And, I guess this is what Jeb Bush meant when he said immigrants are more fertile! #ActOfLove?
This is an update of earlier stories about one more case that caused the Mayor of Springfield to beg for a moratorium on refugees resettled to the immigrant-overloaded city.
The landlord (of course) gets all the blame for the bugs and squalor authorities discovered earlier this year.
Here is the latest from MassLive (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):
SPRINGFIELD – A large family of Somali refugees have a new home in the city after being driven from an apartment on Union Street in May by roaches, bedbugs, darkness and overcrowding. [Darkness because they didn’t pay the electric bill!—ed]
The family, which includes 12 children, was living at 515 Union St. when one of the older children called police in May because their electricity had been shut off for days. City housing officials were notified and found “heavy infestations” of roaches and bedbugs, plus noting the house was far too small to accommodate the family, which had grown exponentially since they moved in.
The issue also revived the controversy in the city over managing the influx of Somali refugees since 2003. Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has repeatedly called for a moratorium on new placements, arguing the families tax the city’s housing and school systems and don’t receive the proper long-term supports.
The city condemned the apartment; property manager David Sims was hauled into Springfield Housing Court and the family was temporarily relocated to a hotel shelter in Greenfield. However, lawyers for Sims and the family reached an agreement on Tuesday to move the family to a duplex at 185-187 Northampton Ave., which has been cleared by city inspectors, according to Lisa DeSousa, a lawyer for the city.
Family members Haji Mamo, his wife, Habiba Said and sister-in-law Sitey Said were in court Tuesday, and sorted out the agreement with the help of a Somali interpreter in a closed-door meeting.
The family also filed a demand for nearly $133,000 in monetary claims with the housing court. The complaint contends they should get abatements for rent, nearly $10,000 in “homeless damages,” and treble damages near $83,000 because of the conditions of the Union Street apartment.
Daniel D. Kelly, a lawyer for Sims, denies the allegations in the complaint including that Sims willfully ignored code violations and deliberately impaired the health and well-being of family members.
“It was a combination of problems that came about very quickly.
[….]
Sims said the family was much smaller when he originally rented the apartment to them.
We will be watching what happens with their new house!
Also, for more reading pleasure, we have been following Springfield for several years, click here, for that archive.
Endnote: It’s interesting to watch the “pockets of resistance” grow in cities that were originally “welcoming” and now are becoming overloaded with needy migrants (legal and illegal). It is a matter of numbers—a few migrants needing services kind of go under the radar until a tipping point is reached for the taxpayers. Cases like this one break into the news causing citizens to finally say, ‘whoa!’ what is going on here? But, at that point it is usually too late for the community because the contractors are bringing in the relatives of the first seed population and anyone who complains is immediately labeled a xenophobic, racist, bigoted boob! and the complainers scurry for cover. I don’t know how this will all end.