Posted by Christopher Coen on July 12, 2011
The slowdown in refugee arrivals since October 2010 has led to a situation where resettlement agencies are now refocusing efforts on doing needed employment coaching for refugees already here. Did the doubling of the State Department’s per capita grant funding to resettlement contractors last year do the same? Let’s hope so. The federal government increased the funding with no strings attached, which was not necessarily good for the refugees — especially due to the problems at Houston’s four resettlement agencies: The Alliance For Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, and YMCA International Services.
Yani Rose Keo, interim executive director of Houston’s Alliance claims that her agency is now spending more time with refugees, according to an article in the Houston Chronicle.
The number of refugees resettling in the U.S. and Houston has dropped considerably this year because of new security measures, according to the U.S. State Department.
Nationwide, refugee arrivals have declined more than 30 percent, from nearly 54,000 in the first nine months of fiscal year 2010 to about 37,000 during the same period this year.
“We are committed to conducting the most rigorous screening in order to ensure that those being admitted through the refugee program are not seeking to harm the United States,” according to a statement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Government officials attribute the slowdown to a new “pre-departure” check that went into effect in late 2010. The additional screening is intended to identify information that might have come to light since initial biographical and biometric checks were conducted...
Fewer arrivals means less funding for YMCA International and four other local refugee resettlement agencies, which receive per-capita grants from the State Department to help refugees transition into their new lives in the U.S.
The grants total about $1,800 per refugee, with $1,100 slated for direct assistance, and the balance paying for administrative costs, such as case managers...
The Alliance For Multicultural Community Services laid off four employees, but hired one back last month, as arrivals began to pick up again, said Yani Rose Keo, interim executive director.
“Normally we are super busy June, July, August, September,” Keo said.
She said Alliance is using the unexpected down time to help refugees who are already here.
“We do a lot of employment coaching right now,” Keo said. “That’s what’s the key. When they get here, we spend more time, closer with them, coaching them.”… Read more here
Posted in Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, employment/jobs for refugees, funding, Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Nepali Bhutanese, State Department, USCIS, YMCA International Services | Tagged: Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, houston, human rights, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, refugee, resettlement, security checks, security clearance, State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, Yani Rose Keo, YMCA International Services | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 3, 2011
There is a new State Department monitoring report that we acquired via a FOIA that documents neglect of refugees. The State Department cited the Houston-based refugee resettlement agency, Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, an ECDC affiliate, for “partial-compliance” with their State Department refugee resettlement contract. Findings include:
- The Alliance had placed all three refugee families visited at home by monitors in housing with problems, including serious mold, roach infestation, and a serious plumbing problem that forced an Iraqi refugee family to move.
- A Burundian refugee woman did not know how to use either the stove or a thermostat in her apartment.
- The Burundian family’s second bedroom had no furniture, so the couple’s infant and 2-year-old toddler had to sleep in the parent’s room.
- The Burundian refugee family and a Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance failed to give them required living-room furnishings, so the families had to garbage-pick sofas and chairs from dumpsters.
- The Alliance did not give refugees pocket-money, as required.
- The Burundian refugee family — with the infant and toddler — reported that the Alliance did not give them food or supplies for their infant upon their arrival as required, and that the Alliance did not use child safety seats when transporting the family to appointments.
- The Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance did not have interpretation at the airport upon their arrival or during orientation. The Alliance finally hired someone who spoke their Karen dialect over four months after their arrival.
- Orientation to health care services in the area appeared to be incomplete, as both the Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their children’s medical needs and uncertainty about how to handle emergencies.
- The Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their prospects for self-sufficiency.
- The Alliance did not provide any structured training plan to new employees, as required.
- Refugee client case note logs contained minimal information, and often failed to record home visits. Monitors were often unable to verify that the Alliance provided refugee clients with the minimum-required services of the State Department refugee contracts (see contract documents – the Cooperative Agreement and Operational Guidance).
- Monitors noted Insect infestation in one or more refugee apartments.
- Monitors noted that the Alliance did not give some refugee(s) a ready-to eat meal upon arrival after long intercontinental flights, as required.
Then there are these comments about the Alliance from 2010. Note that three years after this State Department monitoring the Alliance is still putting refugees in substandard housing, etc.
So, in other words, the State Department noticed all these problems and three years later many of the problems have not ceased. What does that tell us about the effectiveness of the State Department monitoring trips? The State Department does not use any penalties for resettlement agencies’ they find in “non-compliance” or “partial-compliance” with the so-called minimum requirements of the State Department refugee contracts. Resettlement agencies don’t have to give back any of the government contract money they received for agreeing to provide minimum services and then not providing them.
Posted in Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, beds, Burma/Myanmar, Burundian, children, Cooperative Agreement, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, ECDC, food, furnishings, lack of, health, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, Houston, Iraqi, Karen, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, meeting refugees at the airport, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, rats and roaches, State Department, Texas, transportation | Tagged: Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Burmese refugees, Burundian refugees, ECDC, Ethiopian Community Development Council, houston, human rights, Iraqi refugees, Karen refugees, Kassahun Bisrat, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
