Homeless People Can No Longer Stay at Logan

Homeless families and individuals will be barred from sleeping overnight at Logan International Airport in Boston beginning July 9, state officials said Friday. The state has made efforts to open more overflow shelter beds for homeless families, including many newly arrived migrants who have used the airport as a last resort, said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. Shelter stays have been capped, the AP reports, and with more families finding stable housing, the state is now in a position to end the practice of people staying overnight at the airport, said Emergency Assistance Director Scott Rice.

"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," Rice said in a statement. 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, which includes a Norfolk site that opened this week to accommodate up to 140 families. 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. But Massachusetts is still out of shelter space, he said.

"If families are traveling to Massachusetts, they need to be prepared with a plan for housing that does not include Logan Airport or our emergency assistance shelters," he said. Earlier this week, Healey sent officials, led by Rice, to the southern border. They met with organizations that assist families at the border to make sure they had what the administration described as accurate information about the state's lack of shelter space. The administration will continue to get that word out through fliers in English, Spanish, and Haitian-Creole. The fliers include basic sobering facts about the state, including that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,800 to $3,500 and that Massachusetts is "very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer." (The Supreme Court just made it easier for cities to crack down on the homeless.)