Housing Assistance CEO Writes to Federal Lawmakers About Migrant Crisis

September 18, 2023

The Honorable Elizabeth Warren
United States Senate
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Edward J. Markey
United States Senate
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable William R. Keating
United States House of Representatives
2351 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senators Warren and Markey and Congressman Keating,

The Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod, an organization that I lead, shares the deep concern of countless Massachusetts residents and U.S. citizens: the ongoing migrant crisis.

This crisis, as you well know, has created an immense challenge for the Commonwealth, local municipalities, and emergency housing providers, which have scrambled to assist the influx of families that are arriving in Massachusetts. The network of shelters and temporary housing that our agency, and others like us, operate is now at its breaking point.

Housing Assistance Corporation is a nonprofit agency that has helped provide housing throughout Cape Cod and the Islands for nearly 50 years. Our programs and services help bridge the wide gap between homelessness and homeownership. We operate shelters, rental assistance, and stabilization programs; we provide housing education and weatherization; and we build safe, high-quality homes that provide ownership and rental opportunities to strengthen our local economy and diverse community. The Cape is in the grip of an unprecedented and unremitting housing crisis that forces hundreds of multi-generational families to leave every year in search of lower-cost housing across the bridges, and this has fueled a workforce shortage that leaves municipalities short-staffed and businesses unable to meet the demands of a seasonal economy. It is quite common for families to walk through the front door of our offices having lost their housing and with suitcases in hand and nowhere to go for the night.

Thankfully, we have shelters on the Cape so that families can stay right here, children can remain enrolled in their school, and parents can be close to their jobs. This very resource, however, is at serious risk as our shelters are nearly buckling under the pressure of housing migrant families. We welcome these families and want to help them – our nation was built on the backs of immigrants – but we simply do not have the capacity to serve them while serving local families that have been here, in many cases, their entire lives.

At the Housing Assistance Corporation, we would like to think that we have the resources – both in the form of advocacy for more year-round housing for local families, the housing units (both temporary and permanent) we provide, and the development of new housing – to contribute to a solution to the long-term Cape housing crisis. But with the migrant crisis growing, our resources and support for new projects in the pipeline to serve our traditional population of longstanding year-round Cape residents is at risk. We absolutely do not have the resources to tackle the migrant crisis on the Cape, nor should we be expected to.

We want you, our elected federal representatives, to hear directly from us that our short-term housing resources are over-capacity, and that could soon eliminate options for short-term emergency housing for local, long-term residents. We must make this very clear: we are overwhelmed.

The migrant crisis is the result of decades of failed U.S. immigration policy. No one administration should be blamed for the current situation, as it is the logical result of what has transpired for many years. We do not blame the migrant families that flee tyranny, oppression, and violence, and seek a better life here.

Most importantly, we call on you to secure the resources needed to assist the arriving migrants in Massachusetts, and particularly on the Cape. We need financial resources for emergency assistance to ensure that all new families have a safe place to shelter. We recommend that you fast-track work visas for new arrivals, so taxpayers do not have to pay full freight. Additionally, we ask you to dedicate funds for housing creation, so we have the necessary inventory for our year-round Cape residents and arriving families.

We further urge you to work in a bi-partisan manner to bring resolution to this issue, to overcome the fissures in Congress so that a coherent, consistent federal policy on immigration can be created. Congress must lead on this matter as the executive branch, from both parties, has historically been unable to do so.

Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter and for your support of our efforts to address the ongoing housing crisis for the residents of Cape Cod and the Islands.

Sincerely,

Alisa Magnotta
Chief Executive Officer