A Cambridge Democrat applauded a decision to open an emergency overnight shelter for homeless families with children and pregnant people at a former courthouse in the city while acknowledging the roughly 150-year-old building needs work.

Rep. Mike Connolly, whose district encompasses the overnight shelter opening Friday at the courthouse that houses the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, said there are several challenges with the structure, including plumbing, lack of showers, and infrastructure.

But there are “a lot of efforts underway to address” those concerns, he told the Herald hours before he was scheduled to tour the site with other stakeholders. As temperatures continue to dip below freezing, Connolly said officials are trying to help families with children who have no place to go.

“What we’re doing here is making vacant space available so that those most vulnerable folks won’t have to be either on the street, or in some other place that isn’t really fit for human habitation,” he said.

A little more than a week before a deadline to open one or multiple overflow shelter sites for local homeless residents and newly arrived migrants, the Healey administration announced Wednesday they were turning to the former courthouse to house up to 70 families.

Retired Lt. Gen. Scott Rice, who oversees the state’s shelter response, said the decision to open the shelter in Cambridge was made to ensure families who are eligible for assistance  have a “warm and safe place to stay overnight.”

The Middlesex South Registry of Deeds is overseen by Secretary of State William Galvin, and the courthouse was built in 1870, according to city records.

The emergency assistance shelter system has faced immense pressure this year as a wave of migrants arrived in Massachusetts and housing costs made it hard to find an affordable spot to live for many people.

More than 7,500 families were in the shelter system as of Thursday, according to state data. Migrant families with children and pregnant people granted access to emergency assistance have been lawfully allowed into the United States by the federal government and are not considered “illegal.”

Connolly said it is important to keep that in mind amidst an “unprecedented migrant crisis.”

“What we are doing here is not just for migrants. This facility is also open to longtime Massachusetts residents who may fall into homelessness and who are also in need of shelter,” he said.