Thread: Maine forced to house immigrants in hotels for the next year at cost of $1.9 million

Maine forced to house immigrants in hotels for the next year at cost of $1.9 million



Story by Anna Giaritelli •5h

August 17, 2023


Small communities not far from the Maine-Canada border have been inundated with immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and ended up in northern New England homeless and unable to work.

Maine is the latest East Coast location — after Massachusetts, New York City, and New York state — to face major financial and logistical challenges as a result of the more than 2 million immigrants released into the country from the border 2,000 miles away since President Joe Biden took office.

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Most of the newcomers crossed the border into Texas and are originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, and they chose to go to Maine because of the growing central African population in the area, according to Jessica Grondin, director of communications and digital services for the city of Portland.

Approximately 1,600 immigrants, including asylum-seekers who must wait several years before having their claims decided, have traveled to the capital city since January. Portland has a population of 68,000 residents, making the influx of newcomers significant for the city government.







Screenshot: Google Maps© Provided by Washington Examiner



"While we're the largest city in the state, we are a pretty small large city, and we don't have a lot of the revenue streams," Grondin said in a phone call Wednesday.

In April, the city moved 300 immigrants into the Portland Expo building as the city looked for longer-term housing. As a state that provides general assistance, including housing vouchers and food vouchers, to any person regardless of immigration status, it has put municipalities like Portland in a difficult position of having to accommodate those who show up.

City and state officials struggled to find long-term housing for families in the expo center until recently. Grondin told the Washington Examiner that it would cost more than $1.9 million to rent a hotel in the city of Freeport for up to a year, as well as a second hotel in Lewiston on a day-to-day basis for several months.

On Wednesday, yellow school buses pulled up outside the venue to transport 191 people — 60 families — to hotels less than half an hour away in Freeport and Lewiston, cities with a combined population of less than 45,000 residents.
Cities in Maine can be reimbursed by the state for 70% of the hotel costs and will have to cover the remaining $500,000 for the hotels, Grondin estimated in a phone call Wednesday afternoon.

It is not the first time Maine has faced an influx of immigrants. In 2019, the state used the Portland Expo to temporarily house immigrants as more than 400 people arrived in the state in a single week.

The biggest challenge, Grondin said, was in finding a way for immigrants to gainful lawful employment. Immigrants released at the border may obtain work documents from the federal government, but not for six months until after they have made an initial asylum claim.

Maine Sens. Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) have introduced a bill that would shrink the time immigrants must wait before gaining work documents to 30 days.
Grondin said the city supported the proposal and said immigrants would be welcomed into the state's workforce.






Some of the 191 asylum seekers from African countries housed temporarily at a basketball arena board buses and vans after the closing of the shelter at the gymnasium on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, in Portland, Maine.

The city set up an emergency shelter in March after a flood of asylum seekers mostly from Angola and Congo — more than 1,600 since the start of the year -- strained services in Portland, Maine's largest city. (AP Photo/David Sharp) David Sharp/AP© Provided by Washington Examiner

Maine is not the only place to use hotels to house its burgeoning homeless population.

The influx of 2 million immigrants from the border has hit northern cities, including New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., hard and prompted even Democratic leaders to call in, and even demand, federal assistance. Despite the hardships, their open-arm welcome has not quite diminished.

An aide to New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said the five boroughs have received requests for shelter from just shy of 100,000 immigrants over the past year.

Immigrants have chosen to travel to large cities for jobs, family or friend connections, and, theoretically, an abundance of resources, according to Washington, D.C., Councilman At-Large Robert C. White, Jr.

"Most migrants arriving to the border probably have no idea what [sanctuary] means," Brown wrote in an email last week. "They're looking to settle in a place that has jobs. They all want to work, or maybe they're going to a place where they know where [other people from their country] have gone and found jobs."

But it has put the cities in a bind. New York City, Chicago, Washington, and New York state all declared emergencies in the past year. Massachusetts became the latest to declare an emergency and pleaded with the federal government for assistance. Maine has yet to call for emergency help.

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New York City has a law on the books that requires the city to provide same-night shelter to homeless families who arrive at a shelter before 10 p.m. But NYC's Adams recently rescinded the city's own commitment because too many people have shown up from the border.

"That is just not sustainable. It’s not realistic. ... That’s not fair to New York City residents," Adams said during a press conference.




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