Inside the Massachusetts Nobody Talks About

[mellow music plays]
[Peter] So this is all
Central mass down here?
[man] You can see Boston in some points,
the skyscrapers out in the city.
-Okay, so Gerald,
today we’re getting out there, right?
We spoke on the phone and you told me
Central Massachusetts
is a super interesting place.
Mm-hmm.
I don’t think most of us
think of that from the outside.
They might think of Boston for example
but I’ve never thought of Central Mass.
Most people don’t.
It’s pretty crazy how the towns differ
from one town to another.
I mean you drive over town lines
and some towns are kinda run down.
They need love put back into ’em but then
a lot of the towns are coming back now.
Which is good.
-You’re an old soul, Gerald.
-Thank you, Peter.
-25 years old, right?
-Yes sir, 25.
You have the true accent.
Is that fair to say here?
Maybe considered
Central Massachusetts accent, Bostonian.
Actually my family’s from Canada.
So it might kind of…
They spoke French when I was growing up.
-You got some “eh’s” in there?
-Canada, eh?
[Gerald] It’s pretty crazy
how diverse Massachusetts is
with all its different cultures.
Everybody seems to get along pretty well
but in the past couple years
with the conflict in the media
and political conflict
everybody’s kinda at each other’s necks.
Which is kinda sad to see.
There’s families
that haven’t talked in years
because one believes in one thing,
one believes something totally different.
Massachusetts was
the second richest state in New England.
Now it’s considered the first, for a while
it was Connecticut at number one.
I think it was a lot of old money
back in the day.
There was a lot of farms around here.
-All right so even though
we’re pretty close to Boston, fair to say?
-We’re an hour away.
-It’s farm country out here, huh?
Yeah, we’re kind of in the mix
of a couple big cities.
We are in a pocket of rural area
and obviously not everybody’s
rolling in money.
There are some people
who have a lot of money
and are doing well
but there’s a lot of regular people
who are just struggling,
working two or three jobs
trying to pay rent and cover groceries.
-Are they living in
two different worlds?
Like don’t interact with one another,
those two groups?
They get along pretty well.
There’s not a lot of disagreement
between higher and lower class
but there’s definitely some stigmatation
towards people being lower income.
I mean if you tell somebody
you’re from Fitchburg, Massachusetts
people will get a weird look in their eyes
because they probably
heard how it is a rougher area.
-We’re going there today, right?
-Yep.
My parents are middle class,
both of them are blue-collar workers.
Being out here
there are a lot of blue-collar workers
but in the past 20 years a lot of
white-collar and business-type people
have moved out here which did cause
an influx of housing prices.
-Okay, how much for one of these houses?
-$450,000.
The average house in Massachusetts
is around 500.
I mean this house is for sale right now
and I think it’s listed at 450.
Which is a lot of money
for a single story ranch in general.
-Yeah, one garage, not that big.
-Yeah.
What about a guy like you, 25 years old,
where’s your mind with this stuff?
Um…
Honestly kinda worried
not even for my generation.
A lot of the younger generation
is getting born into a world
that doesn’t exist anymore.
If that makes sense. It’s almost
impossible for someone working one job
to buy a house or cover rent.
My uncle a town over from here…
it’s kind of a dumpy little town
but he pays $1,800
for a one room apartment every month.
-It’s pretty crazy.
-Okay, wow.
-This is my dad by the way.
-This is your dad? Nice.
-How you doing?
-Hey, what’s up?
Not much, I’m blessed
to be with your son today.
-Taking you for the tour?
-Yeah, what a character.
-Peter, nice to meet you.
-Michael.
-Why aren’t you doing the yard work?
-I usually mow the lawn.
I do help out a lot.
We have a wood stove
so we gotta stack the wood up every year.
We get five cords of wood,
that’s how we heat our house.
So there’s always
something to do around here
whether it’s mowing the grass,
having my garden.
My tomato plants are decrepit,
some are growing.
-Dad, I’m just grabbing something.
-Cool.
-Nice meeting you.
-Love you dad, see ya.
-Your dad’s how old?
-60.
-Wow, he’s in great shape, he’s ripped.
-Yeah.
-So this is where you grew up?
-Yes, sir.
Born here, this is the only house
I’ve ever lived in.
-Which is pretty crazy.
-Oh, what a zone.
-And you got the old 300D Turbo Diesel.
-I paid $500 for it.
It was sitting in some guy’s back yard
for 20 years.
It was his grandfather’s and I kept
asking, “Will you sell it one day?”
He’s like,
“I might keep it and work on it.”
Then finally last year he’s like,
“Would you give me $500 for it?”.
I’m like, “Of course,
I thought you were gonna ask $2,500.”
Got lucky, I woulda took that today
but it doesn’t have a sticker.
The last sticker’s from 2008
so that’s just looking for trouble.
-Can I keep rolling the camera?
-Of course, Peter, yeah.
-Tell me when you want me to shut off.
-I’ll show you out back.
-This is great.
