“Samaritas is incredibly excited to be partnering with Wayne County and Wayne Metro for this important project that will create opportunities for affordable transitional housing for the New Americans families in our care.”
(Samaritas CEO Sam Beals)
This must be Michigan day for me. Earlier at ‘Frauds and Crooks’ I wrote about all of the ‘new American’ doctors going to prison there for ripping off taxpayers and fueling the Opioid Crisis!
Now comes news that Wayne County (of course!) is building housing to accommodate impoverished refugees in partnership with Samaritas. What! All low income Americans in Wayne County have homes!
And, it won’t cost the county a dime because the money is coming via Washington, DC’s famous money tree—-you and me!
From The Detroit News:
Freedom Village, a safe haven for refugees, planned in Hamtramck
Hamtramck — Wayne County is working to aid refugees fleeing their war-torn countries for new lives in Michigan with a safe haven they are calling Freedom Village, officials announced Monday.
The county is partnering with Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency, Samaritas and the city of Hamtramck to create the resettlement designed to provide refugees and immigrants with transitional affordable housing.
Construction of three two-family homes to house six families on Faber in Hamtramck is underway and is expected to be completed by summer 2020, county officials said.
The program was created to provide a better life to low-income refugees and immigrants by surrounding them with resources to eventually pursue permanent homeownership opportunities, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said.
“We are a welcoming county that derives its strength from the diversity of its residents, and this project epitomizes that core value,” Evans said in a statement.
The Hamtramck project will develop newly constructed, affordable houses on Wayne County Land Bank-owned parcels in the city.
After the parcels are cleared, Wayne County will assemble the properties for the Hamtramck Refugee Resettlement project.
Under the agreement, the new construction will be at no cost to the city of Hamtramck. It will increase the taxable value of the vacant lots, bringing them back onto the tax rolls and contributing revenue to the city, officials said.
Wayne County Metropolitan Community Action Agency will serve as the property developer and owner, and Samaritas, a resettlement agency, will place refugees and provide further services.
Those darn Lutherans in the housing business (again)! You need to know that Lutheran Social Services of Michigan rebranded and became Samaritas in 2016. See my post:
Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, rebrands, no longer wants to be tagged as Lutheran
Earlier LSS got into some housing hanky-panky here.
Back to the Detroit News,
CEO Sam Beals said Samaritas, which has helped resettle families in Michigan for 70 years, couldn’t be more excited for the unique partnership.
“Samaritas is incredibly excited to be partnering with Wayne County and Wayne Metro for this important project that will create opportunities for affordable transitional housing for the New Americans families in our care,” Beals said. “Having beautiful builds like this one, appropriately called Freedom Village, in Hamtramck is much needed and a great location for this project as a welcoming city in metro Detroit.”
[….]
More than 600,000 foreign-born individuals live in Michigan, and of that, more than 70% live in southeast Michigan, according to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
[….]
County officials did not disclose the cost of the program but said it’s being funded with federal housing dollars through Wayne County HOME Investment Partnerships Program, a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Development.
Samaritas is a $100 Million a year operation and received over $30 million in taxpayer funded grants in one recent year. Now they are in the federal housing business. Hmmmm!