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On day of travel to US Iraqi refugee family told to sign for a $4,500 travel loan

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 10, 2012

An Iraqi refugee family now living in Idaho says that they were told, on the day before travel to the US for resettlement, that they should come in to “sign” for tickets. At the signing they claim they were then told to sign for a $4,500 travel loan. I wrote to the State Department about my concerns about the refugee Travel Loan Program program in 2005, but the agency’s refugee office did not make any major changes until now. In March the State Department announced that it was planning significant changes to the refugee program beginning in October (the beginning of the next fiscal year). A State Department spokeswoman says monthly loan payments will be capped according to income, loan agreements will be translated into nearly a dozen languages, and there will be a new informational website explaining the travel loan program. An article at StateImpact explains:

…[Qusay Alani] says he left Iraq after he was jailed for refusing to join Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. In Jordan, he says, he lived like a fugitive. As more and more Iraqis fled there, they were less and less welcome. Alani began the process of applying for refugee status. He didn’t aim to come to the U.S. He and his family simply needed to go somewhere. “Any country, I go to,” he says. “The only thing is just to protect my family. Because, you know, if I go back to Iraq I might get killed, you know. So – do my family.”

In 2009, after years of waiting, Alani and his family learned they were bound for the United States. This is where the travel loan comes in.

“They gave us like a month prior,” Alani explains.  “They told us – in a month ahead, you’re going to travel.  Then a day before, they told us to come and sign for your tickets.”

Alani says that’s when he found out he would have to sign a loan for more than $4,500…

…there is an effort underway to make changes, says Deborah Sisbarro, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

“We are, in fact, in the process of making improvements in the way the travel loan program works, yes,” she says.

Sisbarro says there will be a new informational website explaining the travel loan program. She says monthly loan payments will be capped according to income, and loan agreements will be translated into nearly a dozen languages. She says the changes should be in place by next year…

…In reporting this story, StateImpact requested interviews with current and former State Department officials and the official who oversees the travel loan program.  None was available for an interview… Read more here

In the article the IRC’s Jim Carey complains about the travel loan program, yet his organization offers no private partner solution to the problem. Couldn’t the nine national resettlement agencies offer to set up a private endowment to help the refugees with part of the cost of travel?

Posted in Idaho, Iraqi, Travel Loan Program | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Boise mayor’s office and local businesses team up to help refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 4, 2012

The City of Boise has established a plan, known as the Refugee Resource Strategic Community Plan, to help refugees moving into the city in six areas of need – education, employment, health, housing, social integration and transportation. The city works with local businesses and agencies to help refugees with job training, learning English, finding housing, and made city transportation easier to use and help find better ways to connect people to city resources. Currently, more than 100 local businesses and agencies have joined in to help. An article and video report at Boise’s KTVB has more:

BOISE– Community leaders are the people who can make a town feel like a home. That is why in Boise, community partnerships are key to welcoming the refugee population.

Three years ago, the city started working on the Refugee Resource Strategic Community Plan.  Local businesses and the mayor’s office teamed up to help refugees moving into Boise.

Theresa McLeod with the Mayor’s office says Boise’s plan is getting national attention.  Last week, she presented the plan at the Episcopal Migration Ministry conference and says other communities are looking into creating similar programs.

“I think that spirit of collaboration we take for granted in Boise,” said Theresa McLeod, with Mayor David Bieter’s office.

The Refugee Resource Community Plan has formed partnerships in six different areas, education, employment, health, housing, social integration and transportation.

Boise and the Idaho Refugee Center decided those are the most important areas to focus on to help refugees become part of our community… Read more here

Posted in Boise, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, housing, language | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugees Who Were Professionals In Their Home Countries Find Assistance In Idaho

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 25, 2012

Refugees who were professionals in their home countries often have difficulty reentering their professions once resettled to the US. With the US refugee resettlement program’s emphasis on early economic self-sufficiency and little help with helping refugees to recertify their professional credentials once here, many refugees have had to leave their careers behind. Now, the state of Idaho is taking steps to help make sure that these people’s experience and abilities are not wasted, and is instead used to help American society. An article in the Idaho Statesman has the story:

…[Idaho] has a system in place through which teachers educated in foreign universities can get Idaho credentials. Tara Wolfson, regional employment coordinator for the Idaho Office for Refugees, knows of one person who has done so. The process can be daunting.

