Buffalo, NY: Are refugees being placed in unsafe housing

More housing issues involving refugees—this time New York—see our previous post this morning on Michigan.
I saw this news the other day, but didn’t find time to post it.  As I said in my previous post, look for many housing problems especially this year as federal contractors like Journey’s End in this story are desperate to find housing for the 85,000 refugees Obama is bringing to America.
They will argue that they don’t get enough of a federal hand-out to put them in decent housing, but they will never argue that that means the flow has to be slowed or cut off!  Just get them in, get their per head payment and move on! That is how they roll!
From WIVB.com:

Karen_M._Andolina_Scott-225x300
Karen Andolina Scott is the Executive Director of Journey’s End in Buffalo. No comment on ceiling collapse story. http://www.jersbuffalo.org/index.php/news/entries/journeys_end_refugee_services_announces_new_executive_director

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- A refugee family living on Buffalo’s West Side is having a difficult first few weeks in the United States. On Sunday night, the ceiling collapsed in the kitchen of their rental home on Grant St.

“It fell on me and my kids we were all inside,” said Roger, who was visiting a family friend that lives in the home.

Roger told News 4 he was taking a call in the kitchen when the collapse happened.

“It’s really discouraging when someone comes here seeking a house and you find yourself in these conditions, this situation,” he said.

His family friend, Ley Baunda, lives in the house with his wife and seven children. They are refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.***

They told us they blame local resettlement organizations for placing them in an unsafe house.

“I’m afraid because there is many, many things that is not good in the house,” said Baunda.

Baunda’s landlord wouldn’t talk to News 4.

We reached out to resettlement agency Journey’s End who wouldn’t comment on this case.

Continue reading to learn more as Ms. Scott explains the “federal program.”
From our handy list we learn that Journey’s End (a “Christian based” organization) is a subcontractor of both Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries (two of the nine major federal contractors).
See our very large archive on Buffalo by clicking here.
***Just a reminder, on refugees from the DR Congo, we are in the process of bringing in 50,000, see one of many posts, here.

Michigan: Housing funny-business involving Lutheran Social Services

LSS Michigan
Over the years we have gotten whiffs of ‘strange doings’ going on between landlords and federal refugee resettlement contractors and this story from Battlecreek, MI gives us a tantalizing peek into how the ‘humanitarian’ Lutheran  Social Services of Michigan operates.
All I know is that, please watch for housing problems in refugee overloaded cities.
You will see refugees placed in slums, apartments with more residents than local zoning allows, conflicts with neighbors, landlords waking up to what they got into and trying now to get out, cozy relations between refugee contractors and certain landlords, competition between American poor and disabled and refugees for limited housing, and the list goes on.  In fact, you will see even more competition this year as the contractors are expected to find places for the 85,000 refugees Obama has promised America.

Sam Beals LSSM
Sam Beals is the CEO of Lutheran Social Services Michigan. Since the article never names who the spokesperson is for LSSM in the housing dispute, the next best thing is to identify the head honcho. https://www.lssm.org/lssm/about-us/leadership

Here is the news from WWMT.com.   This is the kind of story some local Michigan activist, concerned with too many refugees coming to the state, should dig into.  I bet there is a lot more than is being said here!  Emphasis below is mine:

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Refugees and community organizers say more than 60 refugee families received notices that their apartment leases would not be renewed.

[….]

“At the time the letter was sent, the apartment complexes had received information which caused the complexes to believe that the families/residents who received the latter had too many residents occupying the apartment units,” wrote Campbell’s lawyer, David Zebell.

The article reports that the landlord changed his mind and refugees can stay, but here is more:

Ginger Dowdle, a Battle Creek community organizer said she first became aware of the notices when an middle-eastern refugee approached her with concerns.

She said Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, which helps organize and place the refugees, did not challenge the notices, but instead, told the refugees about an option to buy homes recently acquired by the landlord of River and River Oaks Apartments. [That is the same landlord with whom they are having problems now.—ed]

“I tried to make them [refugees] aware, that if this is happening to them now and there’s no reason for them to be evicted, I would be very careful getting involved with this land contract for a home,” she said. [By the way, one of the things resettlement contractors brag about is that refugees are buying homes, do they get special government funded deals?—ed]

Dowdle said that a representative from Lutheran Social Services of Michigan indicated that LSS told refugees they would have to move out in one year, something refugees say never happened.

A spokesperson for LSSM defended the organization’s response to the notices.

[….]

As for community organizer Ginger Dowdle, she is in the process of making sure all the refugees know about the reversal in policy, and their rights.

“I feel like this has been going on for quite some time,” she said, expressing disappointment with both apartment management and LSSM.

There is more here.
I wondered if LSSM was running out of housing and thus trying to move some previous ‘clients’ into homes so that they could be sure to have apartments in order to keep the flow of new paying clients coming into the city.
Has anyone asked LSSM for its FY2016 R & P Abstracts?  Go to the handy list of resettlement contractor offices around the country, find the one closest to you and ask for their FY2016 R & P Abstract.  The Abstract will tell you how many the refugee contractor thinks they can handle this year (from what countries) and what amenities your town is offering (which might be a surprise to you!).