Hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived in Portland in the summer are waiting for permanent accommodation in the area’s hotels because affordable housing is so scarce.
The exact number is unclear, but officials and authorities working with the newcomers say the influx is similar to that of the 450 migrants who came to Maine’s largest city in summer 2019when the Portland Expo was converted into makeshift housing to house them.
Many have come to Maine from the US southern border and even came from Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. More recently, some have come from the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, where an earthquake in August killed more than 2,200 people and displaced many thousands more.
Housing advocates say well over 300 asylum seekers have arrived in the past few weeks and been accommodated in hotels in Portland, South Portland and elsewhere in the greater Portland area. Some are families with children enrolled in local schools.
Asylum seekers have few resources if they apply for official immigration status and a work permit and wait, which can take 18 months to two years. Immigrant advocates say most are eager to find work in an area littered with signs for people seeking help. In the meantime, their housing and other basic needs are met through state and community-funded general aid programs.
“It really is an unmanageable situation, but we bring people together to meet their needs,” said Victoria Morales MP, D-South Portland. “Housing is the linchpin that ensures that immigrants get the support they need to be successful.”
Morales is the executive director of the nonprofit Quality Housing Coalition, formed to help resolve Maine’s housing crisis. Project HOME, a coalition arm that brings together landlords, housing advocates, and other community resources to help Mainers access housing, has seen 20 to 30 asylum seekers weekly for the past few months and has been fortunate enough to get two or three a week in housing to find, called Morales.
The lack of affordable housing also challenges Maine Catholic Charities and their partners as they prepare to Relocate 67 to 100 Afghan evacuees expected to arrive in Maine in the coming weeks. They come with limited federal funding – $ 900 per person, supposed to take three months – and also apply for asylum and work permits.
Because asylum seekers are non-citizens and have not received official immigration status or work permits, they are not eligible for most of the public housing programs offered by state and local housing authorities, said Cheryl Sessions, executive director of the Portland Housing Authority.
Even if they were eligible, greater Portland housing is so scarce that you have to wait two years to get an apartment in a Portland Housing Authority property and five to seven years on a statewide list of 25,000 people looking for federal section 8 housing coupons, said sessions. And federal regulations don’t allow anyone to skip the line.
“We don’t really have a lot of tools to help out in this situation,” Sessions said.
The South Portland Housing Authority usually faces similar restrictions, but recently agreed to rent apartments to two families who have been staying at a local hotel for some time, said Mike Hulsey, executive director.
This has only been possible because the housing authority recently bought land on Bowdoin and Chambers Avenues where it plans to build a new maintenance facility. The agency plans to demolish its existing maintenance facility in Landry Village to make way for a planned, affordable 44-unit apartment complex for people aged 55 and over.
The area of the future maintenance facility includes a single-family house and a four-family house. Because it was bought with no government funding, it isn’t subject to federal regulations that would ban asylum seekers, Hulsey said.
“There are many problems that usually prevent us from helping asylum seekers,” said Hulsey. “That makes me rethink how we’re developing affordable housing.”
A migrant woman sleeps on a cot in the Portland Exposition Building in Portland in June 2019. Elise Amendola / Associated Press
The Maine State Housing Authority says the state needs approximately 20,000 affordable, safe, and accessible housing units to curb the shortage. Governor Janet Mills has targeted $ 50 million in funding for the American Recovery Plan Act to fund affordable housing, and she recently appointed longtime housing attorney Greg Payne as her lead housing policy advisor.
But it will be years before the subsidies are used to create new apartments.
Portland city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin admitted that the city’s homeless shelters have seen an influx of asylum seekers and families. However, she declined to provide details on how many arrived, where they are, or how much it took to look after them. She said the city’s health department was preparing a report for the city council due this week.
Twelve new families (47 people) came to the family home in the week ending September 25, according to weekly service data published on the city’s website. At that time, 30 families (87 people) lived in urban emergency shelters and 103 families (336 people) in district hotels. Most of the newcomers are asylum seekers, say immigrant officials.
Grondin said the city recently hired a relocation coordinator to assist families residing in the city’s family home, many of whom have recently arrived in Maine and are seeking asylum according to the job description. The new employee will coordinate the care of the families on arrival at the home and work closely with government partners, surrounding communities, social services, community organizations, churches and property owners in order to bring the families into independence.
“The position will help ensure comprehensive services are provided to meet the growing needs of newly and recently arrived asylum-seeking families by directing case coordination and referral to community programs and external community partners,” the job description reads.
Hope Acts, an agency in Portland that helps asylum seekers and other immigrants find shelter and face other challenges as newcomers, has had significant history since the first Influx of asylum seekers in 2019said Martha Stein, managing director.
The agency operates Hope House with five apartments that provide temporary accommodation for up to 13 people during the asylum and work permit process. Today, many of the Hope House residents stay long after this process is complete.
“We can’t push them out because there’s nowhere to go,” Stein said. “The good news is that a lot of people are working on this problem.”
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