Dozens of modest properties and homes are available for rent on AirBnb on Martha’s Vineyard, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Private rooms and small guest stays are on offer for $180 a night, which could have been used as a stop gap for the migrants to be housed.
Lisa Belcastro, homelessness director of the island, yesterday made the sensational claim that the affluent area has a ‘housing crisis’.
Speaking after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two planeloads of migrants to the pretty coastal town, Belcastro claimed that the island cannot support the addition of 50 more people.
Belcastro, who herself lives in a lavish four bed and four bath $3.6million property in a secluded part of the island, is one of the liberal officials who declared it a ‘humanitarian emergency’ – reacting as they would to a hurricane.
Her claims were backed by Gov. Charlie Baker, who said that Martha’s Vineyard, with a population of 15,000, is ‘not equipped to provide sustainable accommodation’ to the migrants.
Earlier today he announced plans to ferry the illegal immigrants across to the mainland to military Joint Base in Cape Cod – 32 miles away.
Lisa Belcastro claims that the island is facing a shortage of affordable housing, with the median home price at about $1 million. She told reporters that at ‘some point they have to move somewhere else’, because the island is suffering from a ‘housing crisis’
The 50 migrants who arrived at Martha’s Vineyard are now being shipped off on a 32 mile trip to a military base in Cape Cod on Friday
The median house in Martha’s Vineyard is worth almost $800,000, according to the census, and the median household income is $77,370 – well above the national average of $67,521.
Properties available on the website range from $180 a night to $10,000 for more lavish multi million homes.
They could be used to house the migrants – but it is clear they would not fall into the ‘affordable housing’ category.
The Island Housing Trust has also set up a system for one, two and three-bedroom single-family home townhouses in the area – with properties on at least 14 streets available.
It is unclear if it was an option to use the homes, which are sold from between $150,000 and $300,000 to households earning between $35,000 and $100,000.
Martha’s Vineyard also has a rental assistance programme, which runs across the six Island towns, for residents making less than the 80per cent area median income.
Belcastro, who herself lives in a lavish four bed and four bath $3.6million property in a secluded part of the island, is one of the liberal officials who declared it a ‘humanitarian emergency’
The JBCC joint-use base where the migrants are now being taken is home to five military commands training for missions at home and overseas, and was used as a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic
DeSantis sent two planes of 50 migrants to the affluent island yesterday, and is now threatening to send more to Delaware – following in the ‘blueprint’ of Texas Gov Greg Abbott
On Friday morning three buses pulled up outside of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown to take the mostly Venezuelan migrants on the first leg of their journey to the ferry
Residents also appeared to be turning on each other, slamming their neighbours for failing to allow the migrants to access their ‘summer rentals’.
One resident wrote on social media that immigration authorities are supposed to be ‘taking them off the island for processing so they will no longer be in our backyard.’
Others continued to bemoan the housing problems, writing: ‘The Vineyard has an acute housing crisis. Everyone needs to be working together’.
Some residents found themselves in the firing line for asking about fitting new locks on their property shortly after the migrants landed.
Lisa Belcastro did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by DailyMail.com.
Nearly 1,000 migrants have been released to sleep on the streets Texas border town of El Paso amid a surge of illegal crossings that is overwhelming Border Patrol facilities.
Florida Gov DeSantis is now upping the escalating immigration war again in Democrat-run areas by threatening to fly illegal migrants to President Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Properties available on the website range from $180 a night to $10,000 for more lavish multi million homes. They could be used to house the migrants – but it is clear they would not fall into the ‘affordable housing’ category
The author herself lives in a $3.6 million property, which boasts a swimming pool as well as four bedrooms and bathrooms in a secluded part of the island
Republicans have stepped up their attacks on the Biden administration as they try to make immigration the theme of November’s midterm elections.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took aim at DeSantis and Abbott during a press conference today, urging other Republicans who do not agree with their ‘blueprint’ to ‘speak up’.
She said: ‘This is an issue and we have been clear about this, this is an issue that is inhumane it is abhorrent and we should not be using people, migrants, who are fleeing communism as a political pawn.’
DaSantis accused critics of his move to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard of ‘virtue signaling’, saying their concern for the welfare of the migrants was a ‘fraud’.
He said: ‘The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they go berserk, and they’re so upset that this is happening.’
It comes after Gov Greg Abbott sent 101 of illegal migrants outside of VP Kalama Harris’ home in Washington DC yesterday – just days after she declared that the border was ‘secure’.
The migrants were ordered to get on buses for the hour and a half trip from the island to the military base in Cape Cod where they will be given ‘dormitory-style’ accomodation
Harris declared on Sunday that the border is ‘secure’ in an interview and has now found herself in the midst of an attack by Gov Greg Abbott against Democrat immigration rules.
She yesterday refused to answer questions about the sensational escalation, as Abbott continues his campaign against so called ‘sanctuary cities’.
One unidentified man filmed outside the Naval Observatory on Thursday told Fox News: ‘The border is open, not closed. Everybody believes that the border is open.
‘It is open because we enter. We come in free, no problem. We came illegally, not legally.’
VP Harris has remained silent on the issue when she entered the Naval Observatory on Friday, after refusing to answer questions on the issue on Thursday.
However her husband Doug Emhoff said: ‘I do have a reaction. I think it was shameful. These are human beings. These are people.
‘They needed to be treated with dignity and kindness and respect and they weren’t.
‘And we have so-called leaders in this country who, rather than focusing on what’s good for the public within their own states, they’re using people as pawns for a political stunt.’