The South Portland City Council approved an order Tuesday that freed up $150,000 in state funds that will be used to help asylum-seeking migrants currently staying at one of the city’s hotels find permanent housing.
Over one hundred asylum seekers have been staying at the Howard Johnson hotel in South Portland on the taxpayers’ dime since the city approved a one-year contract with the hotel on June 27, 2023.
That contract, which turned the hotel into a temporary transitional housing facility for the migrants, included $200,000 in state funds set aside to reimburse the city for ambulance calls, General Assistance spending, or other expenditures.
The state, through the Maine State Housing Authority (MaineHousing), has been paying Catholic Charities of Maine to provide services for the asylum seekers staying at the hotel since the start of the contract.
As of Feb. 1, 2024, a total of 153 migrants — 71 adults and 82 children — are occupying 80 rooms at the Howard Johnson hotel.
[RELATED: MaineHousing Grants Portland $364,000 to Extend City’s Migrant Resettlement Program For 12 Months…]
The contract is set to expire on June 30, 2024, and during the South Portland City Council’s Jan. 9 meeting MaineHousing indicated that all the migrants currently staying at the hotel would be able to be relocated by the June 30 deadline.
MaineHousing also requested at the January Council meeting that $150,000 of the $200,000 of state funds placed in escrow be freed up so that it could be used to assist the migrants find permanent housing, including paying for the migrants’ rent deposits.
[RELATED: Catholic Charities Maine Touts Taxpayer-Funded Migrant Resettlement Plans…]
According to South Portland city staff, a minimal amount of the $200,000 set aside at the start of the contract has been used — just $1,200 in General Assistance costs and at least two ambulance calls.
The South Portland City Council voted to approve the order Tuesday, freeing up the $150,000 in state funds for “housing navigation services” for the migrants prior to June 30.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25345 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25345">7 Comments
Stealing from us and giving it to trespassers!
$4,000,000 in the hole and still digging…….
South Portland City Councilors are cowards when it comes to saying no to illegals
CDC reports that scabies, TB, syphilis, gonorrhea, leprosy, polio, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, and severe acute respiratory syndromes are just a small list of diseases that are being brought into Maine by immigrants. Seeing how this story will live forever on the internet, Good luck to HJ renting to future customers. Quick check shows there is already a national registry listing places that are/have housed immigrants and HJ is on it so now people can make informed decisions on where to stay.
And who is footing the school bills? Ask Independent King for some money but not mine.
Define PERMANENT HOUSING, and who pays for it?
Trump will solve this problem when elected and he deports these illegals back to their home countries.