Archive for February, 2011
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 28, 2011
According to a U.S. State Department Office of Admissions’ monitoring report recently released Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford is yet another refugee resettlement agency that didn’t bother to meet even the minimum requirements of its refugee contract.
The 2007 inspection report noted the following:
Also see the Operational Guidance contract document which lists minimum requirements that resettlement agencies promise to give refugee clients.
Posted in State Department, USCCB, Operational Guidance, Cooperative Agreement, Illinois, Burma/Myanmar, Burundian, faith-based, Catholic, community/cultural orientation, housing, substandard, Karen, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Chin, housing, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford, Rockford | Tagged: State Department, refugees, USCCB, resettlement, Operational Guidance, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, Cooperative Agreement, refugee resettlement agencies, Burmese refugees, Burundian refugees, Karen refugees, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford, Catholic Charities Rockford, jeanne lindberg, Rockford, substandard housing, Chin refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 27, 2011
The State Department finally released another inspection report of YMCA International Services, a Houston USCRI affiliate, three years after we submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. I blogged about this case last June.
This report is from January 2008 and reports that YMCA International Services was “non-complaint” with most of the terms of its government refugee contract. That’s a nice way to say “contractual fraud” and “neglect and abuse of refugees”.
Here are some of the highlights of the report:
- All refugee homes inspected had significant roach and/or mice infestation.
- Refugees and YMCA expressed concern about safety of refugee apartment complexes. Refugee families at the Glendale Park Apartments complex reported that people were harassing them on their way to the supermarket and their children were getting into fights on the bus (being attacked?).
- YMCA did not give refugees ready-to-eat food upon arrival.
- Records were in complete disarray.
- Home visits to refugees were almost never documented.
- A Cuban refugee couple only had a bed with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The family waited over 45 minutes at the airport for the YMCA case worker to arrive, who did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex. They had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to.use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation.
- Upon arrival YMCA gave an Iraqi refugee couple with a small child only one bed (no bed for the child) with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The YMCA employee who picked them up at the airport did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex as they had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to
use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation. There was no ready-to-eat food upon arrival. The family used money they brought from Iraq to buy food until they received their food stamps. Neighbors told them the apartment complex was “risky” and they wanted to move. The family received an electrical bill that began one month before they arrived, but YMCA told them they must pay it. No one from YMCA visited the family until three months after their arrival, and YMCA did not give them a community orientation so they did not even know how to use the bus system.
- YMCA placed a Burmese refugee family that arrived in December in an apartment that had a large hole in a ground-floor bedroom window, and the management still had not repaired it two weeks later. The bed YMCA gave them was so uncomfortable that they slept on the floor. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English and hand signals. It was two months before someone from YMCA visited them at home.
- YMCA placed a Burundian refugee couple in an apartment complex surrounded by barbed wire. The only furniture upon arrival was four plastic folding chairs and five beds. For their first two months the family ate their meals on the floor. They pulled couches from the trash. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The family needed clothes but YMCA did not offer to help them.
- YMCA caseworkers were enthusiastic! Yipeeee!
- The State Department monitors had to order YMCA to check all fiscal year 2007 refugee cases and compensate refugees for all missing money.
- YMCA fired the Refugee Program Director, Gabriel Gebray, yet allowed the agency’s Executive Director, Jeff Watkins, to keep his job. He apparently got off scott-free.
Here is a question: if an Executive Director of an organization claimed he had no idea how his refugee clients were being neglected, what does that tell you about his performance? Don’t Executive Directors ever look at the records or talk to refugee clients?
I know ignorance is bliss but is it an excuse to not be accountable?
Posted in beds, Burma/Myanmar, Burundian, clothes, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, dangerous neighborhoods, food, furnishings, lack of, home visits, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, Houston, Iraqi, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, meeting refugees at the airport, rats and roaches, safety, State Department, USCRI, YMCA International Services | Tagged: Gabriel Gebray, houston, Jeff Watkins, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI, YMCA International Services | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 26, 2011
Lavia Limon, President and chief executive of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (and former director of the ORR, see revolving door category), claims in a Washington Post Op-ed that the refugee program should not lose any funding in the current proposed budget cuts because:
“The budget cuts proposed in the House would essentially shut down the U.S. Refugee Program…” Read more here
But wouldn’t that only be true if the government was paying almost all the costs of refugee resettlement? We know that the refugee program is supposedly a “public-private partnership” with the private resettlement agencies supposedly contributing “significant” financial resources to the program. But do they?
