Thread: Migrant Housing Nonprofit Scores Another $5.4 Million Taxpayer-funded Grant in Portla

Migrant Housing Nonprofit Scores Another $5.4 Million Taxpayer-funded Grant in Portland





Despite a housing shortage and underfunded social services, federal officials continue to press for migrant resettlement in Maine






By Edward Tomic

September 3, 2024

Updated: September 3, 2024

The Portland Expo before migrants began arriving for shelter.

Maine’s ongoing effort to resettle non-citizens will get a $5.4 million boost thanks to a Biden-Harris Administration grant that will provide taxpayer dollars to house, feed, and provide other services to migrants recently released from U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody.

On Wednesday, Aug. 28, DHS, alongside the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that they had allocated over $380 million in grants nationwide to support the federal Shelter and Services Program (SSP).

[RELATED: Mills Admin, Nonprofits, and Big Biz Back New Migrant Resettlement Agency for Maine…]

Last week’s slate of SSP grants comes in addition to nearly $260 million distributed by the DHS through the program in April, bringing the total spending on the program for fiscal year 2024 to about $640 million.

The United Way of Southern Maine, which partners with Catholic Charities Maine to provide services to migrants, was allocated $5.4 million through the second tranche of fiscal year 2024 SSP grants, on top of the $255,000 the nonprofit received through the program earlier this year.

“Our community’s most vulnerable members face the interconnected challenges of food insecurity, housing instability, and lack of transportation,” said Liz Cotter Schlax, President and CEO of United Way of Southern Maine in a press release.

“United Way is grateful to be able to access these Federal resources on behalf of our neighbors and the organizations serving them directly,” Schlax said.

[RELATED: Maine Governor Wants to Resettle 75,000 Foreign-Born Migrants in Maine by 2029…]

According to publicly available tax filings, both the United Way of Southern Maine and Catholic Charities of Maine receive significant percentages of their funding from taxpayers while paying high salaries to top executives.

In 2022, the recent year for which its Form 990 is available, Catholic Charities of Maine received $2.2 million in government grants.

The migrant resettlement organization took in another $16.9 million in government payments — likely payments for migrant services — as well as $8.6 million for Medicaid services offered to clients of the organization, including migrants.





The United Way of Southern Maine received $2.9 million in government grants, according to its most recent Form 990 tax filing. According to the tax document, Schlax, the CEO of the migrant resettlement group, earned $188,857 in that year.





Administered by FEMA, SSP allocates taxpayer dollars to non-federal entities, such as state and municipal governments and nonprofit organizations, to fund housing, food, clothing, medical care, transportation and other services for noncitizen migrants.


[RELATED: 49 States Including Maine Are Handing Voter Registration Forms to Illegal Immigrants Applying for Welfare…]


The program is operated in coordination with CBP in order to prevent the overcrowding of short-term holding facilities along the borders of the U.S., which are used to detain and process apprehended migrants — either for admission into the country, expedited removal, or for a referral to an immigration judge to commence removal proceedings or adjudication of a migrant’s asylum claim.

According to data from the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), as of July 2024 there was a backlog of over 3.7 million active cases before U.S. immigration courts, with about 1.5 million of those pending cases being for asylum hearings.

Currently, non-federal entities are only allowed to use the SSP funds on services to migrants within a 45-day period after the migrant is released from DHS custody.

In December 2023, U.S. Senators from Maine Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R), alongside Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01), wrote a letter to President Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting that the 45-day limitation on SSP funding be extended to 180 days.

King, Collins and Pingree argued in their letter that the 45-day restriction is “inappropriate for migrant destination locations like Maine.”

[RELATED: King, Collins, Pingree Request DHS Rule Change to Help Fund Shelter and Services for Migrants…]

“Maine immigrant services groups struggle with the 45-day limitation because migrants arriving in the state have typically been released from DHS custody many days prior, reducing the period in which these individuals and families may receive support,” the members of Maine’s congressional delegation wrote.

Speaking on the House floor in June, Rep. Pingree advocated to move $600 million from the construction of border fencing to pay for more migrants to be bused into Maine, and to pay for migrant housing and expenses through the FEMA program.

[RELATED: Chellie Pingree Advocates to Move Funding from Border Wall to Bus More Migrants to Maine, Pay for their Housing and Expenses…]

Pingree said in her remarks that the SSP funding “moves people from the congestion at the border to cities all over our country, and it is a way to support that going on.”

