Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

Archive for the ‘Heartland Alliance’ Category

Matching Grant monitoring findings – Heartland Alliance in Chicago

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 30, 2012

The said purpose of the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR’s) Matching Grant Program (MG) is to place refugee clients in jobs which will enable their household units to meet self-sufficiency within 120 to 180 days (in this case “self-sufficiency” is defined as not accessing public cash assistance, although the household units may use other forms of welfare, e.g. SNAP/food stamps, Section 8 housing assistance, etc.). The MG supposedly works to speed up the process of self-sufficiency by offering programs, support, and incentives to refugees, making the transition to self-sufficiency faster and easier. Its called “Matching Grant” because participating agencies (private contractors) agree to match the ORR grant with cash and in-kind contributions (goods and services) from the “community”. The ORR awards $2 for every $1 raised by the refugee resettlement agency from non-federal sources – including state and local support, United Way contributions, and in-kind support from other local and volunteer organizations – up to a maximum of $2,200 in federal funds per refugee. So, self-sufficiency is the goal, but what are the results?

The Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights refugee resettlement agency in Chicago is one of the contractors that the ORR monitored to assess how well resettlement agencies are helping refugees using the Matching Grant money. In the past Heartland Alliance’ use of US Department of State refugee grant money, as well as a human trafficking grant from the US Department of Justice, left much to be desired. Now, it seems that a ORR MG Program Analyst noted deficiencies in Heartland Alliance’s use of the MG program grant as well, according to a newly released 2005 inspection of the agency:

…Case Notes – …The reviewer found little detail of services being provided, particularly in cases where clients did not become self-sufficient…

…Asylee Payments – Some asylee cases were found to be missing required monthly payments…

…Housing Provision – ORR observed a number of cases [where] full rental payments were not provided for the required time period, although needed. This forced clients to supplement the rent payments with their MG cash…

…Job Development – The reviewer found little evidence of true job developments on the part of [Heartland Alliance]. The program employment outcomes appear to be the result of fairly intense case management coupled with relatively independent clients who find their own jobs. In cases where clients have a family or a strong community base to assist in the employment search, this system seems adequate in assisting clients to become self-sufficient. However, few to no modifications to that procedure were evident in dealing with free cases [refugees with no local family or ethnic community support] that do not have a strong community base to assist, or other instances where such assistance is necessary. Such sub-par employment services were particularly evident in low English level refugee clients. The [Heartland Alliance] employment rate for CY2004 was 50%. USCRI national average for CY2004 was 85%; the national MG average was 72%… Read more here

This last figure seems to point to a problem at Heartland Alliance and not MG Program weaknesses. Yet, it also shows how dependent government inspectors are on contractors’ own written records in assessing compliance with government grants. Aside from the problems noted, what comes to mind is to what degree the contractor’s written records match refugee clients’ reports about services received, however, the inspection report shows no comments from the clients (as opposed to the State Department’s reviews of refugee resettlement grantees).

Nevertheless, though the national average for refugee employment in the MG program was 82% that year, Heartland Alliance’s refugee clients in MG only achieved a 50% employment rate. Much of that 50% appears to have been refugees finding employment on their own or with the help of family or community.

Posted in asylees, Chicago, economic self-sufficiency, employment services, employment/jobs for refugees, Heartland Alliance, Matching Grant program, ORR | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Nationalities Service Center In Philadelphia Resettles LGBT Refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 26, 2012

In 2010, about 3,500 lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers are also entering the country.Most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, making sensitive resettlement services trickier to apply. In Philadelphia the Nationalities Service Center is resettling some of these refugees. An article in the Philadelphia Daily News explains:

…refugees classified as lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) [are being] resettled in Philadelphia by the Nationalities Service Center, the city’s largest refugee-resettlement agency…

…Until recent years, LGBT refugees in the U.S. were more likely to identify their persecution as ethnic, religious or political, said Juliane Ramic, the NSC’s director of social services.

