Haitian migrants staying at Norton hotel find home in Taunton church — 2 even baptized
NORTON — It’s been nearly 10 months since families from Haiti first settled into the Extended Stay America hotel on South Washington Street in Norton, as part of the state’s Emergency Assistance shelter program.
Since then, some members of those families have become part of a religious congregation a mile away in Taunton — to the extent that two adults were recently baptized, according to Pastor Moise Jecrois.
“They get saved, and the next step is they get baptized,” is how Jecrois recounted the religious process by which he performed the two baptisms.
Jecrois, 64, says he’s been renting sanctuary space for nearly 13 years in the North Taunton Baptist Church on Bay Street, as per his duties as spiritual leader of the Haitian Primitive Church of Taunton.
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His church, which is based on an early and what adherents consider to be a purer form of Christianity, holds Sunday religious worship services and a Friday bible study in the Baptist church building.
Jecrois, who emigrated from Haiti 38 years ago and has lived with his family in Taunton for 20 years, has gradually become acquainted with the Haitians residing in the Norton extended stay hotel.
He says as many as eight Haitian nationals from the hotel have recently been regularly attending his Sunday church service.
But he’s also become familiar with Haitian nationals living in the Extended Stay America by helping their families with weekly food supplies.
With the assistance of the John Coppinger, pastor of North Taunton Baptist Church, Jecrois says he’s been delivering food packages each Friday to Haitian families staying at the hotel.
And while Coppinger says that nearly all the families at the hotel are Haitian immigrants, he says the one or two non-immigrant homeless families staying there are also welcome to partake of the Friday food deliveries.
The Baptist church, which gets its food allotment from the Greater Boston Food Bank, is known as the largest food pantry operating in the city, providing as many as 500 carry-out food bundles each Saturday.
A number of those recipients are Haitian nationals living in the Brockton area, Coppinger said.
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For how long as Norton hotel been shelter?
The Norton hotel has recently been providing housing to 22 migrant and homeless families, according to Kevin Connor, press secretary for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.
Connor said the families began moving in last July. This came after they qualified for the state’s Emergency Assistance program and after the owners of the Norton hotel signed a one-year contract with the state to provide emergency assistance housing.
Connor said the contract with the commonwealth provides up to 26 rooms to shelter families through the end of June 2024 and that there’s also an option for both parties to renew the emergency housing lease agreement.
He says eligibility for the state’s Emergency Assistance shelter program requires one of the following conditions: At least one household member must be a U.S. citizen; at least one noncitizen family member must be lawfully admitted for permanent residence; or a family member is "permanently residing under color of law (PRUCOL).”
PRUCOL, Connor said, means that the household must be living in the U.S. with the knowledge of the Department of Homeland Security, and whose departure DHS does not contemplate enforcing.
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2 other local hotels operate as emergency shelters
Norton’s Extended Stay America, which sits adjacent to Interstate 495 and the Norton Commerce Center industrial park, has more than 100 rooms and is still accommodating hotel guests traveling through the area.
That, however, is not the case with either Taunton’s Clarion Hotel and Conference Center — located within walking distance of the Norton hotel just inside Myles Standish Industrial Park — or Raynham’s Home2 Suites by Hilton in Raynham Woods Commerce Center.
Both of those hotels are now reserved solely for families that have been placed there as part of the state’s Emergency Assistance temporary housing program.
The Clarion, which has a Taunton police detail officer on duty at all times, has become something of a flashpoint when it comes to hotels being used for homeless and migrant families at the expense of paying guests.
The city of Taunton has sued the hotel for nonpayment of daily fines covering a four-month period in 2023 when the Clarion allegedly violated occupancy limits.
Mayor Shaunna O’Connell has said that while the hotel agreed to operate as an emergency shelter for as long as nine years, it failed to give the city any prior notice of its plans.
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Hotels as compared to traditional shelters
Connor said each room in the Norton hotel has a kitchenette.
Unlike some other state-funded hotels and motels that have contracted to temporarily house homeless and migrant families, the nearly two dozen families in Norton’s Extended Stay America are responsible for purchasing their own food, he said.
Connor wasn’t able to provide exact numbers of Haitian or other foreign-born migrant families versus non-migrant homeless families now residing in the Norton hotel.
But recent figures from the Emergency Assistance program state that more than half of the roughly 7,500 families now enrolled in the EA program across the commonwealth are living in hotels and motels as opposed to traditional shelter facilities.
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Should there be time limit on shelter stays?
There currently is no limit on the length of time that migrants, asylum seekers and homeless families can be housed in hotels, motels and traditional shelters.
Both chambers of the Massachusetts legislature want to limit the length of stay to nine months, but they differ when it comes to whether a 90-day extension should be granted more than once.
Massachusetts is the only state with a so-called “right to shelter” law on the books. It was signed into law in 1983 by Gov. Michael Dukakis.
Turmoil in Haiti fueling more migration
Jecrois said he’s not surprised that more Haitians are trying to get to the United States to escape ongoing, criminal gang violence — including murders and rapes — in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The country recently formed a “transitional council” to choose a new prime minister in order to replace the incumbent Ariel Henry.
“I hope the politicians (in Haiti) get a conscience,” Jecrois said, adding that “the United States has always been a welcoming country.”
Fritz Augustin, who was also born in Haiti, is in charge of Friday’s bible study as well as a Sunday school class for adults.
Haiti, Augustin said, “is turning into a gang territory. It’s kind of embarrassing for us.”
Taunton home to 2 Haitian churches
In addition to the Haitian Primitive Church of Taunton, the city is also home to the Taunton Haitian Seventh Day Adventist downtown at 24 Main St.
Fewer police calls at Norton hotel since becoming shelter
Norton Police Deputy Chief Todd Jackson said his department responded to 88 calls for service at the Extended Stay America for the 12-month period of April 1, 2023 to April 1, 2024.
He said there were 116 calls for service during the preceding 12-month period.
“We used to have more criminal activity at the hotel,” Jackson said.
He said as of this past April 1 there was one arrest of a migrant male adult on a domestic abuse complaint.
Other routine calls for service at the hotel, Jackson said, include unwanted guests, suspicious activity, disturbances and assisting medical personnel with difficult patients.
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Haitian migrants staying at Norton hotel embraced by Taunton church