“So as far as I’m concerned, this is just a common sense way to deal with the number of asylum seekers who want to come into our country today, and we should continue to support it,” Pingree added.

Rep. Pingree has also introduced legislation that would reduce the current 180-day waiting period for asylum-seeking migrants to apply for work authorization to 30 days.



https://www.themainewire.com/2024/09...t-in-portland/

We are being robbed out of our wallets with our eyes wide open!

While we kick our seniors, homeless, and veterans to the curb.

RELATED: WELL, KEEP VOTING FOR THE DEMOCRATS IN MAINE YOU DUMB@$$ES

Where is that "Catholic Charity" helping our own citizens? Does not exist.






Nearly 60% of Mainers Are Struggling to Afford Basic Necessities: Pine Tree State Poll





Republican voters are far more likely than Democrats to say their financial situation has worsened





By Libby Palanza

August 30, 2024

Updated: August 30, 2024

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Nearly half of Mainers have reported that their household is in a worse financial condition compared to this time last year — including 62 percent of Independents and 86 percent of Republicans — according to a recent Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project conducted by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Survey Center.

The same was said, however, by just 15 percent of Maine Democrats, while 53 percent said they were “about the same.”

Nearly one-third of Democrats indicated that they were better off than last year, compared to just 5 percent of Independents and 4 percent of Republicans.








Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024


At the same time, 55 percent of Mainers believe that a recession is very or somewhat likely at some point in the coming year. Just 34 percent feel that it is not very likely or not likely at all. 10 percent said that they believe the U.S. economy is already in a recession.

Although the share of Mainers who expect a recession within the next twelve months is down slightly compared to last year, the six percent decrease appears to have been roughly split between those who do not feel a recession is likely and those who believe the county is already experiencing a recession.







Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024

Fifty-eight percent of Mainers reported struggling either somewhat or a lot to afford basic necessities over the past year.

This is down slightly from the 64 percent who reported the same thing in a UNH poll conducted around this same time last year.

[RELATED: Majority of Mainers Struggling to Afford Basic Necessities, Worse Off Financially Than Last Year, and Few Expect Improvements — UNH Poll]

Households making less than $75,000 a year most frequently reported having trouble covering their basic expenses, coming in at 69 percent.

Forty-five percent of those making between $75,000 and $150,000 also said that they struggled to afford their necessities over the past twelve months.







Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024

When broken down by political affiliation, a stark contrast emerges between the responses of Democrats and those of Republicans and Independents.

While roughly 80 percent of both Republicans and Independents reported struggling to cover their expenses, just 32 percent of Democrats had the same experience.

About half of Mainers expect their financial condition to be about the same a year from now, while the remaining half are split between pessimism and optimism.

When breaking these figures down by party affiliation, however, a four-times greater share of Democrats feel that they will be better off in a year than either Republicans or Independents.

Just 7 percent of Independents and 10 percent of Republicans expect their financial situation to improve over the next twelve months, compared to 38 percent of Democrats.







Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024


Among those who said they believed their financial situation would improve over the next year, the most commonly cited reason for this was an expected higher personal income (25 percent), closely followed by the expectation that Democrats will be in power (19 percent) and declining inflation (12 percent).








Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024

Of these top three reasons, however, the only one cited by a substantial percentage of Republicans was an expected higher personal income.

Reasons more commonly reported by Republicans, however, were expected lower personal expenses (33 percent) and, most notably, an expectation that Republicans will be in power (43 percent).

Note: Data on Independents’ responses to this question were not made available in the poll results.


Among those who said they believe their household will be worse off financially by next year, inflation and the cost of living were both cited by 22 percent. 14 percent also noted the expectation that Democrats will be in power as reason for their bleak outlook.







Source: UNH Survey Center’s Pine Tree State Poll, a States of Opinion Project — August 27, 2024

Democrats were most likely to cite inflation as the reason for their negative economic outlook (78 percent), while Republicans were spread relatively evenly across several causes, including inflation (24 percent), cost of living (22 percent), and the expectation that Democrats will be in power (21 percent).

Independents most frequently mentioned the cost of living as their reason for believing they will be worse off financially (26 percent), followed by an amalgamation of other, unspecified concerns (21 percent).


Click Here to Read the Full Poll Results




https://www.themainewire.com/2024/08...ee-state-poll/