A Jefferson City KBIA article claims that the federal government provides the Refugee and Immigration Services of the Diocese of Jefferson City with “45 to 50 percent of its budget”. That may or may not be true since the Diocese of Jefferson City, as a religious organization, does not have to release its financial figures via an IRS 990 form. If we take them for their word it means that even if the federal government cut refugee program funding by 100 percent (which is not being proposed, instead only a 10% cut is being proposed) that the Diocese could still resettle 50-55 percent as many refugees as they are currently resettling, using their own resources.
Yet, is it really true that resettlement agencies pay for almost half the cost of refugee resettlement? Religious organizations, such as USCCB (the Diocese of Jefferson City’s national affiliate), CWS, EMM, and World Relief, do not disclose their financing. As for the resettlement agencies that are not technically churches and do disclose their finances, they are heavily reliant on government funding.
Last year when we sent our recommendations to President Obama’s National Security Council’s Refugee Reform Task Force we analyzed LIRS’ finances [look under D) The supposed real costs of R&P, including private costs, supplied by the resettlement agencies via the LIRS’ cost-analysis report do not add up.]
LIRS’ 2008 annual report shows that they received 92% of their funding from the U.S. government. When we looked at the 990 forms of the twelve LIRS affiliates that participated in the cost analysis study we noticed that three of these agencies depended on government contracts and grants for nearly 95% of their revenue – Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, Lutheran Services of Georgia, and Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees. Government funding accounted for 67%-81% of the funding for seven other affiliates that took part in the study. For two other affiliates there was insufficient data to draw any conclusion at all.
Posted in funding, LIRS, revolving door, USCRI | Tagged: funding, Lavia Limon, LIRS, Lutheran immigration and refugee services, National Security Council, NSC, Refugee Reform Task Force, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 24, 2011
We recently received a new batch of State Department refugee resettlement agency monitoring reports. According to a 2007 monitoring report monitors found that Catholic Community Services Seattle (CCS) was only in “partial compliance” with it’s resettlement contract. Problems included the following:
- A Burmese refugee family of five lived in a two-bedroom apartment with their 19-year-old niece. The sleeping space did not seem adequate for this family, and two children did not have beds (note: the Operational Guidance contract document requires that agencies make sure housing has an appropriate number of bedrooms/sleeping areas and beds for refugee families). The 19-year-old and two children slept in one room with a six-year-old sleeping on the floor. The husband, wife, and a three-year-old child slept in another room, with the three-year old on the floor. The family said that they would like beds for the children, but there was not enough floor space. None of the beds had bed frames, as required. The family told monitors that car seats were not used for the children when the agency picked them up at the airport.
- A single Burmese male refugee lived with four roommates in a two-bedroom apartment. He expressed concern that no one had talked to him about a job or about his finances. He walked one hour to class and back and said he was not shown how to take public transportation. He slept in a room with two others. He did not have a bed frame and he stored his clothing on his mattress and in a plastic basket on the floor.
- A Burundian refugee family of six was living with a grown daughter in a two-bedroom apartment. There did not seem to be an appropriate number of bedrooms for the family. In one bedroom, a 19-year-old daughter, a four-year-old granddaughter, a seven-year-old son, and another grown daughter slept in three beds that they pushed together forming one bed due to lack of floor space. The husband, wife, and 11-year-old child slept in the second bedroom. The family also said that they needed cold-weather clothing for the children.
- A Somali refugee mother with two minor children said that CCS did not give her much help, especially when she requested transportation help for health appointments for her children.
- Case notes were so poor that monitors could not determine whether CCS had given refugees required services and/or material items.
If any of these issues seems small or petty, they are not. The State Department only requires refugee resettlement agencies to give refugees certain minimum-required services and material items, which are quite minimal (check out Operational Guidance). To not even meet these minimum requirements is 1) contract fraud, and 2) unethical (especially for a so-called faith-based agency, and 3) just wrong to do to these refugee people who have suffered so much already and need a few basic items and services to try to start a new life in America. Secondly, the taxpayers should be getting what they’re paying for.
