The hallways inside the emergency overflow shelter in Chelsea are bustling with parents and children, many of whom stayed in day shelters and slept at Logan Airport before coming here.
This 200-bed shelter opened in April at the former Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, which closed earlier this year. It’s one of several overflow shelters the state set up to support the population of newly arrived migrants, which surged to over 11,000 last fiscal year — a 152% increase over the prior year — with more families arriving each day.
In the two months since opening the Chelsea shelter, advocates say “La Casita,” which it’s called informally, has become a successful model for housing migrant families and offering comprehensive services on site.
To get the shelter quickly up and running, the state is working with La Colaborativa, a Latino-focused social services organization based in Chelsea.
“I immediately said, ‘If you’re doing it, we want to run it,’” said Gladys Vega, La Colaborativa’s executive director.
“We have boots on the ground. We have done this work for decades, and we want to make sure that we take care of the recent arrivals as we are taking care of the community members at the new Survival Center,” Vega said, referring to the services offered at La Colaborativa’s own facility.
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Publisher’s Note: GBH and Massachusetts Latino News (MALN) are partners in providing greater visibility and voice to local Hispanic-Latinos communities.