-Nice little humble abode.
We got some jalapeno peppers
that are coming up pretty good.
We got some chickens in the back.
We have a tree house
that was once in a tree
but a really bad wind storm
knocked it out of the tree.
These are some of my friends over here.
-Okay, so back in the day,
if you don’t mind me asking,
what was the price of
something like this in this region?
My parents, not to give an exact amount
but it was a lot cheaper.
I’ll just tell people it was $100,000 for
this house but it needed a lot of work.
When my parents moved in every wall
had a different type of paneling on it.
-When did they move in?
-1992 I think.
Okay so $100,000 then was like 250 now.
-But now this would be half million.
-Half million usually.
This whole town is half million
which is crazy to think about.
Western Mass, it gets kinda cheaper
but then you’re in the zone
of being so far from everything
that there’s no job opportunities
to pay for the house.
-All right, well let’s get into it. Yeah.
-Sounds good.
-You sure you don’t wanna come?
-No, I’m good.
I got a gig tonight,
like banjo-picking music.
Oh, nice. Nice!
-You play banjo?
-I’m the bass player.
-Nice.
-Big upright bass.
-What’s the name of the band?
-The Suqnots.
-The Suqnots?
-Yeah.
Okay, do you have
an Instagram page, a website?
-Facebook.
-Facebook?
-So people should look up the Suqnots.
-And 8-Track Mind, he’s in another one.
-S-U-Q.
-S-U-Q-N-O-T…
S.
We don’t want to offend anybody.
[Gerald laughs] Love you, dad.
I’ll see ya.
-Okay, guys.
You got a cool dad.
You know the band Heart, Peter?
His band opened up for one of the sisters
of Heart a few months ago.
People who played that song Barracuda
that was really well-known for a while.
[Peter sings the guitar from Barracuda]
You ever go to that staircase
in Philadelphia, Peter?
-Yeah, I have. It’s pretty cool.
I was lucky enough to be able
to born out here and since I’m 25,
I mean even in the time I’ve been alive
I have seen a lot of
the changes in the area.
Some good, some bad and there’s a lot
of towns that are just stuck in the mud
that need people to want to care
about their town and community again.
I mean some of the towns
have trash everywhere on the sidewalks.
-So not far from here you have towns
with trash everywhere that are beat up?
-Mm-hmm, definitely, yeah.
-This is a great existence.
-Yeah, this is a rural community.
There’s stuff for people to do
like gardening clubs
and clubs for the kids.
When you say
you’re from Massachusetts
they think it’s Boston
like when someone says
they’re from New York.
New York is such a big state
and there’s rural areas, farmland.
-Yeah, New York is huge.
[Gerald] Some guy just cut us off
and that’s what gives
Massachusetts a bad reputation
and why everybody calls us Massholes.
It’s not 100% across the board
but if you go to other states
in New England and ask them
what their least favorite state is or
least favorite community in New England,
a lot of people will say
Massachusetts or Massholes.
Okay, so growing up in Vermont,
my first 18 years were there,
and totally looked down on anything
outside of Vermont to be honest
but definitely on Massachusetts
so I’m familiar with Masshole.
But these days, I was in Southern Vermont
and I went to Charlemont.
That part of Massachusetts
Western Mass is frickin’ awesome.
-It’s beautiful up there.
-I had no clue.
-Up in the mountains.
-That is frickin’ awesome down there.
So back to all my content.
-You can’t necessary label a state easily.
-Oh, yeah.
Because there’s a region of the state,
there’s a county, even in that county
there might be
totally different areas in it.
For anyone watching,
if you want good outdoor activities
check out Western Mass.
-It’s very overlooked.
-Totally.
Not a lot of people talk about it
but there’s mountain biking,
white water rafting, there’s hiking.
-Beautiful out there.
-I totally back that.
[mellow guitar plays]
[Gerald] This is the town
of Fort Devens or Devens.
It was a military base
for a very long time.
It actually got shut down mid-’90s
and there still is a portion of the town
that is military-occupied
but there’s a lot of residential
and commercial out here now.
When my dad was growing up
his best friend was a Green Beret
and they used to come out here
and have to have clearance
to pull through the gates.
Now there’s a lot of
pharmaceutical companies up that way.
There’s a nuclear power plant coming up
and I actually went to school over here
after high school
and got into the union through them.
I was in the Carpenter’s Union.
That’s a state-funded program
to get people jobs.
The people from the inner-city jobs
or line people up with a career path
that they otherwise wouldn’t be able
to get without assistance.
Okay, so super helpful for you?
Um, I consider it helpful
but when I was going
there was a lot of
“trouble” in the school also.
It depends what group you aligned to.
There as a lot of people who were
from gangs or rough backgrounds.
So you had to stay
with the right head space
and be with the right people,
don’t get mixed with the wrong crowd.
When I was growing up
I got sent to a couple different schools.
I got in some trouble
so they sent me to a charter school
that was in Worcester
in a really rough part of the city
and I learned a lot from them.
