We told you the other day that Northampton, Massachusetts was ready and eager to “welcome” Syrian Muslims (99% of Syrians being admitted to the US are Muslims) this coming fiscal year which begins in only a few weeks, on October 1.
Catholic Charities, the primary resettlement agency there is holding two meetings this month to find support and help for the refugees because they do admit that after 90 days Catholic Charities’ (taxpayer-funded) help ends. At that time the refugees become dependent on the goodwill of the city and the welfare that Catholic Charities has signed them up for.
Here is the news at Masslive.com. Our earlier post on the new refugee program for Northhampton is here. How is the housing in this upscale city? A shortage of housing seems to be a growing problem everywhere.
Northampton residents are invited to attend two public conversations on the upcoming resettlement of 51 refugees into the city.
Catholic Charities of Springfield***, the agency contracted with the State Department to facilitate the resettlement, will host the sessions along with a “welcome home” steering group of local leaders.
The first, to be held Sept. 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the JFK Middle School cafeteria, will be attended by Mayor David Narkewicz. The second will take place Sept. 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Northampton Senior Center.
Susannah Crolius, the Catholic Charities coordinator of outreach and resource development, said the conversations are part of an effort to build a long-term support and integration network for the refugees.
[….]
The State Department typically provides funding for 90 days of services after refugees relocate to the United States….[Catholic Charities gets a cut of that for administering the program—ed]
[….]
Catholic Charities is adopting a small-scale, carefully planned approach, Crolius said; 51 is the minimum number of refugees a host community can accept. [The following year CC will ask for 100 until like Lancaster, PA, the city could get up to 900 a year.—ed]
The is more at Masslive.com.
***Readers who live in this area should read all of our posts on Springfield, Mass where the mayor has been begging for years for the flow to be slowed as the city was overloaded with poor refugees. LOL! the top post at that archive is about hungry refugees in Springfield being arrested for killing and eating the small wildlife in the public park. Does Northampton have a public park?
I’m going to bore readers to death with this, but if the Republican Congress does not increase funding (and maybe even cuts what the contractors like Catholic Charities have been getting!) for the massive numbers of refugees proposed for FY17 these new sites will not be opened. Catholic Charities does not have the money on its own to do this, it requires funding from the US taxpayer to administer this program.