Massachusetts Towns Blindsided as Migrants Housed at Hotels

Plymouth and Kingston are the latest communities to get blindsided by the state, as dozens of migrant families have been sent to hotels in the South Shore towns.

The Massachusetts communities were not given advance notice from the Baker administration about the emergency housing situation, which recently happened to Methuen as well.

In Kingston, 107 individuals have been sent to an area hotel in the last week, and Plymouth officials are expecting 27 migrant families to be housed at local hotels in the coming weeks.

“A heads up would have been nice,” Kingston Town Administrator Keith Hickey told the Herald on Thursday {snip}

Last Friday at around 5 p.m., Hickey received a voicemail from a Department of Housing and Community Development representative, alerting him that the state was immediately placing nine individuals in need of emergency housing in a Kingston hotel. Then that number of people jumped to 26 on Saturday, and by Monday morning, it spiked to 107 individuals.

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In Plymouth, Town Manager Derek Brindisi was told by the state Tuesday evening that they had secured 27 hotel rooms in Plymouth — and that eight migrant families were arriving that night.

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Shelters are full, so this is an overflow situation from the shelters, according to State Rep. Kathy LaNatra.

Other towns will see “more and more of this” during the coming months, predicted State Rep. Mathew Muratore.

“This is not going to end here,” he added.

Nantucket Police warn of possible migrant flight with ‘many similarities’ to Martha’s Vineyard incident
Massachusetts — like many other states — is seeing an influx of new arrivals, many from the southern border, according to Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy.

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