I think getting in trouble
made me learn later on
that there’s a lot more in life
than getting in trouble
and if I hang out with the right people
it will get you further in life
instead of hanging out with
a bad crowd and taking a wrong turn.
There’s a lot of trouble out here
whether it’s getting hooked on drugs
and gang violence.
And there’s definitely stuff to do
for the younger generation
but there’s a lot less to do now
than when my parents were growing up.
There was a golf course
that got shut down,
basketball courts, batting cages.
I mean there’s still stuff for to do
but it’s a different type of
stuff if that makes sense.
Okay, this town
has a different feel to it.
-The migrant hotel’s
actually right over here.
-Migrant hotel?
-I think this town got approved
to send migrant families over here
and there was an open hotel.
So I think the state
considered it was a viable option,
They shipped the families over here
and Massachusetts is an asylum state.
So a lot of families get shipped up
over here from Texas, New Mexico.
Any of the borderlines
and some of the towns
definitely need new people coming over
and a sense of community coming back.
Whether you’re out of the country
or were born here.
Some towns are slowly dying
even though it’s in Massachusetts
and how densely populated
Massachusetts is.
Some towns do need
some love and care thrown back into them.
Over on the back side you’ll see
all the bikes on the balconies.
All the bikes
and some of them
do have licenses which is… good.
-Okay, so do you know any of
the deeper details? What’s going on here.
Definitely… I actually wrote down
a good stat that I have to tell you.
Like what percentage of the people
are eligible to work.
So there’s 770 families
that did come over here.
Even though the number’s probably
up and down a little bit.
But out of those 7,700 families
850 had the proper permits
and were eligible to work,
and then another 2,000
or 3,000 of the families
were stuck waiting in the dust
because they had no paperwork.
-Nothing figured out yet.
-Okay.
But some of the were eligible to work
and some were in the process
of waiting for their work visa
or whatever the right paperwork
it is to start your life up in America.
[Peter sighs]
These are the amount of families that
were located to each town in the state
and there’s probably outliers
and everything like that
and the town we’re in right now
is Ayer, Massachusetts
and they got 45 families total
and from what I read online
they got like 150 people total.
And then you got Worcester
which got 333 families.
Which is a very big sum and…
[Peter] Yeah.
-Who am I?
-Yeah.
[Peter] I’m a human being.
Okay, so what are you doing?
[Peter] Oh, we’re doing a video
all about Massachusetts.
-Okay.
-Yeah.
What’s “Making Opportunity”?
What are you?
-It’s MOC, it’s an organization.
-Okay.
A non-profit.
Um…
There’s the WIC programs, housing.
-Okay, for who?
What do you mean for who?
Who are the people you’re housing?
-Um, anybody that needs help.
-So any homeless person or any…
-Yeah.
Anyone can come here, okay.
Where are the majority of people from?
-There’s different places.
-Okay.
Do they need to have papers for this?
As in asylum documents
or it doesn’t matter?
-I don’t think I can share that.
-What’s that?
I don’t think I can
share that information?
You can’t share? Why not?
My job, sorry.
-They won’t let you?
-Yeah.
Who funds you guys?
Is it the state of Massachusetts?
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
Are all doors full or can someone
go there now if they’re homeless?
It has to go through the process,
an application.
Okay, but currently is every room full
or do you have availabilities?
-No, it’s all full.
-It’s all full? Okay.
Do you know if these asylum claims
that the government’s
giving ’em work papers so they
can work if they want to?
-What do you mean?
-A lot of asylum claim seekers…
You know, they have legal documents,
they have the legal right to be here
but the government’s
not giving them work papers.
So do you notice a lot of that?
A lot of people just wanting
to work and they can’t work?
Um, yeah. Some of them.
That’s why we have
case workers try to help with that.
-Okay.
-[Gerald] Hey, how’s it going today?
-[woman] Good.
We’re making a video
on Central Massachusetts.
We were just at Wachusett Mountain,
we figured we’d drive through this town
to get a glimpse of how the area’s
and we figured we’d stop here.
-You shouldn’t be on this property.
-Okay.
-I need to ask you to leave.
-Okay, thank you. I appreciate it.
-Okay.
That’s usually how it is, Peter.
All these non-profits
and government-funded groups,
they don’t give you any insight what’s
going on which causes a lot of fear.
I was just in Kensington
and there was a group there
that’s doing a lot of work
and there’s just a lot of closed doors…
-…and tight lips.
-Mm-hmm.
And I think that’s where the issue is
when there’s no transparency.
Let’s explain to the public
what’s going on exactly.
This isn’t an anti-immigrant,
migrant stance
Yeah.
It’s a,
“Hey guys, we’re in a big country here,
we’ve had an influx of over…”
Who knows the number? Let’s just say,
Customs Border Protection Website,
I’m gonna get the numbers wrong
but let’s just say in the last four years,
we’re looking at 10 to 12 million.
-Mm-hmm.
-That we know of.
-And then a ton that we don’t know of.
