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Migrants will be barred from sleeping at Logan Airport. Do you agree?
Starting July 9, families and individuals will no longer be permitted to sleep at Logan Airport.
Families and individuals will soon be barred from sleeping overnight at Logan International Airport, state officials said.
In an announcement on June 28, Gov. Maura Healey said sleeping overnight in Logan Airport will no longer be permitted as of July 9. The decision is the latest policy change by the administration to house newly-arrived migrant families in an already overwhelmed emergency shelter system.
Families sleeping overnight at Logan who are on the state’s emergency assistance shelter waitlist will be offered transfers to the state’s safety-net system, including the Norfolk prison shelter that recently opened to accommodate up to 140 families at full capacity.
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“This is in the best interest of families and travelers and staff at Logan, as the airport is not an appropriate place for people to seek shelter,” Emergency Assistance Director Scott Rice said in the release.
Eligible families will continue to be placed in other safety-net and shelter sites as units become available. Staff members at Logan will inform families of the new policy and will help them secure transportation to another location where they have family or other options for a safe place to stay, according to the release.
The number of families leaving shelter has steadily increased over the past few months, with more than 300 families leaving in May – the highest number in years, Rice said in the statement. But Massachusetts is still out of shelter space, he added.
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The numbers of families leaving the shelter system are expected to increase as the administration implements a nine-month length of stay limit, which was passed by the Legislature and signed by Healey last month. There are currently over 7,400 families in the emergency shelter system, according to the state’s dashboard.
Do you agree with Healey’s decision to bar families from sleeping at Logan Airport?
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