On Dec. 6, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing the first-ever U.S. government strategy dedicated to combating human-rights abuses against LGBT people abroad. On the same day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke in Geneva about the need to protect LGBT people. “In many ways, they are an invisible minority,” she said. “They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed.”

The NSC in Philadelphia, along with representatives from the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, conducted training to help ensure that refugee-resettlement agencies and other service providers understand the vulnerabilities of LGBT refugees and asylees before, during and after resettlement.

Because most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, reliable statistics on their numbers are hard to come by. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not identify or track LGBT refugees, and information on sexual orientation or gender identity rarely is reflected in refugees’ files, according to the Heartland Alliance.

In 2010, about 3,500 LGBT refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers entered the country, the Heartland Alliance estimates… Read more here

Posted in Heartland Alliance, LGBT refugees, Nationalities Service Center, Obama administration, Philadelphia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Chicago’s Heartland Alliance made unauthorized expenditures, incurred questionable costs on human trafficking grant

Posted by Christopher Coen on September 23, 2011

Human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by improper means for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation”. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act became law in 2000 to help organizations offer services to survivors of trafficking, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has awarded millions of dollars in grant money to organizations claiming to give services to trafficking victims. Yet, recent audits of six grant-receiving organizations show that they had more than $2.72 million in unsupported, unallowable or questioned costs. An audit of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights in Chicago, which the DOJ awarded $2 million, revealed that this refugee organization did not have adequate documentation for $902,122 in salaries and $174,479 in fringe benefits. An article in InfoZine has more:

Six audits completed between 2007 and 2009 reported more than $2.72 million in unsupported, unallowable or questioned costs of the $8.24 million total the Department of Justice awarded to the six grant recipients.

“These select individual audits signal to me that there is a bigger problem,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. “The inspector general audited seven trafficking grantees and found serious problems in all seven.”

During the hearing on the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which provides grants and resources for trafficking victims, advocates, law enforcement and prosecutors, Grassley questioned whether the Department of Justice is awarding money to the appropriate organizations.

“Holding grant programs accountable will help to ensure that services really go to those in need,” Grassley, the senior Republican on the committee, said in a statement. “Before we reauthorize another dollar, we need strong oversight language included in legislation – to ensure that failing grantees will not be rewarded with additional taxpayer dollars.”

Human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by improper means for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation,” according to the National Institute of Justice’s website.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act became law in 2000 to help organizations spread awareness, provide services to survivors of trafficking, investigate trafficking and support the prosecution of traffickers.

Not all grant recipients appear to be handling their money appropriately, however. One audit discovered that the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs in Chicago, which was awarded $2 million, did not have adequate documentation for $902,122 in salaries and $174,479 in fringe benefits… Read more here

Posted in Chicago, Dept. of Justice, funding, Heartland Alliance, human trafficking, invalid or improper expenses, public/private partnership | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Refugees vote for resettlement locations with their feet

Posted by Christopher Coen on August 18, 2011

While the State Department and their private resettlement agency partners continue to resettle refugees to large urban environments – many in dangerous neighborhoods with expensive, roachy apartments and poor schools – refugees continue to out-migrate. Lynn, Massachusetts and Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs are two areas seeing fairly heavy secondary migration (Lynn is also a primary refugee resettlement site). NPR’s WBUR has the details about Lynn.

LYNN, Mass. — With ts cheaper rentals and abundance of public housing, the city of Lynn has become a magnet for families displaced by an ailing economy. This includes a growing number of immigrants — many of whom are refugees seeking a better life…

…the population has grown by almost a third. The city has become a popular destination because of its access to public assistance programs and to public housing.

Lynn is also one of the few cities in Massachusetts where the United Nations High Commission for Refugees relocates people from all over the world. Families who have endured war and famine come from countries as far away as Sudan, Bhutan and Iraq… Read more here

Chicago Public Media WBEZ explains the situation in the Chicago area. Although Chicago’s suburbs are home to established Iraqi populations, resettlement agencies like Heartland Alliance and RefugeeONE continue to resettle Iraqis into the intercity away from their already established relatives:

The Uptown neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side is an established hub for refugee resettlement. There are many agencies there, and refugees opt to live nearby. But recently more refugees bypass Chicago altogether and head to the north and northwest suburbs instead. Those communities are discovering these new populations in their schools, and suburban educators are having to adjust to meet the unique needs of their newest arrivals…

…WANGERIN: We were seeing fewer and fewer Iraqis actually come to our office and avail of our services.