-Mm-hmm.
And so when we have communities
in the country with higher rent prices,
more of a strain on the resources.
You know, everyone’s life has become
a little bit harder with inflation.
-Things have, you know…
-Gone up in price.
I don’t think everyone’s life
is going better.
Especially the middle class right now
and so they want to know
where their tax money is going.
Especially in a state like Massachusetts
where you’re taxed a lot.
And I don’t think it should be
a question at all to ask the questions.
A lot of people just cling
to one side of the media.
Whatever side you’re on.
So there really is
no discoveries being made.
It’s the same arguments over and over
and the migrant situation’s a big one.
-Let’s go to a business near here.
-Yeah.
Maybe this guy would want to talk
Yeah, right here.
-[Peter] Okay, what’s going on over there?
-So after they a got cars.
You want me to do this
so you don’t hear the dog barking?
-Yeah.
So have you been down to Fall River,
the ones they burnt down and all that?
-[Peter] What?
-They burnt down three hotels.
-Three got burnt down a little bit ago.
-Yeah.
Two of them were like a month apart.
-An accident or they…
No, they didn’t do it on purpose
but stupidity.
I think one was a grill.
Like up against the building.
This is the only one
that I know of that doesn’t have
the National Guard as security.
-Other ones have National Guards?
-Yes.
-Okay, how many of these are there?
-I don’t know.
You can’t go on a website
and figure it out.
-But you’ll know. The signs
will be covered up or turned backwards.
-Okay, so that’s how you know?
-That’s how you know.
-So you’ll go buy a… what…. a Motel 6?
-[Gerald] Mm-hmm.
The only sign
will probably be on the building
but the regular one will
probably be covered up.
You’ll know a motel
that’s where they’re staying.
-I think that’s their meals.
-Meal truck over there.
I wish you guys could walk in there
and get a video of it.
It’s sad because a lot of the food
goes to waste ’cause they don’t take it.
Say they bring a hundred meals in,
they stack ’em up,
you’ll see them when they bring
the lunch in they only use like 20 meals
because they’re getting a card
they’d rather eat at Shop ‘n Save
than just, you know, mac and cheese
or whatever they’re getting.
-They get stipends
to shop at Shop ‘n Save?
-Yes, they have little beach wagons.
You just came at the wrong time, there’s
usually something going on. [laughs]
-Because it’s Saturday maybe?
-Maybe, yeah.
I mean they’ll go down to do their laundry
but they’ll take their beach carts
over to Shop ‘n Save
or they’re always at Family Dollar.
First off, they kicked out
people that were actually living there.
Which was wrong.
Um…
-Born in the US people?
-Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yes.
Probably see six or seven of them
walk down the road with their suitcases.
Those were people that lived in this town
that worked at local places.
They had a vet over there
with only like…
He was amputated from his knee down
and he got booted out.
-Oh, wow.
So I get you come over the right way,
that’s okay.
You know, but they way they’re
coming over and we’re paying for it.
There’s a bunch of Brazilians in this town
that have been here forever
that don’t get any of this.
Right.
You know, and I don’t understand that.
The people that did it the right way,
legally, which is very hard…
-…are really pissed right now.
-Yeah.
The people that have been here for a while
that aren’t getting that are pissed.
The locals, if they know what’s going on,
are like, “We need to immigrate.”
-Yeah, we’re all immigrants.
-You run a business.
-You know how hard it is to find people.
-Yeah.
You want good workers and if that person
comes from Guatemala or Honduras, awesome
but in a legal way,
in an orderly way.
-Yes.
-And not on our…
-Dime.
-Dime, absolutely.
I think that’s what it comes down to.
They have nicer cars than we do
which is just crazy.
That guy bought that motel
for like 1.2 million or 1.5 million.
Six months before
all the migrants came in
and he’s literally put a new roof on it,
painting it, gardening,
put new asphalt in.
He’s gonna have the…
I think he takes in like $60,000 a month.
-Just on rental.
-[Peter laughs]
So you figure he’s
gonna be paid off pretty soon.
He’s driving a corvette now.
-Okay.
-It’s not there now but a red corvette.
-The red one.
-Yep, that’s his new car.
Indirectly, you two
are helping to pay for that corvette?
-‘Cause you live in Massachusetts.
-Yes.
What’s crazy is if my daughter
sets up a lemonade stand
the town will shut us down.
They’ll go and sell groceries.
I’m not joking.
-Okay, so your daughter does like…
-We had a lemonade stand.
And the second day
the town gave us a hard time.
[exhales in disbelief]
So the most quintessential
American thing to do
is have your kids set up a lemonade stand.
-I grew up doing that.
-Yeah, it’s still in the back yard.
She doesn’t learn the basic lessons
of dealing with people
and making something,
and taking in money.
-On her own, right?
-On her own, yeah.
-Instead, across the street…
-Yes.
Everyone here is supposed to do the work
and pay for people’s
journey into this country.
Where it gets complicated
in all the media doesn’t fully unpack is
some are legitimate asylum claims.
