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Warren, Markey, Massachusetts Congressional Delegation urge Biden Administration to approve state’s bid for additional funding to support new arrivals
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), along with the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, urging them to approve Massachusetts’ application for an additional $34.5 million in funding through the Shelter and Services Program to better support new arrivals. At the moment, Massachusetts — the only state in the nation with a “right-to-shelter” law — has almost 7,500 families in its shelter system, with many living in the state’s overflow sites and others on waiting lists for shelter.
“SSP funding is urgently needed in Massachusetts,” wrote the lawmakers. “With shelter facilities at capacity, families have been forced to sleep outdoors and in cars, in a state with below-freezing temperatures for months of the year. Some have turned to airport lobbies and hospital emergency rooms for makeshift shelter. The Commonwealth is now running out of shelter funding and faces a shortfall in its shelter budget for the upcoming fiscal year.”
SSP covers shelter, food, and other essential services for newly arriving migrants and has served as a critical source of funding for shelters nationwide. Last year, Massachusetts only received $1.9 million of the $800 million in SSP funds allocated in FY2023. This funding year, only $650 million has been appropriated for SSP — less than half of the $1.4 billion requested by the Biden administration. Massachusetts alone anticipates spending $900 million on its Emergency Shelter System in FY2025.
“(We) urge FEMA to fulfill the Commonwealth’s entire request for $34.5 million from the pool of competitive SSP grant funds. Additional SSP funding is critical to ensure that Massachusetts receives an equitable share of funding that reflects the financial costs the Commonwealth is incurring,” continued the lawmakers. “Meanwhile, we will continue to fight for additional federal funding for communities hosting new arrivals.”
“As the Commonwealth stands by its values and continues to welcome new arrivals, the state needs more federal funding to respond to a national trend of increased immigration. We thus ask you to promptly approve Massachusetts’ application,” concluded the lawmakers.
Dlafleur
June 17, 2024 at 8:06 pm
How about tickets back home. These rich politicians have no idea, nor do they care, of the burden they are going to put on the real middle class citizens of this state when our taxes will be raised to fund these illegals. Time to vote these fools out.
MassTexan
June 17, 2024 at 9:05 pm
Well said DRoc! 100%
I’ll keep taking as many of them to jail in the meantime
JB
June 18, 2024 at 2:19 pm
No one knows how many criminals, terrorists and diseases are among these “New Arrivals” but our day of reckoning for the bad decision of opening our borders to all will come. What is happening is madness and you don’t have to be a genius to see how this will end. God help us.
George freestone
June 18, 2024 at 5:44 am
I cannot wait till Trump is elected. And the mass deportation begins.
Hi
June 18, 2024 at 8:24 am
This needs to stop!!!! Stop asking for more money to house these people. Yet rent is so high and pay is crap people are struggling bad right now and you just wanna keep throw money at these illegal immigrants.
Scott Pachico
June 18, 2024 at 10:03 am
Ridiculous. Illegal aliens do not belong in the USA. Stop making easy for them to live here with OUR money. Why do the people in this State always put idiots like these in office.
Barrack Warren
June 18, 2024 at 8:06 pm
I’m proud to be represented by brave individuals on the right side of history. Fall River has a long and shameful history of systemic racism going back hundreds of years.
Anything that can be done to make newly arrived Americans feel welcome and gain a leg up is worth the negligible cost.
One has only to look at the ignorant and often grammatically challenged hate-filled comments here to understand why our elected officials must protect those among the most vulnerable in our population.
dr david
June 18, 2024 at 11:29 pm
Your drivel is to ridiculous for me to provide you with proper grammar and syntax.
MortisMaximus
June 20, 2024 at 9:44 am
Warren wants to play Cowboys and Indians with the newly arrived border invaders. No worries though Pocahontas because there is no revolution left in the progressive sycophant haven of Massachusetts. Our population of welfare zombies are quickly being eliminated through genetic warfare and toxic genocidal chemical warfare. Once the population reaches the sustainable number of 500 million worldwide, Mother Earth will thank you for your efforts in sustainability. No fossil fuels, no animal proteins, no comfort for the weary, just endless wars on foreign shores against enemies that no one can see. Emmanuel Goldstein is the true enemy of the people of Earth. Ingsoc!!!