Greg Wangerin is with RefugeeONE, in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. He started to notice the difference in 2007, when the number of Iraqi refugees spiked. Now, Iraqis are the largest group of refugees coming to the Chicago area.

WANGERIN: We began to examine why, and we noticed that this was the circumstance, again because they were coming to reunite with relatives up in that area.

Chicago’s suburbs are home to established Iraqi populations. They came as a result of the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s, and Operation Desert Storm in the 90s. Wangerin says there are other reasons Iraqi refugees are heading to suburbs… Read more here

Posted in Boston, Chicago, dangerous neighborhoods, Heartland Alliance, Iraqi, RefugeeONE (formerly, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries), RefugeeONE (formerly, Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries), school for refugee children, schools, secondary migration, refugee, State Department | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

First-ever resource center to support the resettlement of LGBT refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on June 16, 2011

The ORR is giving the Heartland Alliance agency in Chicago a $250,000 grant to create a training and technical assistance center that will support US resettlement agencies that resettle LGBT refugees. A Windy City Times article has more information:

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of ACF, has awarded a $250,000 contract to the Heartland Alliance of Chicago to create this training and technical assistance center, according to a press release from the alliance…

…The focus of this initiative will be to provide:

—Resource and capacity development in key resettlement locations;

—Sensitivity training to network staff, including overview of key issue regarding newly arriving LGBT refugees;

—Technical assistance in service delivery; and

—Development of best practices and orientation materials for refugee service providers across the country.

“As many of these refugees left their homelands specifically because of persecution related to their LGBT status, it is particularly incumbent on us to provide a safe and welcoming environment,” [ACF Acting Assistant Secretary David A.] Hansell added.

“The current resettlement network has limited understanding of the LGBT community,” said ORR Director Eskinder Negash. “In addition, no information exists in the context of available resource materials specifically for LGBT refugees. The need for these services is critical to ensure their successful resettlement in the U.S… Read more here

It’s obvious that the State Department’s and ORR’s national network of private resettlement agencies are often anything but sensitive to LGBTI refugees, as seen in Houston last year. Regular incidents include fundamental violation of human rights, with government partners who then act to protect the agencies from any real accountability. The problem I have with this grant is that the Heartland Alliance agency in Chicago has somewhat of a checkered history itself when it comes to basic violations of refugee clients’ most basic needs and rights – as I saw for myself beginning in 2001.

Posted in Chicago, funding, Heartland Alliance, LGBT refugees, ORR | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

President Obama requests an 18.5% increase in FY 2011 funding for the ORR

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 12, 2010

President Obama’s budget request for (FY) 2011 calls for an 18.5% increase (above the FY10 enacted level) in refugee funding via the Refugee and Entrant Assistance account  for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. This account funds the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (here). Scroll down to page 34 and see REFUGEE AND ENTRANT ASSISTANCE.

This budget increase, if approved by Congress, would be paid for by a proportional decrease in other HHS funding, to abide by the spending freeze the President announced last month for discretionary spending (not entitlement program spending) for (FY) 2011.

Congressman Dingell and some other Congressmen put out a letter in support of Obama’s budget request for the ORR (see here). Joining Dingell were Peters (MI), Berman (CA), Clarke (NY), Conyers (MI), Ellison (MN), Grijalva (AZ), Hastings (FL), Levin (MI), Moore (WI), Pingree (ME), Rangel (NY), Rush (IL), and Schakowsky (IL). I notice that they claim that ORR needs a larger budget to increase funding for things like refugee cash assistance, claiming that refugees need this to pay for groceries. Yet that is already covered by food stamps.