Yes.
Some are, they should be here,
they’re asylum by the law.
Absolutely, yeah.
-The majority are economic migrants.
-Yes.
Pay $20,000 from India,
fly into Mexico City, fly to Mexicali,
cartel picks you up.
Yep.
Gets you to the gap in the wall,
go over, call 9-1-1,
our Customs Border Protection gets on ’em,
quarter mile down the border
the cartels runs the Fentanyl,
the sex traffic,
all the really expensive stuff.
Yep.
-They’re making billions.
-Yeah, absolutely.
And we’re facilitating it.
So a lot that originally came in here
are from Logan Airport
that we had no idea
it was even on the news.
-Wait, the migrants
were staying at Logan Airport?
Logan Airport, yes.
-Where were they staying? In a back room?
No, in a hallway.
Like where you get on the flights
I think they just took a corner and…
-Okay.
-Yes, and that was told from over there.
How are people in the community
feeling about this?
Is it split
or is there a lot of tension brewing?
There’s, um…
No, because you can’t really go online
and like on the Ayer community site
if you go on and bash something
it’s, you know, you’re a racist.
So there’s not been any backlash
other than the protesting.
Uh, that got shut down.
There’s been other YouTube people
that have come out.
-And the cops have made them leave.
-Okay.
Does the media ever show up?
-Local media? They don’t touch it.
-No, never. No, not once.
Not with a ten foot pole?
Why do you think that is?
Uh, ’cause we’re
in a Democrat state. [laughs]
Okay, so if it looks bad for one party
they’re not gonna touch it?
Absolutely, yes.
Vice versa, if it looks bad for the other
party that network’s not gonna touch it.
I have to find out on YouTube
or Twitter about crimes they commit
down in Fall River, other hotels
’cause you don’t even see it on the news.
I literally find out the news
from Twitter and YouTube.
So… [laughs]
That’s my news, man.
[Peter] All right guys, it’s deep, there’s
a lot to it, a lot of moving parts.
I haven’t found a media outlet
who unpacks it in its entirety.
Because who doesn’t have compassion
for someone wanting a better life
or these kids that are on their bikes
and had no choice in anything.
My beef with all of this is just
how it’s managed.
The secrecy.
Where the money is going.
And also the chaos at the border.
Which communities
are really struggling with
and the only reason I know this is because
I’ve done many videos on the topic.
Texas, Arizona,
I’ll leave those down in the link below.
So you can sort of see
the other side of this thing.
It’s just very messy
and it doesn’t make sense
to operate a border like this
or a country like this.
Nobody else really does it.
A few Western countries
but for the most part,
places like Ukraine,
where my wife is from,
despite the chaos there would never
allow people just to come over its border
and live there.
And I’m talking migrants,
not obviously an invading army.
But my point is
it doesn’t really work anywhere.
I can’t go to Mexico and do this,
I can’t go to Chile and do this
I can’t go to Ukraine and do this.
So it’s a somewhat
uniquely American thing these days.
Where we’re all paying for this
and Gerald wanted to show
this part of the story today.
It’s all kept in the dark
and nobody really knows what’s going on.
You wouldn’t really know
unless you knew this was happening.
Wouldn’t you like to know what this is
and why does our media not touch it?
These are all simple questions.
The fact that me, as the YouTuber
has to be the one doing this work
is a bit crazy
and a bit telling of the media landscape
we currently live in.
But thank God we have these platforms
so we can actually do this.
Ask questions, dig deeper,
be respectful,
and don’t be afraid to speak up.
[twangy guitar plays]
[Peter] So from first impressions
Fitchburg isn’t really thriving.
Fair to say?
[Gerald] It’s slowly coming back
but just driving over the town lines
you can hear my car’s rattling
and this is why I need new shocks
every 20,000 miles.
There’s not a lot of work
planned in this city.
There’s a lot more decay
than I see coming back.
Over there, that bridge was
really well-known when it first came out
and my dad said when he grew up
in the area and I was born
people were talking about how that bridge
was gonna be like a major icon to the city
and it’s gonna be
part of Fitchburg’s resurgence,
and obviously Fitchburg’s
kind of in a stand still.
-Yeah, and just to let all you guys know
out there watching.
we’re gonna go to some
really nice neighborhoods too.
-Just to show the contrast, right?
-Mm-hmm.
On YouTube we could just show
the worst things all day long
and people will walk away thinking,
“Oh, Central Massachusetts
looks terrible.”
Right? America’s falling apart.
It’s all over.
Or I could show the nicest places all day
and they’ll be like,
“That’s the nicest place ever.”
-Yeah, exactly.
-It’s hard, we’re gonna try to balance it.
[Peter] This is not putting Fitchburg
under the bus.
-I’m sure there’s awesome stuff here.
-Check out that steeple.
-That’s a crazy looking church.
-Yeah, that’s beautiful.
[Gerald] There are stores on Main Street
but it is a lot more empty
than neighboring towns
and you don’t see as many people walking
as you used to.