There can be language barriers. Even for refugee teachers who are fluent in English, getting official transcripts from their home universities can take a long time — if it’s even possible.

Wolfson recently helped a man from Sudan send for his transcripts from the Egyptian university where he’d studied. From start to finish, the process took more than a year and a half.

Sometimes, former teachers have to return to school because the state of Idaho requires specific classes. That can be time-consuming and expensive.

TRANSPLANTING PROFESSIONS

The Idaho Office for Refugees has a new program to help educators keep a foothold in their profession as they work toward recertification, by becoming preschool teachers and child-care workers.

The program guides refugees through the process of getting their Boise child-care worker licenses, as well as pediatric first aid and CPR instruction through Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. It helps connect them with Idaho Stars, a statewide child-care referral system.

In the past year, the refugee office has helped 13 refugees get their licenses and first aid training. Most have found jobs in child-care centers and preschools, said Wolfson.

Jog Bhattarai, a Bhutanese refugee who taught for many years in a Nepalese refugee camp before coming to Idaho, started a new job at a Boise child-care center last week. She credits a network of people who helped her, including the Idaho Office for Refugees, and the Idaho Department of Labor, whose staffers helped her polish her resume… Read more here

Posted in employment/jobs for refugees, Idaho, Nepali Bhutanese, professionals | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Travel Loan Practices Damaging Refugees’ Credit Ratings

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 17, 2012

There have long been some unsettling practices in the refugee travel loan segment of the US refugee resettlement program. This is yet another aspect of the program that never seems to be covered by the mainstream media, which seems to rely almost entirely on refugee resettlement agencies’ press releases for their coverage of the program.

For those who are unfamiliar, the US federal government covers refugee travel costs to the US via the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – the principal intergovernmental migration organization. As a condition of travel the IOM requires that refugees, before they depart to the US, sign promissory notes to repay the costs of travel via interest-free loans. The IOM, however, has not translated promissory notes in other languages, calling into question whether refugees understand what they are signing. In addition, refugee resettlement agencies earn a 25 percent commission for acting as collection agencies for the travel loans. Agencies have regularly failed to notify refugees of their right to a deferral and/or a write off – in the event of financial hardship – and fail among the various agencies to treat refugees the same. In aprtnership with the IOM they also fail to translate the bills that they send to the refugees.

Furthermore, and more astonishingly, the agencies often fail to take the most minimal steps to work with refugees to help them repay their loans, instead threatening the refugees with draconian measures for failure to comply with promissory note terms, For example the San Diego IRC office warns refugees, “failing to comply with the established payment schedule and terms will result in legal action to collect the amount past due and payable.” Its hard to understand how any of these practices comply with these organizations’ missions as humanitarian entities.

I wrote to the State Department’s refugee office about some of these practices in a series of letters back in 2005, but the office apparently did not take any constructive steps to resolve the problems (when the official I wrote to retired, however, she referred to her office’s “party-hard” habits, including various theatrical productions). In years past I also spoke with an IOM official and he laughed at me for supposedly trying to “make a cause” out of these questionable practices. Now, in a recent comment to our website attorney Zoe Ann Olson at Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. tells (see below) about her efforts to assist refugees in Idaho whom resettlement agencies damaged their credit by reporting them to Trans-Union. She’s looking for anyone who has successfully challenged the legality of these loans.

I had a telephone meeting with IOM Head of Office, Brian Graham. IOM is addressing all of Idaho Legal Aid’s travel loan cases directly with me. We found that the agencies were not offering refugees options such as deferrals and or write off of their travel loans and were not treating refugees the same among agencies.