We support an increase for refugee cash assistance to refugees, so that refugees can afford safe and sanitary apartments for their first eight months while they are attempting to become reestablished here and become self-sufficient. Any increase for other forms of funding that the ORR provides to refugee resettlement agencies and other local agencies (including local and state government agencies), however, should come with the stipulation that the ORR will adequately oversee the use of these funds.

As it stands, refugees in many places around the country are currently receiving extremely low-quality job placement services and English training. State refugee coordinators in turn do their best to cover up any of these inadequacies and even outright wrongdoing by resettlement agencies (they “defend” their states, and therefore their own job). When we report abuses to the ORR they simply send these to the state refugee coordinator in question – an obviously useless practice — and do nothing else. So pumping more money into a system like that will do little to help refugees.

(By the way, we experienced how Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky runs her office. We contacted her in 2002 when the Heartland Alliance refugee resettlement agency in Chicago — a USCRI affiliate – was abusing and neglecting the Chicago ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’ refugees.  Although claiming that she is “pro-refugee”, in fact, she is just “pro-refugee resettlement agency in her district”. A high up member of her staff was singularly rude on the telephone and made it clear that Schakowsky was there to defend Heartland Alliance, not the refugees. It seems that the closer to home wrongdoing is, the harder it is to acknowledge and face.)

See also the President’s request for the State Department’s budget for (FY) 2011 (here). Scroll down to page 21 and see UNITED STATES EMERGENCY REFUGEE AND MIGRATION ASSISTANCE FUND.

Posted in funding, Heartland Alliance, HHS, Obama administration, ORR | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Lost Boys in Chicago – survivors of refugee resettlement agencies

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 3, 2010

Below is an article about the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’ in Chicago. Some of the first ‘Lost Boys’ refugees I met in 2001 were in Chicago, including Peter Magai, the man pictured in the article.

At that time I was traveling through the city taking some ‘Lost Boys’ from North Dakota to visit their friends in Michigan. The young men in Chicago told me that they were not happy. When I asked them what was wrong, they complained bitterly of the treatment by their refugee resettlement agency – the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights (HA) – a USCRI affiliate. They said that the resettlement agency placed them in a dangerous neighborhood where they were being attack by hoodlums on the street, placed them in run-down and dirty apartments, that they could not get any effective treatment for the stomach pain some of them were having (schistosomiasis), and when they went to the HA employment specialist to complain that he was not helping them to look for jobs, he told them he could send them back to Africa if they didn’t like the job he was doing.

I forwarded these complaints to HA and had rude employees just laugh and hang up. I contacted the HA refugee director and she, also before hanging up on me, told me she could not guarantee that the young men would be taken to the doctor. Being polite but insistent was getting me nowhere.

I contacted the U.S. State Department and they were outraged that I dared to express frustration by the layers of useless bureacrats I had been through. After a month or two they finally arrived to investigate. The State Department monitors – young women dressed in expensive clothes and who stayed at one of the most expensive downtown Chicago hotels – told me they didn’t believe most of the refugees’ complaints. They also said the neighborhoods where HA had placed the refugees were safe. Period. End of discussion.

The State Department monitors said they would send me a copy of their final monitoring when they completed it. They then never sent me a copy. I had to do a FOIA and wait a year. When I finally got ahold of their report I was surprised (I used to be naive) to see that they had ommitted most of the refugees’ reports of neglect. I have written an analysis of the quality of this inspection report (see here), and of the quality of the so-called investigation done by the State Department.

Yet, I later did a FOIA and found a year-2000 State Department monitoring report  in which State Department monitors noted that thugs attacked other ‘Lost Boys’ in their apartment buildings – one refugee was hospitalized as a result – and that a resettlement agency had failed to note this in their case files, and the director of the agency failed to mention it to the monitors.

A month after the State Department monitors dismissed our concerns, the Latin Kings gang attacked a group of ‘Lost Boys’ while they played basketball at a park in the neighborhood. The gang beat the young men with fists, metal rods, and coke bottles and stabbed three of the refugees.