There’s broken glass on that storefront.
-There’s vacant buildings.
-A lot of vacancy as well.
[Gerald] There’s also stuff coming back.
There’s good restaurants,
there’s decent stuff.
Back in the ’80s and ’70s it was
really happening and a lot going on
but there was
a lot of changes in Massachusetts
and come around the ’90s
a lot of stuff was broken down.
-Do you know what the industry here was?
-The major industry was paper production,
and book manufacturing,
and a lot of that stuff.
A lot of the local rivers
actually got polluted
from them dumping the dyes
directly into the river years ago.
-This looks really nice around here.
-It is pretty nice.
But you can kind of see on Main Street
if you talk to business owners
how it never will be like it once was.
Like how when they were growing up
there was a lot going on.
[Peter] Well the things are still there
to do it’s just the culture’s–
[Gerald] Changed, yeah.
[Gerald] This area’s a lot more built-up,
it’s a lot more commercial,
a lot more corporate places
and this is another migrant hotel
that was filled to the brim for a while.
[Gerald] Maybe we can ask this guy
a couple questions.
[vacuum whirring]
[Gerald] Excuse me, sir.
Are you guys open right now?
-Are there any rooms available.
-No rooms available.
-How come?
-They filled them.
-Oh, okay.
-What’s that?
They gave them to the homeless people.
-Where are the homeless from?
[vacuum continues]
Street… homeless. No home.
-[Peter] All over?
-Yeah.
-Oh, here’s the number right here.
-Just call that number.
“If you’re looking for accommodations at
a hotel this building is no longer one.”
“Adult shelter only.”
We don’t know
who’s staying here though, right?
-The guy in Ayer said migrants
but a lot of them are homeless now.
Like the guy was saying it was originally
homeless in the other one we went to.
-Oh, it’s open.
[vacuum continues]
[Peter] Okay, I would
really like to know who’s staying here.
It could be just homeless people
but he was saying it was migrants.
[Peter] Sir, why are you wearing the mask?
Because COVID!
-COVID?
-You guys bring COVID here.
[Peter incredulously] I’m bringing COVID
in here, 2024?
Read that. Call that number.
You got Mpox in here?
[Gerald laughs]
Mpox too?
-Get out of here!
[Gerald giggles]
Sounded like my Uncle Donny,
“Get outta here, get lost.”
They had Monkey Pox vaccines
in all the pharmacies here for a while.
You drive by,
it said “Monkey Pox vaccine”.
So he put on the N95…
-And stood behind a door.
-And stood behind a door.
Wow.
Guys, it’s really hard to get you
the deep information on this one.
Getting access or people to speak
is pretty much…
-Impossible.
-Impossible.
[both laugh]
Well I’m guessing the Federal government’s
gonna pay per migrant head or something.
Per room, per family, and they get
accommodations based on that.
-Right, and the average
homeless person isn’t.
The federal government’s not stepping in
in this circumstance.
That’s what I’m guessing.
Total guess and speculation.
It’s a very deep dive issue
because when we have
rents that have gone up so much, right?
Like we have
a lot more homelessness in the country
and people are struggling, right?
Oh yeah, definitely.
And so there’s all sorts of homeless,
a lot on drugs.
-Mental illness.
-Mental illness.
And some not, right?
But it’s just like rent has gotten so high
the pressure has really been applied
and so we have more people down and out.
Imagine you come into a new country,
you walk over the border
illegally in a non-port of entry,
they process you,
give you a free bus ticket
or plane ticket,
documents that say you’re legit,
free housing, food, healthcare,
and then maybe you can go work.
Okay, that’s sticky. Some can, some can’t.
Some people are gonna do
illegal things, right?
A lot of DoorDash stuff.
A lot of delivery stuff.
The loopholes you can get.
And so those are your
first impressions of this new country
and then you’re around beautiful roads,
beautiful landscapes, nature,
and you’re probably thinking,
“Wow, everyone is loaded.”
I mean look at this,
“They just paid for all my stuff,
everyone’s just crushing it here.”
Not understanding what you’re saying
about people getting pressured right now.
-There’s a lot of people on the other side
of this system that aren’t working,
collecting government checks,
not migrants anyways.
People who’ve been living
off the system for 50, 60 years.
So now they’re accustomed to that
and really can’t break out of the cycle.
I had a cousin like that.
He claimed disability for, I don’t know,
he stubbed his toe back in 1972, right?
[Gerald chuckles]
And that’s not… Okay, to be fair, some
people do need it legitimately, right?
Definitely.
But Cousin Donny stubbed his toe
and claimed disability and sold used cars.
[Peter] The reality of all this is
if you’re lazy in India or Ukraine
you die.
Mm-hmm.
But you can be here.
We’re growing a population
that’s becoming dependent
and we should be, I feel as a nation,
recognizing that,
giving the mental health treatment
that’s needed,
the job training that’s needed,
medical education, nutritional education
that’s needed, right?
