Migrant families being moved out of Attleboro area towns

-Nearly 200 migrants, including 67 families with a combined 84 children, have been living at the Best Western hotel on Route 1 since the fall. Thirty-nine of the children are enrolled in town schools.

The families will be transferred Jan. 23 and 25 “in an effort to consolidate supplemental shelter sites,” the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities informed local officials. “All families staying at this location will be transferred to another shelter location outside of North Attleboro, and this site will no longer operate as a supplemental shelter.”

Up to $50 million was earmarked for overflow shelters in the recently approved $3 billion state supplemental budget.

• “My point of view here is that since the state has already sent migrants to North Attleboro, they could always do so again in the future,” Pare said. “Housing families for months at a time, in hotels intended and equipped for short-term rentals, with limited to no access to transportation along a very busy Route 1, is not ideal for the migrants or the community. I am sure the state is cognizant of that and wants to find a better solution.

“Now that more adequate shelters are available, I believe that it’s in the best interests of everyone involved to move them to a more appropriate facility.”

Other councilors are wary of what lies ahead for the town as well.

“This doesn’t mean for certain that the state or federal government will not send more, but for now other accommodations have been made,” Councilor Mark Gould said.

https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/migrant-families-being-moved-out-of-attleboro-area-towns/article_fbfad7ae-42e8-571a-81df-5b6a82e876ff.html