Posted in State Department, Operational Guidance, Burma/Myanmar, Somali, Burundian, faith-based, Catholic, beds, transportation, community/cultural orientation, housing, overcrowding, clothes, furnishings, lack of, children, Seattle, Catholic Community Services Seattle | Tagged: Burmese refugees, Burundian refugees, Catholic Community Services, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, seattle, Somali refugees, State Department, us catholic conference of bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 23, 2011
An article in the Palm Beach Post chronicles the state of refugee resettlement in Palm Beach County, Florida. A director at the Youth Co-op Inc. refugee resettlement agency claims that although the area has no low-income housing for people who are not yet legal residents, that the government has decided to place Iraqi refugees here as part of trying to disperse them around the country.
…With the U.S. troop reduction making life in Iraq more dangerous for people like Al-Fatlawy, the U.S. government is allowing those who supported its cause to migrate. And the South Florida branch of the nonprofit Youth Co-op Inc. has worked with the government and two international groups to bring the refugees to Florida.
One would think that Al-Fatlawy would feel safer here than in Iraq. But although no one is trying to kill him, he and some other Iraqis here say they feel anything but secure…
…”A lot of the time we wonder why they sent us here to Florida,” said Usama Redha, 37, a journalist who worked for U.S. publications and also said his life was threatened. “There are few jobs and there is no Iraqi community here. It has been very difficult for us. Maybe they should have sent us to a different place.”…
…”Things are tough right now even for native-born Americans,” said Sharol Lewin, refugee-programs director for Youth Co-op, which started decades ago as a youth organization but now works with political refugees of all ages. “But it isn’t any worse here than in other parts of the country.”
As for the lack of other Iraqis in Palm Beach County, she doesn’t disagree. The largest Iraqi communities in the U.S. are in Michigan, Chicago and the San Diego area, with Atlanta, Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth building sizable populations.
“But the government wants the Iraqis to settle in all different parts of the country just as immigrant groups in the past did,” Lewin said…
…Lewin said her organization can help with emergency food and clothing needs, but there is no low-cost housing for people who are not yet legal residents. The Iraqis were warned that they would have to take care of themselves, she said… Read more here
I guess I’m not necessarily buying that “the government” is to blame here – the government being the State Department’s Office of Admissions. Perhaps its true that the government agency wants to spread the refugees out, but its the resettlement agencies that decide where they want to resettle refugees in the U.S., along with a rational plan for that resettlement. The national refugee resettlement agencies have to make a proposal each year to the Office of Admissions. So why did the Youth Co-op, Inc. and its national affiliate, the USCRI, decide that Palm Beach County, with no low-income housing for residents who are not yet legal residents, was a rational resettlement site? Why did the Office of Admissions then okay that?
Posted in Florida, Iraqi, Palm Beach County, State Department, USCRI, Youth Co-op, Inc. | Tagged: Iraqi refugees, LAKE WORTH, low-income housing, Palm Beach County, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI, West Palm Beach | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 22, 2011
A bill in the Tennessee legislature would mandate, via state law, that refugee resettlement agencies consult with local communities. The Shelbyville Times-Gazette has an article explaining the proposed legislation:
…Refugee bill
SB1670 is another bill [State Sen. Jim] Tracy filed with Bedford County in mind. The proposed legislation would codify federal regulations to ensure that local communities would be able to absorb refugees.
The bill would make sure that a town’s “absorptive capacity” would be evaluated at regular intervals in consultation between the local governments and the resettlement agencies before commitments are made for refugee resettlement….
…Tracy said that there has been “a lot of discussion across the state about this, particularly in Bedford County … but other counties also.” The proposed bill would require resettlement agencies to let local governments know when a large number of refugees are coming “because it puts a burden on the local community.”
The bill would require the charitable organizations that sponsor the refugees to let the state know when refugees are coming, how many, “what they’re (the agencies) getting paid and where the money is going.”
In 2008, the state withdrew from administering refugee services, but appointed Catholic Charities as the fiduciary agency for the state’s refugee programs.
