Gov. Maura Healey has activated up to 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to help at hotels providing emergency shelter services.
Thursday's move comes weeks after Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts over a historic influx of migrants seeking help from the Commonwealth's strained shelter system.
Starting next week, the members of the National Guard who are deployed to hotels serving as shelter sites will help coordinate services for families living there, including their food, medical care, enrollment in schools and transportation, according to Healey's office.
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"We’re grateful to the brave men and women of the National Guard for stepping up to help us ensure that every family in emergency shelter has their needs met, including access to food, transportation, medical care, and education. While we work to implement a more permanent staffing solution, the National Guard will provide an efficient and effective means of delivering these services and keeping everybody safe," Healey said in a statement.
If any issues arise, members of the National Guard will escalate them to new regional rapid response teams, staffed by state workers who will coordinate services between municipalities.
"Our role in the response to the ongoing housing crisis will expand to leverage our multitude of robust and adaptable capabilities in emergency and domestic operations to help those in need," said the Massachusetts National Guard's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Gary W. Keefe, in a statement.
There are more than 6,000 families in emergency shelters throughout the state, according to Lenita Reason, executive director of the Brazilian Worker Center, which operates a migrant family welcome center in Allston.
They've had families come in with children who are just days old, Reason said.
"We need the National Guard's support," she said, adding, "they are trained, they know how to deal with state of emergency and I think they will be using all the knowledge to make sure the families will feel welcome."
When she announced the state of emergency in Massachusetts earlier this month, Healey said the number of people in the state's emergency shelter system was nearing 20,000 and growing everyday.
"We remain unwavering to being a state and people of compassion, safety, opportunity and respect but the increased level of demand is not slowing down," Healey said. "Due to both a longstanding shortage of affordable housing as well as delays and barriers to federal work authorizations, we find ourselves in this situation."
Healey said the state was struggling to move people from shelters to permanent housing and called on the federal government for help. Since then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave the state and the city of Boston a $1.9 million grant to support shelter services and transportation.
Massachusetts is the only state in the country with a "right-to-shelter" law, which guarantees homeless families access to emergency shelter.
