There is money in ‘them thar’ refugees! Throughout Europe there are stories of developers and others in the real estate business who see dollar signs (well Euros, where they live) as the migrants pour in, but this is the first time we are seeing a developer here in America look to overtly cash in on federally-funded ‘humanitarianism.’
See our post last year from Germany—luxury hotel converted to housing for refugees. FILE – This Oct. 17, 2012 file photo shows the Revel, Atlantic City, N.J.’s newest casino. Revel, the casino many people had hoped would turn around Atlantic City’s sagging fortunes, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, less than a year after it opened. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, File) http://www.vosizneias.com/124618/2013/02/19/atlantic-city-nj-njs-newest-casino-revel-to-file-for-bankruptcy/
Although readers, you will find many local cases of rental property owners working hand-in-glove with local resettlement agencies, or developers looking for HUD money to diversify housing in your town, it is all kept pretty under the table.
The owner of the Revel, a shuttered casino, is apparently cash-strapped and right out in the open in his appeal.
From NBC10:
So far, the owner of Atlantic City’s former Revel casino has proposed using it as an indoor water park, a medical tourism resort, an equestrian facility and a so-called “genius academy” where the world’s top minds would tackle society’s problems.
Now add this to Glenn Straub’s thoughts for the property: housing Syrian refugees.
Straub told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he’s willing to let people displaced by the civil war in Syria stay at the 47-story Revel resort as he fights in court over its future. Straub has been trying to reopen Revel since buying it in April for $82 million but has been beset by litigation from utility companies and former tenants that has so far kept it shuttered.
“We treat our dogs better than we treat the Syrians right now,” he said. “If the government wanted to house Syrian refugees, I’d give them use of the building and let them put those people there.”
[…..]
The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it had not been contacted by Straub but would be willing to put him in contact with a local refugee resettlement agency*** should he so desire.
Straub said his only request would be reimbursement for the cost of operating the building while refugees were staying there.
***The closest resettlement agency is in Camden, NJ (go here to see the entire list of resettlement contractors, find one near where you live).
By the way, I don’t see Atlantic City on the list of cities whose mayors are hankering for more immigrants to boost their sagging economies. And, there are two NJ cities looking for Syrian refugees, but I don’t see A.C. on the listyet.
I was born and raised in South Jersey so this news from Catholic Charities interested me. But, it also serves as an opportunity for me to discuss something that I’ve found troubling of late.
For several years (RRW began in 2007) it was easy enough to find statistics on how many refugees and from what country were being placed in what towns and cities during a given time period. Those data bases are impossible to find now. Maybe not ‘impossible’ if one has enormous time to search, but I do believe the federal government is making it more challenging for citizens to find information on the numbers and nationalities of refugees being resettled in specific locations.
Justice for the taxpayers too?
So, it was interesting to me to see what Catholic Charities is saying about the demographic/social/economic changes they are bringing to South Jersey.
New readers!
We have so many new readers just starting out on their quest to figure out how refugee resettlement (aka placement) works. And, although we have been over this many times through the years, every day new people start their own investigations and of course never saw the story we might have posted in say 2008. So, first check our fact sheet by clicking here.
Then, here is a list (at ORR) of the resettlement officials in every state (it should mostly be up-to-date). The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is located in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services and after the initial resettlement paid for by the US State Department, it is ORR that doles out the additional cash to the contractors, who in turn funnel the money (your money) to subcontractors.
The first step (after reading our fact sheet) in your quest to figure out how the program works is to contact your state coordinators (on this list). Be pleasant and polite and ask for the data for your state—who is coming, who has come, how many, from where and most importantly what towns and cities have been chosen? And, don’t forget to find out which contractors they are using (then research the contractor and its finances).
We can’t emphasize enough that you must get your facts together.
Now for anyone, other than me, interested in South Jersey, here is Catholic Charities:
From January 2009 through September 2013, 760 Refugee Newcomers were resettled by Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden’s Refugee Resettlement Program. At the time of their resettlement, the Refugee Newcomers joined South Jersey communities from twelve Countries of Origin: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam.
In the last program year (October 2012 to September 2013), Refugee Newcomers from eight different countries were resettled in South Jersey. Refugees were placed in market-rate apartments and houses rented from private landlords in a variety of towns, based on the availability of safe, affordable housing and proximity to shopping, employment and public transportation. The towns are: Atlantic City, Audubon, Barnegat, Collingswood, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Moorestown, Oaklyn, Palmyra, Pleasantville, Sicklerville, Somerdale, Trenton, Turnersville, Wildwood Crest, Willingboro, Woodlynne.
Of the 110 refugees who arrived in the last year, 32 children were enrolled in nine local public school systems:
In April 2013, Catholic Charities was awarded the Refugee School Impact Grant to assist and increase the support to refugee students and families in being academically successful. [Note that the grant for school impact went to Catholic Charities not the school systems themselves.—ed] Catholic Charities’ Refugee School Based Family Support Specialist focused on the Somerdale and Oaklyn school districts, which had twenty-eight and twenty-two refugee students enrolled, respectively. This program worked in these schools one day per week and provided enrollment and support services to other students and schools as needed and continued into the 2013-2014 school year.
Catholic Charities continues to work in collaboration with social service and medical providers, school systems, landlords, employers, churches and volunteers to assist refugees in becoming self-sufficient.These partnerships have resulted in over 75% rate of employment for employable adults within the first three months of arrival in 2012 and 2013.*** Through employment and on-going programs, Refugee Newcomers have become stable, productive contributors to South Jersey.