I realized then that the State Department and the Illinois refugee coordinator had absolutely no interest in accurately documenting the abuses that the refugees were experiencing. If anything, these so-called government oversight agencies were simply acting in defense of highly irresponsible and unethical actions on the part of the resettlement agencies.

If anyone was going to speak the truth about our resettlement program it would only be concerned citizens. Hence, this group and this blog.

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Lost Boys vote in Chicago to inspire change in Sudan

by Heather Somerville
Feb 02, 2010

LOSTBOY
Heather Somerville/MEDILl

Peter Magai Bul, one of the Sudanese refugees known as the Lost Boys, is leading efforts to spread awareness about Sudan’s presidential election this spring. He works with Lost Boys and activists at Truman College, where a grassroots event on Jan. 31 drew hundreds of participants.

Chicago’s Lost Boys of Sudan are setting an example for their families in Sudan by voting in Tuesday’s local primary election.

The refugees, exiled during the Sudanese civil war, never voted in their country. As the first in their families to cast a ballot, they are educating Sudanese about the importance of voting to create change. This at a time when Sudan is about to hold its first presidential election in more than two decades.

“The Lost Boys always take responsibility and are always looking for changes,” said Peter Magai Bul, 27, a Lost Boy and community activist. “They are doing this as citizens of the United States. You will see them voting in every election.”

Many Lost Boys, orphans named for their trek across Sudan to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya during the war, voted early in the Chicago primaries, and those who didn’t said they would be at the polls Tuesday.

“It’s something that we don’t want to miss,” said Malual Awak, president of the Sudanese Community Association of Illinois.

Hundreds of Lost Boys from across the Midwest gathered at Truman College on Sunday to discuss Sudan’s upcoming election, call for an independent Southern Sudan and celebrate their birthdays. Because most of them do not have birth certificates, upon arrival in America they were assigned Jan. 31 as their collective birthday.

According to a 2008 survey by the United African Organization – a Chicago-based advocacy organizatoin - more than 90 percent of the estimated 30,000 naturalized African immigrants and refugees in metropolitan area vote in every election. They are interested in participating in every level,” said executive director Alie Kabba.

Voting is a way for refugees to become integrated into American society, and it also signifies freedom from the oppression many left behind in Africa, Kabba said.

“African refugees generally tend to come from countries with authoritarian regimes,” Kabba said. “One of the first things that they want to do here is demonstrate their yearning for a democratic society. It is a way for them to really call this place home.”

Voting has taken on an even greater significance for the Lost Boys, who hope to encourage their families to participate in Sudan’s first free presidential election in April after more than 20 years of single-party rule. “We vote to make a difference,” said Jacob Maker Dier, who became a citizen in 2007. “It’s setting an example (for our families). They have to show up.”

The Sudanese election was mandated by the 2005 peace agreement that ended the country’s 22-year civil war between the north and the south. The outcome of the election will have important significance. Some candidates are pushing for Southern Sudan’s secession, which will be decided in a referendum in 2011.

More than 150 Lost Boys have relocated to Chicago since 2001. They’ve made the city a stronghold for Sudanese activism, calling for a free and fair election in Sudan through organized events at universities and churches. Magai Bul, founder of Ayual Community Development Association, a non-profit dedicated to improving life in Southern Sudan, recently returned from a five-week trip to the country to educate residents about the voting process. Now he’s spreading his message through Facebook and Twitter.

“I’ve seen the consequences of when people are not allowed to participate,” Magai Bul said. “The consequence is war.”

Most of the population of Southern Sudan will not be allowed to vote, however. The Sudan government requires that voters present a passport, and many civilians lost any government identification they had during the war. The Lost Boys, who could theoretically vote in the Sudan election in absentia, also do not have Sudanese passports, but U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Akec Khoc said they will be able to apply for documentation at registration centers in Chicago in time to vote on the independence referendum next year.

Posted in Chicago, Heartland Alliance, Illinois, South Sudanese, State Department, USCRI | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

 
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