IOM is creating a website with information about the travel loans and eligibility criteria for deferrals and write offs. I told him that I want standard guidance and all agencies must tell refugees the rules from the beginning before they sign a promissory note.

IOM will write off the travel loans with documentation for death, repatriation, bankruptcy, permanent disability (with a Dr’s letter saying the refugee is disabled and can’t work), minor orphans. Case-by-case for incarceration, victims of violence, domestic violence victims and documented financial hardship.

Received deferrals for temporary disabilities and documented under or unemployed.

IOM is going to correct the credit report of all of my clients that were reported to TransUnion for defaulting on their loans because the agencies did not notify them of their right to a deferral and or write off and thus should never have been reported. The issue of damaged credit is still outstanding.

I explained to them that families need to be able to make their own travel arrangements especially if it is cheaper, and translate promissory notes in other languages and the bills too.

They are going to provide better orientation on the travel loan in the refugee country and here with Title VI compliant services.

They are going to redo their computer system to better monitor travel loan collection practices.

I would like to know if anyone has successfully challenged the legality of said loan. The promissory notes are governed by DC law. To collect a debt in Idaho once in default, an entity has to show the person owes the debt and that the collector (IOM) has registered in the State of Idaho to collect a debt. Our clients’ loans have been deferred or written off. Now I am working on the deferrals—hoping to get more write offs and or reduced payments for disputed loans and or hardship. On April 19 and 20, I will provide a fair housing and travel loan clinics in Boise and Twin Falls.

Thank you,

Zoe Ann Olson
Attorney at Law
Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc.

1-(208)-345-0106, extension 1508
Facsimile 1-(208)-342-2561
310 North 5th Street
Boise, Idaho 83702
zoeannolson [at] idaholegalaid [dot] org

Posted in funding, Idaho, IRC, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Office of Admissions, transportation, Travel Loan Program | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

In Boise 400 Refugee Women Lose Breast Cancer Screenings

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 1, 2012

"An investigation..."

***UPDATE*** February 3, 2012 — Washington Post announces that Komen Foundation ambiguously reverses its decision, here.

Due to a new Susan B. Komen for the Cure (the pink ribbon group) policy to halt funding for any group “under investigation by federal, state or local authorities”, 400 refugee women in Boise will now no longer receive critical annual breast cancer screenings, unless new funding is found. Planned Parenthood was receiving funds, now cut, from the Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation for 170,000 clinical breast exams nationwide over the past five years) US House of Representatives right-wing Republicans recently began a politically motivated “investigation” of Planned Parenthood’s so-called use of public funds for abortion. This policy now needlessly pits two leading women’s health groups against each other by rewarding a congressman for merely starting an investigation – no matter the facts in the case, or if there is even any basis for the investigation (that’s like rewarding malicious gossiping and rumor mongering or being found guilty simply for being accused of something). No doubt this unwise Komen policy will affect many more refugee women than the 400 in Boise. An article at Crosscut explains:

Because a Florida congressman demands an investigation of abortion spending, some 400 women in rural areas of Clallam County in Washington face the loss of breast cancer screening. So do another 400 in the Boise, Idaho, area, but they face a worse dilemma: They’re refugee women from Africa and Asia, relocated to Idaho through the International Rescue Committee, and most lack the language skills to look for mammogram providers and other breast cancer support on their own.

For years, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest has used funds from the huge Susan B. Komen for the Cure Foundation to provide cancer screening treatments to women in Clallam County and in the Boise/Twin Falls area, administered by Planned Parenthood’s Puget Sound affiliate in Seattle. But as of this week, under congressional pressure over Planned Parenthood’s abortion assistance, the Komen Foundation has ended its contributions to Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening programs. Nineteen of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates will be affected by the cut, including the two in Idaho and Clallam County. The organization says Komen funds have provided 170,000 clinical breast exams nationwide.

