Advocates and providers in Massachusetts are sounding the alarm after homeless migrants were found sleeping at Boston Logan International Airport on a daily basis, including Wednesday night.

Gov. Maura Healey limited last year the number of families who can stay in state-run emergency shelters to 7,500, a move that triggered an unsuccessful lawsuit and backlash that people would find themselves sleeping outside in the cold or in unconventional places like an airport.

Months later, the emergency assistance shelter system, which houses newly-arrived migrant and local families, is still at capacity, and a waitlist had 604 families as of Wednesday, according to data maintained by the state’s housing department.

Jeff Thielman, who heads up International Institute of New England, a resettlement agency that primarily serves Haitians, said given the influx of families, the pressure on the shelter system, and the lack of places for people to stay, seeing families at the airport “is going to be the norm for some time.”

“How does it strike me? How do I feel? I feel it’s like part of our reality,” he told the Herald. “It’s not a great place to sleep. You don’t get a great night’s sleep. There’s people cleaning it. There’s kids running around. You’re on a hard floor.”

A spokesperson for Massachusetts Port Authority, the quasi-public agency that runs Logan, said migrants are at the airport “on a daily basis” but only a small number actually arrive at the airport by plane.

Retired Lt. Gen. Scott Rice, who leads the state’s shelter response, said Massachusetts is using “every resource at our disposal to make sure families have a safe, warm place to stay.”

“We are working diligently to open more safety net sites for families arriving in Massachusetts, including those at Logan. Our system is at capacity, and we have repeatedly called for assistance, particularly from the federal government,” he said in a statement.

Families who are found sleeping at Logan are transported during the day to one of two intake centers where staff can connect people to state-run shelters or other services, according to the state’s housing department.

The state runs three overflow shelters sites, including in Cambridge and Quincy, that can house up to 250 families.

The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless opposed limiting the number of families in the shelter system, and Associate Director Kelly Turley said families sleeping outside or at Logan “would be the outcome” if the cap was put in place.

“There aren’t alternative spaces for families to stay that are to scale,” she told the Herald. “We’re expecting the waiting list to grow even bigger, and the gap between available overflow and safety net spaces and the need to grow. And we’re very concerned around where families will go.”

Homeless individuals spend the night on the floor at Logan Airport. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
Homeless families spend the night on the floor at Logan Airport. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)