The Tennessee Office for Refugees, a department of Catholic Charities, would be required to meet four times a year with local governments representatives to plan and coordinate the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of their arrival…
…The state refugee office would also be required to accept applications from a local government for a moratorium on new resettlement if the host community “lacks sufficient absorptive capacity,” the bill reads.
If a determination is made that further resettlement in the host community “would result in an adverse impact to existing residents,” then the Tennessee Office for Refugees would suspend additional resettlement until it is jointly determined by local officials and the state refugee coordinator that there is an “absorptive capacity.”
The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Ken Yager and Rusty Crowe, with the House version of the bill introduced by Rep. Bill Dunn of the 16th District… Read more here
Currently, state refugee coordinators are required, via ORR regulations, to convene quarterly meetings each year whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the proper placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival.
In addition, according to the U.S. State Department’s Cooperative Agreement contract with refugee resettlement agencies ”the number of refugees assigned to an approved applicant will be determined by the [State Department], in accordance with the needs of the Admissions Program, taking into account… placement recommendations of state and local officials…” (see V. Refugee Caseload Assignment).
Apparently, federal regulations mean little when not enforced, thus requiring local codification. Let’s see where this goes.
Posted in Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Cooperative Agreement, local officials, failure to notify, ORR, reform, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: catholic charities, Cooperative Agreement, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, Sen. Jim Tracy, State Department, Tennessee, Tennessee Office for Refugees, TN | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 21, 2011
The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC) opened a beautiful, and quite expensive, new community center last year (this sat in my files and I just got to it). Efforts to raise $3 million for the project began in the middle of the recession in 2008, according to an article in the Ethiopian Review. Perkins and Will, the architects that designed the renovation, have information on what went into the project.
…we teamed with the ECAC to develop the organizational and design intent of the renovated facility. The design creates a facility that supports ECAC’s mission & highlights the presence of the ECAC to the broader community of Chicago through architecture, cultural & environmental branding and the interior design. The completed facility incorporates up-to-date systems including mechanical, plumbing and electrical; repairs to the exterior cladding; spacial organization; finishes & furnishings and new signage. here
Of course one wonders why they raised $3 million for this capital investment/improvements project when the agency fails to give minimum required items and services to their refugee clients, as we detailed last April.
A 2007 State Department inspection report also noted the following:
- The agency placed an Eritrean refugee family of four in a studio (one room plus bathroom) apartment, thus violating occupancy code, which only allows 3 people per room. The apartment also lacked a functional light/lamp in the main room. The family expressed uncertainty over utilities, lease, operation of the smoke detector, and their ability to pay rent and expenses.
- The agency had not made a home visit to an Iraqi refugee family of five that arrived five months ago, though the government contract requires at least one visit within 30 days of refugee clients’ arrival.
- The agency put a Pakistani refugee couple in a studio apartment furnished upon their arrival with a bed only. The main room had no lamp or light as required.
- In two cases, the case notes ended abruptly about seven weeks after the cases’ arrival.
Something tells me we need to start a new category entitled “Lavish New Offices While Refugees Go without.”
Posted in Chicago, clothes, Eritrean, Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, Iraqi, lavish new offices, neglect, Pakistani | Tagged: ECAC, Eritrean refugee, Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Iraqi refugees, Pakistani refugees, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 20, 2011
Jewish Family Service of Seattle is conducting a lavish new expansion project while seeming to have little money for basic services for refugees. According to CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog the $3.6m project is actually a downsized version of what the organization originally planned for.
Following key approvals of permits by the city last week, East Madison is about to see the start of its third major active construction project. An important provider of social services throughout the region, Capitol Hill’s Jewish Family Service this month start work on a $3.6 million project to build a 19,000 square foot expansion on the parking lot adjacent to their current offices at 1601 16th Ave… Read more here
Yet, according to the most recently available State Department monitoring/inspection report for Jewish Family Service of Seattle the agency did not give refugees the minimum-required services required by a State Department contract. The agency did not bother to visit many of the refugee clients at home, even though they are only required to visit one time within 30 days of the refugees’ arrival. Monitors found one refugee man sleeping on the floor of a living room because the agency had not provided a bed. The agency claimed the refugee’s brother said he had an extra bed for the refugee, but since they had not visited the refugee they did not realize that this was not the case. The same refugee also said the agency never gave him an orientation and that they did not have anyone on staff who spoke his language, Farsi. He also said that he had a kidney stone but was not receiving adequate services, partly because each time he went to the hospital he saw someone different. Apparently Jewish Family Service of Seattle was not monitoring his case adequately.