 “Komen got bullied by anti-choice politicians,” says Kristin Tlundberg of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, which supports clinics in Washington, Idaho and Alaska, from its office in Seattle. “It’s a shame these two incredibly strong women’s organizations, both working to prevent cancer, have been forced into opposing positions by anti-choice forces determined to harm Planned Parenthood.”… Read more here

Posted in Boise, Congress, funding, health, right-wing, women | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Only 55% of Idaho’s Employable Refugees Found Work In 2009

Posted by Christopher Coen on January 27, 2012

Many refugee resettlement agencies nationwide have resorted to assisting in sending refugees off to distant locations, including to other states, to find employment with meatpacking companies, dairies, etc. The employment rate for Idaho’s employable refugees dropped to only 55 percent in 2009. Jan Reeves, who heads the Idaho Office for Refugees, says his office looked farther afield to find jobs for refugees. (Of course finding far-flung jobs, such as at a dairy in Boardman, Ore., do not come without risks. A refugee died in an auto-accident trying to drive to Boardman in 2010.) As a result, apparently, the employment rate has moved back up to more than 70 percent. An article in Idaho’s State Impact has more:

In the last few years, more than four thousand refugees have found their way to Idaho.  They’ve come from Africa, and from East and South Asia. Most came to Boise.  For years, the city’s strong economy, good quality affordable housing and supportive community created an especially favorable environment for refugee resettlement.  Now, the recession has shifted that picture.

Most days, Nowela Virginie and her two young daughters are here, in her small apartment just off a busy thoroughfare on the outskirts of Boise.

Virginie is 23, and she arrived in Boise three years ago. She was born in Rwanda, but spent sixteen years of her life in a refugee camp in Tanzania…

…“You know, new country is supposed to be hard,” she says. “New language, everything is new…if you don’t speak any English, is so hard – really hard.”…

…Marcia Munden is a social worker with Catholic Charities of Idaho. She says Virginie is one of many refugees living in Boise who have found themselves stuck. “Three years ago we were just seeing a few extreme cases of refugees that had consistent difficulty with integration,” she says. “And then it really happened very suddenly where there were 50, 60, 100 families really struggling.”…

…The recession has complicated the hard task of refugee resettlement nationwide. But the shift is especially stark in Boise…

…Now, Boise is one of the places where the IRC has reduced the number of refugees it aims to resettle each year, cutting back by about a third. In addition, they and other local agencies that help refugees find work have adopted new strategies. Jan Reeves heads the Idaho Office for Refugees.  “We’ve looked at other ways of opening doors that we’ve never had to look at before,” he says. 

For example, Reeves says, they’ve looked farther afield, finding jobs for a number of refugees at a dairy in Boardman, Ore. The efforts appear to be paying off. Before the recession, in 2005, 95 percent of the office’s employable caseload found work. That dropped to 55 percent in 2009. It has since gone back up to more than 70 percent… Read more here

By the way, Jan Reeves is another person that came into government via the revolving door. Previously, he was the Director of the Mountain States Refugee Resettlement Program, and then Director of that agency’s Refugee Center.

Posted in IRC, Rwandan, Idaho, meatpacking industry, employment/jobs for refugees, safety, economic self-sufficiency, revolving door | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugees struggle to find jobs in Twin Falls

Posted by Christopher Coen on August 14, 2011

Some refugees in Twins Falls, Idaho claim that College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center (CSI) is slow in helping them to find jobs. There’s also the issue of CSI placing refugees with professional credentials in manual labor jobs, according to an article in the Times-News:

Every day, while his nephews watch television and niece chats with friends online, Prithi Rai scours the classifieds.

He and his brother, Man Bahadur Rai, started looking for jobs shortly after arriving in Twin Falls from a Nepali refugee camp on May 5. Though they speak English fluently, they are having a hard time finding positions that don’t require prior experience, education or special certifications.

Man and Prithi have been on only two interviews each, both set up by the College of SouthernIdaho Refugee Center. They want more.

“We’re very concerned about jobs,”Man said…

…Though many Americans are struggling to find jobs, Ron Black, director of the CSI Refugee Center, said positions paying $7.25 to $8.25 are available here. “It’s just, are you willing to work to get the job?”…

…For many refugees from various countries, following etiquette and rules can be difficult, too. Some show up to interviews in inappropriate clothes like flip-flops, despite the refugee center’s coaching. Others clam up during interviews, even if they know English, Black said.

