FAIRHAVEN — One week before giving birth to her twins, Stevana Allen walked down the hallway of the Seaport Inn Resort & Marina in her Santa Claus slippers, shifting the weight of her large baby bump. Her white sweater, squeezed tight at the top, bore the words “always the optimist” in colorful furry letters. Her mood, however, suggested the opposite.
Two days earlier, Allen, 25, one of thousands of homeless people in Massachusetts’ family shelter program, learned that she would have to move from the Seaport Inn, where she had been staying for three months, to a new shelter in Lowell. Her birthing plan and the preparations she made to welcome her babies were now compromised, Allen said.
“In the couple of months that I’ve been here, the moms’ community and the volunteers have gone above and beyond to make sure I have stability,” she said. “And now that stability is being ripped from underneath me.”
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Earlier this month, the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) started moving families from the Seaport Inn to the Inn & Conference Center at UMassLowell. The state notified Fairhaven officials of this change, which is detailed in posting on the town’s website.
While the move may have been disruptive to some, the goal is to provide better services, state officials said.
“It’s part of a larger state effort to consolidate shelter sites into a reduced number of locations without reducing the capacity,” said Kevin Connor, press secretary of the housing office. “This way the families will be less geographically dispersed around the state and (it) will help us to better deliver services to them.”
Staff at the shelter will be at the sites 24/7 to coordinate food, transportation and other services, while handling any emergencies. The relocation also aims to connect all the families with service providers who can help them move into permanent housing, according to the state.
The state moved 250 families from short-term hotel accommodations, many of which didn’t have contracted housing providers, to new hotels used as shelters with wraparound services, housing officials told The Light in an email. By the end of January, the hotels in Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Swansea and around the state will no longer function as emergency immigration shelters.
“If it was in my power, I would say to stop it, so that the families can stay and grow old in this community.”
Jean Pierre, a Haitian immigrant who has been helping with translation for a class of 13 newly enrolled children at Fairhaven Public Schools
Massachusetts is housing about 7,500 homeless families as part of its right-to-shelter law. The system, which includes hotels and more permanent shelters, is under stress from the arrival of recent migrants from around the world. But it also houses homeless families and pregnant mothers of all backgrounds, including Allen, who has lived in the U.S. since she was 2 years old.
The state’s move caught the community by surprise. Those sheltered, who had just adapted to their new lives, and advocates in Fairhaven and New Bedford, who had bonded with the new families, were left sad and frustrated by the decision.
“If it was in my power, I would say to stop it, so that the families can stay and grow old in this community,” said Jean Pierre, a Haitian immigrant who has been helping with translation for a class of 13 newly enrolled children at Fairhaven Public Schools.
Pierre said he watched the kids progress in their learning, mastering English verb conjugations, names of days and months, and proper classroom etiquette, such as raising their hands when they wanted to speak.
“I have never been touched so deeply in my life as by these children,” Pierre said. “When I was told that the kids and the families would be taken away, I cried. It’s against my feelings, but I have no choice; I have to accept it.”
Allen’s journey from homelessness to hope
Weeks ago, sitting on her bed in her second-floor room, Allen looked at the boxes of diapers, formula and wipes stacked along the walls. Two 30-gallon bags were filled with donations of baby clothes — one pink and one blue. There were two bassinets, two car seats, two cribs, a double stroller for infants, and one stroller for toddlers.
Allen said she didn’t know how she would transport it all to Lowell. Her doctor warned her that she cannot lift more than 10 pounds.
“Realistically, if I had anyone who could help me, why would I be in a shelter right now?” said Allen. “I don’t have any help.”
Luckily she found assistance. Volunteers helped her pack up her donations and belongings.
Allen moved to Massachusetts from Jamaica when she was 2. During the Obama administration, she was accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which offers protection to young adults from being deported, but doesn’t give them permanent legal status.
A few years ago, she became homeless while living in Florida. When she found out that she was pregnant, she returned to Boston, where she slept on a friend’s couch. At her appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, her doctor referred her to the emergency shelter system in Fairhaven.
A few days later, she was placed at the Seaport Inn. Allen said volunteers came in, brought supplies, and worked with her and other homeless people at the hotel to better understand their needs.
Soraya DosSantos, the director and doula at Sacred Birthing Village in New Bedford, assisted Allen during the last three months of her pregnancy. She helped by fetching items, arranging transportation, and spending time with her. She said the state’s decision to re-shelter Allen and the other residents in Lowell shocked her.
