Healey administration won’t say how many hosting migrants in Massachusetts

The size of a program for newly-arrived migrant families to temporarily stay with private residents is unclear a week after the Healey administration called for more people to open up their homes.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services said state officials have heard from Massachusetts residents “who have graciously offered to host families at their homes.”

“We are currently collecting their information and developing a process for implementation,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald on Wednesday.

But the spokesperson did not say how many residents have become hosts since Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency on Aug. 7. A Healey spokesperson also did not say last week whether any state employees or lawmakers have stepped forward.

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll last week called on those with an “extra room or suite in your home” to consider hosting families as the state experiences significant strain on its emergency shelter system with an influx of migrants and surging housing costs.

“Safe housing and shelter is our most pressing need. Become a sponsor family,” Driscoll said. “You can contact the Brazilian Worker Center for more information on how you can step up if you’re willing to have an additional family be part of your family.”

The Brazilian Worker Center recruits host families, determines their suitability, onboards them, and matches them in “appropriate circumstances” with newly arrived families, according to Healey administration.

There were 15 to 20 families in Massachusetts before the emergency declaration that were mostly active in hosting migrant families on the weekends for a few days, according to the administration

Multiple attempts to reach the Brazilian Worker Center this week through a general email, online contact form, calls to their office phone, a social media message, and a Friday morning email to the center’s executive director were unsuccessful.

An expansion to the residential hosting program comes as a single Republican Massachusetts lawmaker running for Senate has called for a repeal of the state’s right-to-shelter law, which requires local officials to provide shelter and assistance to homeless families.

“Our homeless shelters are maxed out. Hotels across the state have been converted to shelters. And the problem is growing on a daily basis,” state Rep. Peter Durant said in a statement earlier this month.