And build people up
so they can build their life,
and live a better life,
and raise a better family.
Like that’s the…
None of this is easy
but that’s my logical solution.
-It seems like we’re doing the opposite.
-Oh yeah, 100%.
My mom grew up really poor.
She grew up with a single mother
and there’s a whole story itself in that
and she grew up eating Cheerios,
and Fruit Loops, and everything
because it was
the cheapest option at the time.
She didn’t know what a healthy meal
was until she got older on in life
because she was kinda stuck in that box
of not getting
the appropriate commendations,
or learning about nutrition, or learning
about stuff that really matters,
and I mean I think the public
school system right now is kinda
in that same situation.
They don’t teach a lot of kids
what they need to know
and what should be learned.
-Like how to run a business.
-Critical thinking skills.
That should be number one
right now, right?
Because the internet is a thing, right?
And the information’s gonna come at you
all day long. It’s endless.
Most of it’s garbage and BS, right?
100%.
So developing critical thinking skills
should be the number one
and we’re in a time where
we’re just floating in information.
Everything’s politicized.
I don’t know one media organization
that its aim is truth, right?
Like truth is very hard to find
with topics like this.
But like there’s no
political dog in the fight.
There’s no blue-red stuff.
It’s like let’s get to the bottom of this.
I don’t think that exists anymore.
So this actually turned into
a much heavier video than I expected
and that’s fine.
-I go where the story goes.
-100%
What it leads into.
[Gerald] The average house in
the town we’re going to is $1.5 million.
-Wow.
-Henry David Thoreau wrote his book,
“Walden Pond” in this town.
-No way.
-Right near by it.
Walden Pond’s pretty close to here.
That’s a pretty nice little area.
A lot of expensive restaurants
out this way too.
[Peter] “Concord Bookshop.”
Yeah, looks very nice.
This is how far from Fitchburg?
-Like 25 minutes.
-We didn’t even go to the real bad part
of Fitchburg did we?
-Not really, no.
-Okay.
If you’re living in Fitchburg or here
you’re living in two different universes.
Colonial Inn, 1716, look at that.
Wow.
-We’re right nearby
the oldest inn in the country.
Henry Longfellow Inn, the one
Henry Ford owned out in Sudbury
Henry Ford also made his own village
in the woods in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
He planned on having
a self-sufficient community
full of like-minded individuals,
and they all had their own set jobs.
and they all did this and that.
-Had his own utopia out there?
Own utopia, he built a dam and it’s called
Ford’s Folly but the dam never held
because the dam wasn’t set right
on the ground rock
and the ground rock
wasn’t hard enough to support the dam.
If you walk in the woods
it’s in the middle of nowhere.
There’s a 2,000 foot long dam
and the whole dam was built
by ox and man.
He didn’t want to use any machines,
anything like that,
and the whole village ended up flopping.
-Oh, this place is beautiful.
-Okay, so no migrant hotel here?
-There actually is one.
And it has 89 families.
I don’t know exactly
how many people that is.
We can hit it in a few minutes
if you wanna, Peter.
-It’s right nearby where we are anyways.
-Okay.
So that is surprising that
there’s a migrant shelter here.
-Mm-hmm.
-And you pulled up
the wicked local dot com.
“Former Concorde hotel
has been converted to shelter.
Quietly welcomes migrant families.”
“Simon Cataldo said the town
has been overwhelmingly supportive
of family shelters.”
“Last year the Best Western
was converted into a family shelter.
It was the first of its kind in town.
Which has a median home price last year
of nearly $1.45 million.”
Okay, that’s what you said, right?
“The new shelter on Elm Street
just off Route 2
accommodates families from Concord
and surrounding areas
as an overflow from emergency
shelter in nearby Devens.”
It’s just interesting that we’re in
Central Massachusetts, one small region
and we’re coming across
place, after place, after place,
and that’s what this video turned into.
Sorry for those looking for
the wine and cheese tour.
Didn’t happen.
‘Nother video maybe but that’s where
the story is right here, right now.
That’s the most interesting
story I can see.
Now to be fair,
the border has quieted down
the last month, month and a half.
For a couple reasons,
one, middle of summer.
110 degrees in Arizona is pretty tough.
And two,
this administration
has put pressure on Mexico
to slow it down.
We’re coming up on elections.
It’s not a good look
to have a huge flow
coming over the border.
-Is it here?
-That might be it.
‘Cause they’re not gonna label it.
Give this one a try.
-Yes, they have the signs covered up.
-Covered up.
[Peter] Okay, let’s try
to check in as guests.
Okay, this has to be a hotel
’cause look at all these cars.
Just drive to the back actually.
Here we go.
Okay, we have some nice cars in here.
All right, yeah, people are living here.
This is not a hotel right now.
Lot of storage here.
Storage containers brought in.
Interesting.
But with the cars we drove by,
sorry to say, Gerald, nicer than your car.
[Gerald] No, it definitely is.
It has 210,000 miles almost.
[Peter] And…
“No outside donations”.