“They are moving her from a postpartum desert to another,” said DosSantos. “She is already connected to our program. My concern is that we don’t want to put her so far away that we can’t even get to her.”
Allen said the local volunteers went “above and beyond” for her care, setting up a contingency plan for delivery at St. Luke’s Hospital in case her water broke early, and taking her out on “mommy hangouts” and holiday celebrations.
“We really got to know these people,” Allen said. “They even come to play with the kids downstairs sometimes. They just met us and put their hearts into this.”
The community came together
Kelly Ochoa, a Spanish teacher at Old Rochester Regional High School and founder of the Southcoast Welcome Corps, a local organization that aims to support refugee families, was there when the first group of migrants arrived in Fairhaven. Over the months, Ochoa built a strong bond with the families sheltered at Seaport Inn and with Allen in particular, she said.
“I am also a mother of twins, and I have raised them by myself,” Ochoa said. “So, I connected with her and introduced her to a group of mothers with twins here on the South Coast. She felt comfortable and relieved because she knew she finally had a support network.”
Ochoa says she felt devastated when she learned about the state’s decision to move the homeless families, she said.
“I am just sad we weren’t part of the decision because we invested so much in these families,” said Ochoa. “I know not every community does that.”
Earlier this month, the Seaport Inn was bustling. Inside the hotel’s back hall, 36 families finished zipping up their luggage, each piece tagged with their names, as children played hide-and-seek behind the suitcases. Outside, National Guardsmen carried the bags onto the trucks. One by one, the families were called, and they got on the buses directed to Lowell.
Allen had already left two days earlier in a red taxi filled with her belongings, packed by volunteers and National Guardsmen. She had her pre-delivery doctor’s appointment in Boston. She settled into her new room. And on Jan. 17, she gave birth to her babies. She is overjoyed, but still sees uncertainty in her future, she said.
“When is the next time we are going to get moved again?”
Email multimedia reporter Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org.
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Homeless citizens deserve to be helped first and foremost. I have a relative who is homeless and he is only given shelter when its below 32°. This is insane, what about when its raining? There should be much more housing options given to people like my relative who is a US citizen. He deserves it! Instead we are wasting my tax dollars on illegal immigrants who already violatex US LAW in order to enter!
Right to shelter, or shelter only when its below freezing so a homeless frozen dead body doesnt make the news.
These are families that have children that need a safe stable place to live. They have no one to take them in. By your statement, why not take your relative in? Why should I and my tax dollars be responsible for your relative’s bad planning? Why hasn’t your relative figured out how to support himself better in order to have a place to stay? See how horrible that sounds? EVERYONE DESERVES SHELTER. SHELTER IS A HUMAN RIGHT. Yes your relative deserves a safe place to be, so do these people. But if I have to choose between an adult or a child, I’m going to pick the child every time whether they are documented or undocumented (People are not ‘illegal’).
So she’s pregnant with twins. Who is going to support her and her family? The taxpayers that’s who ! This is out of control and beyond ridiculous.
I absolutely agree with Rc with their comment! Why should we pay for them when our own people born here are struggling like never before?
Why not be more concerned with the amount of tax dollars that come out of your paycheck from corporate welfare? Literally pennies out of your check go to people in need, more goes to support wealthy businesses.
THANK YOU!! we are all bickering over who to support: homeless children or homeless adults? citizens or newly immigrated? While we fight over pennies the corporations are bathing in billions, we fall right into the trap.
300,000 came across the border in December. This is outrageous!
Why on earth would we have to pay for these people when our own services are strained and we can’t provide for our own citizens and people who actually were born here? What a tragedy and travesty of justice for the light to actually think we are sympathetic to people who aren’t from here that we are forced to support. Just shows you where our priorities are, how sad for the United States
Get illegal economic migrants out of the South Coast now!
I am saddened. I was fortunate enough to work in the shelter system for a couple of years with families. I really think that the federal government should step up with assistance and stop letting the burden fall on the states. What everyone here fails or refuses to acknowledge is that these are people and their lives are valuable. They are worthy of help and shelter is a right. Before the undocumented people were the issue to the people against them, it was just the homeless in general, before them it was anyone on assistance. The people in the comments screaming about why we aren’t helping “our own” first are the same people that don’t really care about citizens that are homeless or hungry. It’s just heartbreaking that people can see humans in need and not want to help or even just look for a solution that is beneficial.