WORCESTER – There are more than 1,000 recently- arrived migrants in the Worcester Regional Transit Authority service area and the organization is determining how it can best serve the population, according to Joshua Rickman, the public transit administrator for the WRTA.
On Aug. 8, Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency due to the influx of migrant families into the state causing a severe lack of shelter availability.
The WRTA’s response has involved conversations with the impacted municipalities, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and other stakeholders, Rickman told the WRTA board during a meeting Thursday morning.
The WRTA has also been working with Ascentria Care Alliance’s New American Leadership team to provide the population with training on how to utilize the WRTA’s fixed route service, Rickman said, and worked to make its website more accessible by translating it into Haitian Creole. Haitians have accounted for a large percentage of the recent migrants entering the state.
Through its work with Ascentria, the WRTA is also working to determine what the population’s needs are in terms of medical or ADA transportation services.
Additionally, the organization is seeking out grant opportunities to provide services to the migrant population, according to Rickman.
The WRTA is currently limited in the amount of services it can offer the population, Rickman told the board, with a lack of available drivers and vehicles that led them to reduce their Friday service across the route for all riders.
The WRTA is limited in its ability to create fixed route service to address the need in areas that had an influx of migrants where there are no existing services, such as Sutton and Sturbridge, according to Rickman.
In Sturbridge, the hotel at which migrants are being housed is within walking distance of stores, but requires walking along major thoroughfares to get to them.
“I’m not quite sure if fixed route is responsive to deter some of those pedestrian movements across some of the busier roadways,” Rickman said.
One of the limitations on getting a fixed route in areas such as Sutton and Sturbridge is also the process of getting it approved, according to Rickman, which involves public hearings and Title 6 analyses to ensure that the changes it’s making are equitable.
There is also uncertainty around how long the population will stay in a certain location, an issue Rickman and board members raised. Robin Grimm, board member and Sturbridge town administrator, said there have been some discussions regarding moving the migrants from the Super 8, where they are currently, to another hotel.
Board Member Heather-Lyn Haley, the riders’ representative, asked if it would be possible to use a short bus to do a loop through Sturbridge and connect to Spencer.
Grimm said a bus loop that went to the Walmart and Stop and Shop Plaza in the morning three days a week “would certainly alleviate a huge amount of the issue.”
Haley mentioned that the existing residents of Sturbridge would also get use out of a bus service.
Rickman said he would bring back information about possible approaches and solutions at the board’s Nov. 16 meeting.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