*** Watch out for the employment data trickdescribed in a post at Friends of Refugees in January. Blogger Chris Coen is a critic of resettlement contractors (as are we), but he comes at it from another angle.
Here is what Coen said in a critical post about a Tennessee resettlement contractor (Hat tip: Joanne):
A former case manager also sent us information about the agency and pointed out that the refugee employment figures are dishonest as most of the refuges have only temporary employment that does not help them to pay rent and be self-sufficient.The nature of the temp jobs also means that the refugees will be unemployed just a short time after the agency reports them employed to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at 90 days and 180 days.(This, however, is a problem throughout the refugee program, and it doesn’t seem that the the ORR has much of an interest in requiring that resettlement agencies report if refugees are working at temporary or non-temporary jobs.)
This post is archived in our ‘where to find information’ category, here.
“Hundreds?” Well, how could that be I wondered, since we are constantly reminded that the unwelcoming US has only admitted a hundred or so Syrian refugees. It turns out that “hundreds” of those being granted ‘temporary protected status‘ are choosing to go to established Syrian communities, like those in North Jersey, to be with their people.
I continually find it amusing that no one ever questions the desire of ‘immigrants’ to congregate with their ethnic and religious groups in certain sections of cities or states, yet if any people of European background (you or me) would say I want to live with my kind of people we would be excoriated by the diversity-is-beautiful crowd as racist, rednecked boobs! But, I digress.
Mahmoud Alzouabi, one of the stars of this story, traveled to Jordan with his wife and 8 kids and got a visa to the US. How did he pull that off when several hundred thousand others couldn’t? CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Back to North Jersey and the Syrians. Emphasis below is mine. From North Jersey.com:
Syrians fleeing war and devastation in their homeland have settled in North Jersey by the hundreds since turmoil broke out three years ago. While family members, houses of worship and a social services agency offer support, many struggle to find work, afford housing and deal with grief amid harrowing experiences in war.
Then we hear about the first star of the story (there are always the sad tales in these articles designed to pull the heartstrings of your unwelcoming racist heart!):
Mahmoud Alzouabi, a 42-year-old Syrian refugee now living in Paterson, fled to a refugee camp in Jordan before getting a U.S. visa. Alzouabi saw a close friend shot to death at a demonstration. [So how did this man with his family, of all the “refugees” arriving in Jordan get a visa to America?—ed]
They want to be with Syrians:
Drawn to North Jersey by long-established Syrian-American communities, many arrive with little more than the clothing they are wearing and with bitter memories of the life-threatening conditions that drove them from their homes.
[…..]
The Syrians who have come to North Jersey are largely unrecognized as they blend into Arab-American neighborhoodsin a diverse state that is home to more than 9,000 Syrian-Americans, according to the Census Bureau.
Thousands being approved to stay in US under ‘Temporary Protected Status’ but as we have reported here at RRW over the years—no one ever goes home! Just ask the over 100,000 Salvadorans here “temporarily!” It is a joke. However, unless they can figure out some fraudulent way to do it, those on TPS are not allowed to dip into welfare (maybe in Maine!) while refugee status confers on those lucky people a whole array of social services.
The United States offers financial aid and transitional help to Syrians who are accepted into its refugee resettlement program, but only 108 Syrians have been officially designated as refugees. Many others are stymied by stringent U.S. security concerns over people arriving with no identification papers. Others face a high legal barrier in the requirement that they prove they are victims of persecution and not merely people displaced by war.
Many of the Syrian refugees have arrived with visitor’s visas and extended their stays, legally, through what is known as temporary protective status, which allows them to get Social Security numbers and authorizes them to find employment.
No work! (Someone please tell Groverthat there are LEGAL Syrians over here looking for work!):
With temporary protected status, he has work authorization and a Social Security number, but he cannot find work. He [another star of the story—ed] applied for health care coverage but did not understand the responses he got. His wife is eight months pregnant.
“Everything is difficult here. Everything is complicated. There’s no help,” said Askar, who has applied for refugee status, fearing religious persecution back home.
They want refugee status so they can get taxpayer-support!
Syrians who are granted asylum are eligible for help from programs funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, including cash and medical assistance, job preparation and placement and English-language training. But only 108 Syrians have been granted official refugee status by the U.S.
TPS numbers:
Most have come to this country as visitors and stayed. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has accepted 5,261 applications for temporary protected status from Syrians already in the U.S., approving 2,038 of those and denying 59; the rest are pending. Of those, 335 applications came from Syrians in New Jersey; 150 were approved, three denied and the rest are pending.
Big rush of Syrians expected in US in 2015 and 2016. Will Mr. Open Borders himself, Chris Christie, be welcoming them on the tarmac at Newark’s Liberty International airport?
With no end in sight to the war, more Syrians can be expected to arrive in North Jersey. The U.S. government expects to receive thousands of referrals for resettlement from the United Nations’ refugee agency in 2014, with arrivals expected in 2015 and 2016, according to the State Department. It is not known how many will be accepted.
Some elected officials and human rights groups have called for the U.S. to do more and take in 15,000 Syrians refugees. According to news reports, the Obama administration expects to take in only as many as 2,000.
For years we watched the media drumbeat to bring in the Iraqis (and they are coming by the tens of thousands now) and henceforth we will see one story after another, like this one, as the media and the open borders movement builds their Syrian “refugee” PR campaign. And, just watch, even if their ‘civil war’ ends before 2015, the flood gates to Syrian refugees will be open and they will keep coming (just as the Iraqis are still coming to this day)!
Addendum: Check out the story we posted recently about one Syrian family getting into the US via Cuba, here. They too are in North Jersey.
