(Politico- Lisa Kashinsky) VELIS’ VIEW — A young boy was wandering around the room at the hotel where John Velis and his fellow National Guard members were stationed. He couldn’t have been more than 6 years old. The boy was hungry. But, because of a language barrier, he didn’t know how to ask for something to eat.
One Guard member handed him a granola bar as another spoke to his parents. The boy struggled to open it. He tried biting the packaging. When Velis ripped it open, the boy beamed. He reminded Velis of his own son.
“The human side of this is something that I didn’t anticipate,” Velis told Playbook. “Talking to these folks, finding out about their life journey. It was something that I didn’t think I would get out of this. And I most certainly did.”
Velis was one of the hundreds of National Guard members activated by the state to help out across dozens of hotels and motels serving as shelters for more than 3,800 migrant and homeless families. Now the state senator is back on Beacon Hill with firsthand knowledge of the situation on the ground just as he and his colleagues prepare to take a critical vote on $250 million to help float the state’s emergency shelter system for a few more months.
The Westfield Democrat said he would “proudly” support more money for the program. And he wants the state to have “flexibility” around how to spend it because “so many things can pop up, particularly on the ground.” The spending bill sent over from the House includes stipulations like designating $50 million specifically for overflow shelter. The Senate has yet to release its version.
The shelter system exceeded Gov. Maura Healey’s 7,500-family capacity limit last Thursday. Starting today, the state is teaming up with federal officials for the first of two legal clinics aimed at shortening the work-authorization process for hundreds of migrants to weeks instead of months — something Healey argues is essential to accelerating their departure from the shelter system.
Velis said the migrants he spoke with want to work. “It was literally across the board, at every hotel, that every single person that I spoke to said, ‘We want to work.’ And they said it with such conviction,” he said.
“There’s this misperception out there that we have this group of individuals who are kind of just loving life [in the shelter system]. And that’s not the case,” Velis continued. “They’re incredibly grateful that they have a spot to be in. But they also want to get out there and they want to provide for their families.”
But Velis said the federal government has to do more than just process work permits faster. While he was deployed, Velis said he encountered asylum-seekers with court dates scheduled as far out as 2027 — another sign of laggardness within the nation’s immigration system. And he worries about the state’s ability to keep funding an emergency shelter program that was never meant to handle this much volume.
Massachusetts needs an “off ramp,” Velis said. Asked if that means the state should consider changes to the “right-to-shelter” law, the senator said “every single factor should be on the table” — particularly with the feds “abdicating their authority” on the issue.
“The status quo is unsustainable without incredibly adverse financial consequences to the commonwealth,” Velis warned. “I’m not suggesting repeal. I’m not saying preserve. But is a conversation worth having about modifying [the shelter law]? I would certainly engage. I would certainly say that’s a worthwhile conversation.”