New documents show the rising public cost of sheltering migrants in Massachusetts, as the state grapples with a strain on its emergency shelter system.
The state has 17 contracts totaling $116 million to house migrant families through June, including a no-bid $10 million contract for a company providing meals, CBS News Boston reported, citing documents obtained by the outlet.
In some cases, the state is paying hotels $64 per person each day for meals, including $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $31 for dinner.
Last August, Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey declared a state of emergency, saying the state had more than 20,000 migrants in its shelter system.
Capacity overruns have necessitated the use of hotels for emergency shelter, but earlier this month the state opened a new temporary facility with 400 beds in Boston’s Melnea Cass Recreational Center.
It followed reports that migrants were being forced to sleep on cots at Logan Airport, underscoring the humanitarian crisis and strain on the state’s resources.
Similar to New York, Massachusetts has a longstanding Right to Shelter law mandating that the state provide emergency shelter to families in desperate need.
The law requires emergency shelter to include basic cooking facilities, and if it does not, as in the case of some hotels, the state has to step in and contract for food to be delivered.
CBS affiliate WBZ found that one catering vendor, Spinelli Ravioli Manufacturing Company in East Boston, was awarded a $10 million six-month no-bid contract to provide and deliver meals.
‘As an approved state vendor, Spinelli’s was contacted at the onset of the crisis,’ the company told WBZ.
‘We are not the exclusive meal vendor and do not have a guaranteed contract, or financial agreement, beyond this initial emergency period,’ the statement added.
‘We are currently in the bid process for an enduring contract and are looking forward to continue to aid the State and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to reach their goals.’
A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Monday morning.
The situation has become so dire that some families are stepping up and opening their homes to migrant families struggling to find housing.
Jessica and Colin Stokes told CBS News Boston that when they called the state to offer to host, a family of four appeared at their door less than an hour later.
The family the Stokes took in had been sleeping at the Logan Airport before the offer came through.
Jessica said the family have been ‘lovely.’
‘They are so appreciative. It has been wonderful,’ she told CBS News Boston.
The Stokes’ story comes as Massachusetts’ newest emergency shelter at the Cass Recreational Center in Roxbury reached its capacity of 400 people in just a week.
The establishment of the shelter displaced, among other groups, the Boston United Track and Cross Country Club, which caters to children from some of Boston’s poorest neighborhoods.
City officials are keeping their eyes peeled for the next building they can seize and transform into a shelter for migrants.
Some are eyeing an office in Boston’s Seaport, but others say the facility is inadequate.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said: ‘Having a site with no running water, no showers, to me, would be a non-starter.’
Jessica said her sympathy is with officials like Flynn, but she’s disheartened that there aren’t better municipal systems in place to deal with the heavy flow of unexpected visitors.
‘Just the dysfunction is really disheartening and I know that really well-intentioned people are working as hard as they can, it’s a state of emergency. But it is distressing to see the volume,’ she said.
The couple said they hope to make the case for other families to offer up their homes to help the migrants, as they have.
Solution for Democrat elected and non-elected officials who facilitate illegals – ONE TO THE HEAD! DONE!
“In some cases, the state is paying hotels $64 per person each day for meals, including $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $31 for dinner.”
WOW!!! I WISH I COULD AFFORD $1,920 A MONTH EACH IN FOOD FOR THE FIVE PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE.
TO PUT IT IN A CLEARER PERSPECTIVE, THAT IS $9,600 PER MONTH/$115,300 ANNUAL IN A FOOD BILL ALONE THAT WE ARE FOOTING FOR A FAMILY OF 5.
I WISH I HAD THE GOVERNMENT’S MONEY. WAIT A MINUTE…THAT IS MY MONEY!!!!!
$64 per day is crazy. I can eat a hell of a lot of beans and tacos on $64 per day.
I hope you love your new “lovely” family. Biden is going to prison over this invasion. That POS is going to hit a rock-hard mat in a metal bunk bed with no pillow. His sorry ass, (too bad Hussein is not his cellmate) Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden would get broken up in prison. They would become pets for the highest bidder. They would crawl or cat-walk everywhere because of the dog chains their hooked up to.