants
“As you know, we have migrant families staying at three different hotels in the city," the mayor said at the time. "One of the hotels we have an emergency organization agency that is handling the overall program for the state, and the city has no role in running that program at all. Unfortunately the state has not provided an emergency organization yet for the two (other) hotels, so we have been struggling to coordinate the volunteers who are providing the services and goods.”
Sisitsky also reported during the Sept. 5 meeting that while the city originally had two companies providing food for families, balancing deliveries was tedious. The state has since hired a catering company from East Boston to provide meals. But the mayor said there are still issues in getting food to families consistently and on a timely basis.
“So far it has not been very successful,” Sisitsky said at the time. “There have been some problems with food delivery and food distribution.”
A key issue in Framingham was the lack of an emergency organization to handle things such as meal provision and other social services that migrants need. While Jewish Family Services of Metrowest is handling migrants at one hotel, the state had not provided an emergency provider for those staying at the two others.
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On Sept. 5, Sisitsky said that SMOC, which has served as an emergency provider for migrants in Marlborough and other MetroWest communities, has registered with the state to be a provider for additional migrants in Framingham.
Last week, Framingham Public Information Officer Susan Petroni confirmed that SMOC was overseeing all services that had previously been handled by the city, having officially taken over on Sept. 8.
“The mayor (and I) are grateful to all the organizations who worked with the City of Framingham on the Mayor’s task force to provide basic humanitarian needs for these families for the 25 days until SMOC took over," said Petroni, who has been working as an emergency coordinator for the hotels. "Many of these organizations in Framingham and MetroWest are continuing to provide services.”
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: SMOC is second emergency provider for Haitian migrants in Framingham