Once they are placed, “the biggest problem we’re having is a lot of them are not sticking with the job,”he said. Some quit after a short time because they don’t like the hours or assigned tasks. The problem is especially acute with refugees who have higher educations and have never done manual labor.

In addition to the refugee center job coordinators setting up job interviews, they also encourage refugees to look for jobs themselves.

Prithi and Man have tried, but “we do not have the knowledge of where the job openings are,”Prithi said. Man was so desperate to get a job that he put in an application at a company in Idaho Falls without realizing how far the commute would be.

The two interviews set up by the refugee center “is not enough for us,”Prithi said. He wonders: Why couldn’t the center send him on 10 or 20 interviews?… Read more here

Posted in CSI Refugee Center (Idaho), employment services, employment/jobs for refugees, Nepali Bhutanese, professionals, Twin Falls | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugee resettlement partners continue talking past each other

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 14, 2011

An article in the Twin Falls Times-News illustrates poor communication between refugee resettlement partners, with the refugee resettlement agency College of Southern Idaho claiming that they need $40,000 more in their budget from the Idaho Office for Refugees — for ESL and a driving program for refugees — while the Idaho Office for Refugees says this is the first they’ve about it. It seems that the federal refugee oversight agency, ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) in HHS, finally began requiring that ORR Wilson-Fish grant money, channeled through state governments, be earmarked for specific programs (before, loose requirements meant that resettlement agency contractors could easily shift money around with little real oversight). Due to apparent poor communication between partners, however, the College of Southern Idaho now has $40,000 earmarked for refugee employment assistance (help finding jobs) that the refugees instead need for services to help them to keep jobs — English lessons and driving instruction.

In an effort to curb overspending, the College of Southern Idaho’s refugee center has suspended its driver’s education program and temporarily cut back on English classes and transportation.

They’re not budget cuts, emphasized director Ron Black. Rather, the center is rolling back programs until it gets its spending under control. Black hopes to bring them back by July.

The refugee center gets its funding from multiple federal grants. One of them, the Wilson-Fish, provides money for eight months after refugees’ initial resettlement. The CSI refugee center receives $424,000 annually from that grant.

Previously, that money came in one sum, said Jan Reeves, director of the Boise-based Idaho Office for Refugees, allowing centers to spend it on their needs. But in 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement announced new rules to Wilson-Fish funding, stipulating the money must be appropriated into contracts, or specific funds.

One of the contracts from the Idaho Office for Refugees was $40,000 for services that extend beyond the eight months that most refugees receive assistance. Refugees might need that extra help if they still haven’t found jobs, Black explained.

In Boise, where more refugees struggle to find work, that extra help is needed, Black said. But in Twin Falls, where most refugees who arrive in Twin Falls find work quickly, that money could better be used for other programs, like English classes or driver’s training.

“We have jobs, but we have to prepare our people to compete for them,” Black said.

Since the refugee driving course’s inception last year in Twin Falls, more than 100 refugees have received driver’s licenses, according to Black — more than organizers had anticipated. Between having that $40,000 from the Wilson-Fish grant earmarked and spending more than it expected on driver’s education, the refugee center has overspent by $20,000. To correct those costs, the center has reduced English-language classroom time from three to two hours daily and suspended driver’s education. Staff members are also asking refugees to carpool or find other rides to work instead of relying on the center for transportation.

Black wants to reinstate the programs as soon as possible.

“So that’s why we’re saying to Boise we need that $40,000 in our regular budget,” he said.

But Reeves said in an April 22 interview that he hadn’t heard from Twin Falls about the budget problems.

