The dark underbelly of refugee resettlement in the
US—churches neglecting refugees, working with questionable landlords, by Ann Corcoran, 6/14/18
I’m sure CWS rejoinder is— it well give us more taxpayer money and we will get them nicer apartments. Refugee advocates not happy with Church World Serve and African Services Coalition (Ethiopian Community Development Council) Some of the advocates directed pointed questions, alongside the residents, at the representatives of the two resettlement agencies. Do you belong to one of these churches represented by CWS? If so, ask what is your church getting out of it?
When
I first began writing this blog in July 2007, one of the issues that attracted
my attention was the puzzling decision by the Virginia Council of Churches,
working for major resettlement contractor Church World Service, to place refugees in one of the worst
buildings in the worst section of Hagerstown, MD.
But,
here we are 11 years later and Church World Service has placed Congolese refugees in Greensboro, NC in housing that is managed by a
company that has a record of many years of troubling business practices.
And, I say, this was supposed to be a
public-private partnership, so how about you, CWS, raising private money from
your churches to help these Africans you placed (so that North Carolina
meatpackers could have cheap compliant labor)!
It
all began with that fire that killed five Congolese children. We wrote about it here (fire marshal determined food had been
left on the stove).
But,
that isn’t the end of it as a Congolese refugee, the father of the dead
children, asks (in a heated meeting): “We are refugees from Africa, we want to know if we have rights.”
I know what some of my readers will say to the Africans, but have some
compassion, I’m sure most were never fully informed of what to expect in
America.
CWS
does much of our processing in Africa and they surely painted a rosy welcoming
picture for the Congolese. (In June 2013, the Obama Administration told the UN that we would take 50,000 from the DR Congo over 5 years. They are
still coming!)
From Triad City Beat: Safety concerns persist at complex that houses Congolese refugees. Congolese refugees, resettlement agencies and
the owners of the Heritage Apartments give conflicting accounts of maintenance
efforts in the wake of a deadly fire that took the lives of five children last
month.
Refugee contractors face unhappy
tenants. Representatives
of two agencies that resettle and support refugees in Greensboro had given
lengthy presentations about their menu of services to the group of Congolese
refugees packed into a sweltering community room at Heritage Apartments on a
recent Saturday.
One
of the residents, the father of five children who were killed in a fire last
month at the apartment complex, asked a pointed question.
“We
are refugees from Africa,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “We
want to know if we have rights.”
Many of the residents, who work low-paying and grueling jobs in chicken
plants in Wilkes and Lee counties, complained about going to the hospital for
treatment and coming home with insurmountable hospital bills. Others complained
that their apartments lack air-conditioning units.
How about BIG CHICKEN coming up with money for the hospital bills (and
air conditioners for their workers)!
Earlier
in the meeting, Lynn Thompson, outreach director for the New Arrivals
Institute, ventured an answer to the question about refugees’ rights, alluding
to widespread community concern about the deadly fire and poor conditions at
the apartment complex, which is owned and managed by the Agapion family.
Go
buy your own air conditioners says resettlement agency!
“It’s
really bad for us,” Anzuruni Juma said through a translator. “When we moved in
we didn’t know we only had heating to keep warm in the winter, and nothing to
keep cool in the summer. Sometimes we can’t even sleep and have to go to a
neighbor’s place to cool off.”
Rachel
Lee, a program coordinator for African Services Coalition — one of two resettlement agencies, along with
Church World Services, responsible for placing refugees at Heritage Apartments — suggested the residents go to
Lowes or Walmart to purchase window units for their apartments. The residents said they don’t earn
enough money to be able to afford air-conditioning, prompting some talk that
the refugee agencies might turn to churches for donations.
See Heritage Apartments landlord has history of tenant conflict (2008), and so didn’t CWS or this ECDC
subcontractor know any of this? Do the contractors get some special
benefits from choosing certain landlords?
More here. See other posts on Greensboro, here. So
where are the humanitarian churches willing to help the refugees of
Greensboro (and America!)? Too busy protesting the President to do their Christian duty?
Those small circled signs are CWS signs.
How about if CWS spends less time protesting at the White House with CAIR and
more time taking better care of the refugees they place in your towns and
cities!
African
Methodist Episcopal Church
Armenian Church of
America (including
Diocese of California)
International
Council of Community Churches
Patriarchal
Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A.
Serbian
Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada
Syrian
Orthodox Church of Antioch
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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