Monitors also noticed that the agency had one of the lowest employment rates for refugees in the country. It also became clear during the monitoring review that more than half of the cases had not received a home visit, although many of the files contained a cursory home visit form that thay had completed only a week or two before the visit, despite the fact that many of the refugees had arrived four to five months earlier. Monitors later learned that they had completed these ”home visit” forms not during a home visit but during a phone conversation with the refugee.
Posted in State Department, faith-based, beds, Jewish, furnishings, lack of, employment/jobs for refugees, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Seattle, Iranian, Jewish Family Service of Seattle, home visits, lavish new offices | Tagged: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, Jewish Family Service of Seattle, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 15, 2011
Today the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Allegany County has declared that a plant in Pittsburgh that employs refugees is essentially a “sweatshop”. The plant “partners” with Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh and Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh to employ refugees at wages lower than the industry standard. Local unions also claim that the plant is unsafe.
Allegheny County Council tonight declared a Rankin steel plant a sweatshop, the first time it’s taken such action.
W&K Steel LLC and its customers will not be able to work on any county projects. Council members voted to bar them from future bids after hearing from several labor groups who allege low pay and unsafe working conditions at the plant... Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Catholic, Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, employment services, employment/jobs for refugees, faith-based, Jewish, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Jewish Family and Children's Services | Tagged: Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, sweatshop, underpaid, unsafe working conditions, W&K Steel | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 14, 2011
ORR director -- Eskinder Negash
Last March I blogged about the issue of World Relief Seattle refusing to hire a Muslim man who volunteered with them as an interpreter because he “might not feel comfortable while they prayed at staff meetings.” But regulations supposedly prohibit using government funding for any form of worship (praying at staff meetings in a public program resettling refugees). Oops.
I wrote to the Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Ken Tota (ORR director Eskinder Negash’s second in command) last April and asked them to look into World Relief and Catholic Charities’ announcements that they would be discriminating in hiring based on religious affiliation.
After waiting two months and getting no response I wrote to Mr. Tota again on June 10, 2010 and asked for an update. Mr. Tota finally responded on June 22, 2010 and wrote that the ORR would be conducting an investigation (now more than two months after my complaint) and that I “should not hesitate to contact [him] should [I] have questions or follow-up concerns in this regard.”
Then, four more months went by with no response from Mr. Tota or anyone else at the ORR, so, once again, I wrote to Mr. Tota on October 19, 2010 asking for an update. Mr. Tota wrote back on November 2, 2010 and claimed that his agency needed at least two more months to close its “investigation”, and said that he would send me the conclusions by late December. December came and went.
On January 20, 2011 I wrote to Mr. Tota yet again to find out what was happening. No response. On February 8, 2011 – almost one year after my original complaint – I wrote again to Mr. Tota to ask what was happening. Again, he has not responded.
This Hosni Mubarak Egyptian-regime-style of responsiveness, accountability and transparency shows me that the ORR does not take its responsibilities seriously, and apparently views the public, whom they supposedly serve, as nothing more than an irritant. Of course, this is an agency that has also refused to release to the Congress their annual reports for 2008, 2009 and 2010, even though the law requires it.
It’s clear that laws and regulations don’t seem to matter much to these federal agencies or these public servants. How do we explain to refugees that their new country of residence has government agencies as non-accountable to the people as the governments they have escaped from?
Posted in Annual Report to Congress, Catholic, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, funding, Islamic, openess and transparency in government, ORR, religion, Seattle, World Relief | Tagged: Administration for Children and Families, catholic charities, discriminating in hiring based on religious affiliation, Eskinder Negash, HHS, Ken Tota, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, religious discrimination, seattle, separation of church and state, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, World Relief | 7 Comments »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
According to a U.S. State Department Office of Admissions’ monitoring report recently released Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford is yet another refugee resettlement agency that didn’t bother to meet even the minimum requirements of its refugee contract.