“If that were the case, I would certainly be receptive to some proposals for revision,” Reeves said. “But I have not received any from the CSI program.”… Read more here

Posted in Burma/Myanmar, employment/jobs for refugees, funding, Idaho, Nepali Bhutanese, ORR, Twin Falls | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Boise resettlement agencies accused of violating the Fair Housing Act

Posted by Christopher Coen on September 6, 2010

A fair housing council in Boise is accusing local refugee resettlement agencies (Agency for New Americans, International Rescue Committee and World Relief) of violating the Fair Housing Act by placing large numbers of refugees in certain housing complexes, isolated from the general community – i.e. de facto segregation.

According to an article in the Idaho Statesman a Boise Bench Apartments manager didn’t know how to respond to an African tribal chieftain refugee who thought that, since most residents were members of his tribe, that he could govern the apartment complex according to tribal law.

…That was about five years ago, and it was a red flag for Richard Mabbutt, head of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council.

It was evidence to him that Boise’s three refugee resettlement agencies – Agency for New Americans, International Rescue Committee and World Relief – were settling too many refugees from similar backgrounds too close together. What’s more, said Mabbutt, agencies were not giving newly arrived refugees a choice about where to live.

Mabbutt says this amounts to segregation, and it violates the Fair Housing Act. The act, established in the 1960s, protects all people – citizens, non-citizens, or those, like refugees, in the process of becoming citizens – who live in the United States.

Mabbutt and the Fair Housing Council have written a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accusing Boise’s three resettlement agencies of housing discrimination.

“What happens when you segregate people? You get a ‘little Bantu village,’” said Mabbutt, referring to African refugees who represent a quarter of the 760 refugees who came to Boise in the past year.

“How will a refugee get a tip on a good job – or even a minimum wage job in a hotel Downtown – when they only live around unemployed people from the same country?” he asked.

Agencies counter that they’re working with a limited number of housing options, and that settling people with others from similar backgrounds isn’t segregation at all. It’s short-term, transitional housing that creates a sense of security and familiarity for people in strange surroundings…

…Mabbutt said he has no quarrel with people living together as long as it’s by choice “and not by manipulation at the front end,” he said.

Ideally, Moore said, she would give newly arrived refugees a selection of housing choices. But housing new arrivals in hotels or other lodgings while staffers and refugees search for an ideal housing scenario would waste limited money available to refugees.

The State Department, she added, says agencies must house refugees immediately…

…Boise’s three resettlement agencies currently place refugee families in 25 different apartment complexes, said Moore…

…Finding housing is a challenge. Newly arrived refugees don’t have cars. They need to live near stores, schools and city bus lines, Moore said. Not every reasonably priced apartment fits the bill. And some local landlords won’t rent to refugees…

…Refugees in search of housing may also be out of luck if apartment complexes require certain things from potential tenants.

“Refugees often don’t have credit and two years of rental history to show a landlord,” [an apartment manager] said…

…HUD will have to decide whether Mabbutt and the Intermountain Fair Housing Council have a case. Officials say they are still reviewing Mabbutt’s allegations…

If HUD determines a complaint against the three Idaho agencies is warranted, the next step is conciliation.

The Intermountain Fair Housing Council and the three agencies will have to come up with solutions to expand housing options for refugees… here

I’m not sure what to think about this issue. (By the way, Larry Jones from World Relief would not comment for this story). There’s no doubt that finding suitable housing for arriving refugees is not as easy as it is to find housing for American clients. It’s true that they don’t have credit and rental history. On the other hand they don’t have bad credit or a bad rental history such as an eviction either. They are essentially an unknown to an apartment owner/apartment management company. It’s a matter of market forces – supply and demand. Do local apartment owners need or want new tenants, or not?

What I do notice from reading through all the State Department refugee resettlement inspection reports is that when resettlement agencies use huge apartment complexes problems often result. Some of these huge complexes are in need of large numbers of new tenants because of poor reputations. Locals don’t want to live there for a a variety of reasons, e.g. code violations, poor upkeep and maintenance, crime in the area, etc. 

The article then goes on to describe specific problems with the Boise resettlement agencies placing refugee clients with disabilities in apartments that do not adequately accommodate them, e.g. a refugee who uses a walker placed in an apartment with stairs. 

