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Sanford city leaders address concern, confusion over asylum seeker arrivals

Sanford city manager Steven Buck, right, delivers a presentation about newly arrived asylum seekers at an emergency city council meeting on Tuesday.
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
Sanford city manager Steven Buck, right, delivers a presentation about newly arrived asylum seekers at an emergency city council meeting on Tuesday.

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday night, city officials in Sanford addressed confusion and concern over the unexpected arrival of more than 100 asylum seekers in the last week.

City manager Steven Buck said about 25 families have been placed in temporary emergency housing, but stressed that the city has no more capacity.

Buck said the city is now vetting the new arrivals to see if they had previously been receiving services in other municipalities, which, he said, would complicate their eligibility for General Assistance benefits in Sanford.

"The larger number of arrivals indicated they had left their current shelter or housing circumstances and had electively engaged to Sanford after hearing that better housing, i.e. hotel rooms, would be granted," Buck said.

Buck and council members said coordination between the city and partner groups will be a key to addressing the situation, and they advised residents to direct donations to established groups instead of providing assistance on an ad-hoc basis.

City manager Steven Buck told the council he believes many of the families were “solicited and brought here”, and says his office was looking into who may have directed them to Sanford.

Many of the asylum seekers, who are mainly from Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, say they decided to come to Sanford from Portland after hearing that housing assistance was available in the city.

Some residents have been organizing aid on an informal basis, such as crowdfunding money to pay for hotel rooms for the new arrivals.

But Mayor Becky Brink cautioned that, after consulting with immigrant aid groups and other organizations, that kind of aid could make the families ineligible for municipal assistance in other Maine towns where some had first arrived.

"So just be careful we’re not doing stuff to make ourselves feel good. We have to do stuff that truly helps these families," Brink said.

Some residents who spoke at the meeting aired concerns about the financial burden on the city's General Assistance program, while others urged compassion in welcoming and supporting the new arrivals.