-It was the Inn at Historic–
-It was a Best Western for a while.
[Peter] Okay, they see the camera.
They’re not happy.
Go ahead.
[Gerald] I’m sorry about that.
[woman shouting in Spanish]
[Gerald] Hey, how’s it going?
Can I get a room if you don’t mind.
[man] Actually it’s no longer
a hotel anymore.
-Okay, what is it
if you don’t mind me asking?
-It’s a private shelter.
-Mm-hmm.
[Peter] Is it for
homeless people in the area?
-Yes.
-It’s a hybrid of homeless
and then migrants, right?
-Yes, refugees in general.
-Asylum claims?
-Yes, exactly.
It’s like a shelter. It’s for everyone.
There’s American people.
[Gerald] Mm-hmm.
-[woman] Hello.
-How you doing?
-Good, you?
-Good.
We’re trying to understand.
So we know some homeless people
that want to go to a shelter.
How do they do that?
-Are they families or individuals?
-Individuals.
-Individuals?
That’s a whole different process
and it depends the area they’re from.
-Okay.
-So like for example,
I work in Fitchburg area.
-Okay.
Usually around here
they could go up to Harper maybe.
-Okay.
-So it’ll be like from Gardner,
Winchendon…
-Yep.
-Halfway down here.
Um, and we refer them to SMOC.
SMOC are for individuals.
-Okay, cool.
-Mm-hmm.
But I don’t know, there’s other places.
I guess it depends on the area.
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
But you’re just seeing
a huge uptick, right?
-Oh, yeah.
-[Peter] You get your COVID booster?
-[Gerald] Oh yeah, all 15 of ’em.
[Peter] USCIS, okay,
there’s Immigration Services.
That’s interesting.
[women speaking Spanish]
You guys have healthcare here?
-[Gerald] Mass Health.
-[Peter] Oh, that’s good I heard.
[woman] I don’t work
at this shelter like that.
Every shelter works differently.
I know they’re supposed to
have staff that can…
-Talk to us? Okay.
-Yeah.
[Peter] What percentage is it migrants
versus US homeless would you say?
[woman] I mean right now
this whole entire year
we’re trying to sustain
a lot more migrant families.
-Migrant families, yeah.
-But individual people,
it works differently
and that’s if they can get in
’cause right now they’re changing
all the regulations and stuff, so…
-How so?
-Before I could, um…
He’s got roses, look at that.
-Romantic.
-Couple dozen.
[Peter chuckles]
Okay, before what? I’m sorry.
-I can make referrals.
-Okay, okay.
But now they have to call the new number
and the process goes like
if you do qualify it takes three days
if they can find shelter
for that family in three days
they go to that overflow shelter
but if they can’t they just kick them out.
-They kick them out?
-Yeah.
I don’t know where they go
but that’s how it’s been going.
[Gerald] Not to interrupt,
doesn’t the state hook them up
with a cell phone and everything
like that or some situations?
[Peter] The feds do but that’s terrible
they’re kicking people out.
[woman] Yeah,
from overflow shelters, yeah.
So I don’t know, I mean–
-But big increase overall
last couple years?
-Big time?
-Oh yeah, yeah.
[Gerald] Thank you,
I appreciate your help.
Have a great day.
[Peter] We’re all around the region
and it’s everywhere right now.
[Gerald] Those are the people
that we need.
People that want to speak on it.
-Yeah, it’s so hard
to get people to speak.
So what is that?
What is that language?
Swahili or something?
That’s interesting.
Yeah, so look it…
“Find a doctor,
Citizenship Resource Center,
Naturalization Eligibility Tool,
get legal help.”
So as she says, it’s majority migrants
and then a lot of people
are gonna get bumped from the shelters
’cause there’s no room.
Wow.
And then… We should get going.
And then the owner of this place
is bankrolling guaranteed.
All right guys, quite an interesting day
and we all have to thank Gerald
for showing us those places.
Now way I would have
found those on my own.
And I think the big question after today,
we all want answers,
we all want transparency,
and when you have something
done so secretively
it makes people wonder what’s going on.
So I think that would quell
a lot of the anxiety
or the questions if we just had
a transparent authority say,
“Here’s what we’re doing.
This hotel is for migrants.
They are allowed to work.
They get no free meals, no healthcare.”
or “This hotel is for migrants,
they’re not allowed to work.
They get food, healthcare, school.”
Nobody knows.
We’re all sort of left
in the dark right now.
Which is very unfortunate
and very dishonest.
Most Americans are great people.
We’re getting pitted against one another
with this issue
because nobody
really knows what’s going on.
I’ve been trying my best.
Been to the southern border,
been to the northern border,
really put a lot of time in on this topic
and I still don’t have all the answers.
So watch my content,
watch my other border videos,
watch other people’s content.
Understand this has become
very politicized
and hopefully in years to come
we’ll have better transparency
and understanding
about what’s going on here.
All right guys,
thanks for coming along on that journey.
Until the next one.
[twangy guitar plays]