…Housing discrimination because of disability was among Mabbutt’s complaints to HUD.

Mabbutt is working with one refugee with a bad hip. His agency placed him in a two-story townhouse, despite a doctor’s letter stating the man’s need for an apartment without stairs.

Sara Nyaramuhima, 58, a Congolese refugee, has been in Idaho for seven months. Her husband and son were killed in Africa, and she was beaten. She can’t walk without a walker.

The International Rescue Committee, which handled her resettlement, was able to find a ground floor apartment, but the entryway has stairs and an approach of bumpy paving stones. That’s a violation of ”reasonable accommodation” for a disabled person under the Fair Housing Act, Mabbutt said…

…”It’s psychological. I know I have food and a place to stay. But I’m like a prisoner here,” Nyaramuhima said.

Getting out of her house is a complicated process. Nyaramuhima grips her walker, and swings her legs to the ground.

She doesn’t leave her apartment often, except for Thursdays and Sundays when friends from the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall come to take her to meetings…

…That it’s taken seven months…to meet basic needs like home access and safety for one woman speaks to larger challenges agencies face.

Moore said her agency is notified about two weeks before a refugee arrives. Sometimes the agency receives detailed information about refugees’ medical and disability status, sometimes not.

It’s no one’s ideal scenario to house a woman with a walker in an apartment with stairs, but there’s a waiting list for apartments with ramps and railings and other amenities, Moore said.

Whats makes so little sense to me is why the State Department resettles refugees with known disabilities to communities that don’t have enough apartments to accommodate these clients. The Overseas Processing Entities (OPE’s) supposedly enter this information into a database that the US government uses to assess the incoming refugees. Why not direct fewer disabled refugee clients to Boise? Why are some refugees’ medical problems not shared with the resettlement agencies?

The article also mentions that in 2009 only 55 percent of employable refugees in Boise were finding work.

…The economy isn’t easing anyone’s challenges.

Recent statistics provided by the Boise mayor’s office show the success rate of local refugees has plummeted – from an estimated 90 percent of employable adults working in 2005 to just 55 percent in 2009…

The State Department refugee contracts that the private resettlement agencies sign “require” that 75% of refugees be employed within 180 days. Apparently the State Department wrote that requirement for a non-recession economy, and they have informally relaxed the requirement for now since employment outcomes for new refugees are fairly low throughout the US.

The article also states incorrectly that the State Department gives resettlement agencies only $900 per refugee. In fact they give an average of $1100 per refugee. The minimum amount is $900, and resettlement agencies may redirect an extra $300 per refugee to the refugees most in need within each local resettlement agency, e.g. disabled refugee clients, ill refugee clients, unemployed refugees, etc. (Actually, they get $1800 per refugee, but they can use $700 of it on overhead, such as salaries.)

…The federal government recently doubled the per-capita cash assistance, or one-time “welcome money” meant to help get refugees settled in their new homes from $450 to $900.”

Unfortunately, that’s not helping the refugees who have been here for two or three years,” said Bruce-Bennion.

At one time, Moore said, government support for refugees had no time limit. Support then dropped to 36 months, and fell in steady increments. For the past two decades, the U.S. has offered eight months of support for refugees…

What the resettlement agencies don’t mention, however, is that the U.S. refugee resettlement program reduced the timelines for refugee benefits as the U.S. accepted larger numbers of refugees. There was never unlimited public funds for refugee resettlement, so, as the resettlement agencies kept asking for ever greater numbers of refugee clients, and their friends in Congress kept obliging them, the program had to spread the per capita amount per refugee ever thinner and thinner.

Posted in Agency for New Americans (in Mountain States Group, Inc., Boise), Boise, Congolese, employment/jobs for refugees, funding, housing, Idaho, IRC, State Department, World Relief | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

IRC in Boise sends refugees to Threemile Canyon Farms in Oregon

Posted by Christopher Coen on August 30, 2010

An article in the Los Angeles Times details how the International Rescue Committee office in Boise has helped approximately 50 refugees from Bhutan, Myanmar Somalia, and Sudan to get jobs five hours away at Threemile Canyon Farms a dairy near Boardman, Oregon (Oregon’s largest factory farm, a sprawling 93,000-acre operation). An onion plant near Boardman has also started hiring refugees. The jobs are relatively well-paying and offer benefits, however the remote location and long hours means refugees go without basics such as English classes and refugee support services. Refugees are also packing into apartments since so few housing options exist in the Boardman area.

In Boise, Lana Whiteford, a 27-year-old employment specialist with the International Rescue Committee, was struggling to find work for refugees. Over her year in the position, she had watched as the office went from placing six or seven refugees in service and factory jobs each week to placing none for weeks at a time.

“I had this major gnawing guilt,” she said. “We had people receive eviction letters.”

Whiteford, who grew up in Anaheim, had never heard of Boardman, Ore. Then an e-mail from Threemile Canyon Farms landed in her inbox. “I Googled it,” she said.

She learned that the farm was a five-hour drive from Boise. Agencies like the International Rescue Committee, contracted by the government to help resettle refugees, look for jobs that are closer to their offices, so they can assist with housing, education and other needs. But these were extraordinary times.

…The refugees were told that the farm is unionized, salaries start at $9.45 an hour, and health insurance is provided. In Boise, they could expect to earn about $7.50 an hour with no benefits, and most jobs are part-time, Whiteford said.

…Since last year, the farm has hired about 50 refugees, all new to commercial farming and from countries as varied as Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan.

Rose Corral, the farm’s human resources director, says most have proved to be dedicated workers. The main challenge is communication. About 80% of the 300-strong workforce is Spanish-speaking. Few of the refugees speak much English, either.

The farm offers free English lessons, but most refugees find they are too tired to study after working 9 1/2-hour and longer days. After a few months, some say they speak better Spanish.

…The only problem has been finding housing for the refugees. Most Boardman workers commute from larger cities. But that can be difficult in winter, when extreme weather closes many roads.

So the refugees pack into shared apartments at [an apartment] complex…

Regardless of whether they stay, this quiet agrarian community offers them something many refugees can’t find elsewhere: the chance to become self-sufficient. here

Of course the refugee resettlement program supposedly requires that refugees be resettled to permanent housing that is safe, sanitary and in good repair. Refugees should not have to be “packed” into housing. In addition, the difficulty of attending English classes may pose problems for the refugees’ long-term self-sufficiency. The article also mentions a deadly car crash, which was blamed on a refugee who had tried to overtake another vehicle on a hill.

Many workers have tried to help the newcomers, offering to share food and rides. They collected nearly $3,000 for the widow and children of a Somali man, who was killed shortly after he was hired last year when the car he was riding in crashed into two other vehicles.

Is this the same accident in which refugees in Boardman were traveling back to Boise to visit family members?

Refugees…face long drives to see their families back in Boise. One car-load of refugees this year had a head-on collision, killing one. here

The fact that these refugees are so isolated from any support services gives me pause for concern. Refugee resettlement agencies all over the country are helping refugees to move to distant and remote locations for meatpacking jobs. Even more refugees are simply picking up and moving on their own to these jobs. Burmese refugees in Houston had a bad experience after relocating to a chicken-processing plant in Alabama (here). Refugees in Greensboro have also been relocated to a poultry plant processing plant in Moorefield, W.Va., a six-hour drive away (here). A problem with this is that these locations often do not have needed support services for refugees (English language classes, schools set up to teach refugee children, immigration services for green cards, torture survivors services, etc.), and local entities, e.g. emergency police and medical services, are rarely ready to deal with people who can’t yet speak English.

Posted in Boardman, Boise, Burma/Myanmar, employment/jobs for refugees, housing, housing, overcrowding, Idaho, Iraqi, IRC, meatpacking industry, Nepali Bhutanese, Oregon, secondary migration, refugee, Somali, Sudanese | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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