Housing remains a concern for those aiding Afghan evacuees in the Pioneer ValleyDate: 12/8/2021 WESTERN MASS. – As more and more evacuees from Afghanistan arrive in Western Massachusetts, the biggest present concern for the Welcome Home Refugee Resettlement Program is finding ample permanent housing.
“I think that the one that we all expected to be our greatest need has been permanent housing … just finding enough permanent housing for the amount of people coming,” said Kathryn Buckley-Brawner, the executive director of Catholic Charities in Springfield, which is the organization teaming with Hampshire County cities to help resettle evacuees coming into that area.
Buckley-Brawner told Reminder Publishing that five to eight evacuees are coming in on a weekly basis to their agency alone, and as of press time, Catholic Charities has taken in around 58 evacuees from Afghanistan. “It’s pretty much on target for what we expected to arrive,” said Buckley-Brawner, when speaking on the number of evacuees coming in since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August. “What’s been more unexpected is that they came so quickly.”
According to Buckley-Brawner, the reason for such a swift movement of evacuees coming to Hampshire County is because the Massachusetts State Department’s goal is to make sure all Afghanistan evacuees are off the military bases by the end of the year. “Now, whether or not they reach that goal is besides the point, but that’s the state’s goal at the moment,” said Buckley-Brawner.
Outside of Northampton, Amherst, and Easthampton, Catholic Charities has also looked at Chicopee, Holyoke, and Greenfield as areas for housing, as well.
Keegan Pyle, who handles volunteers for Catholic Charities, agreed that permanent housing is the greatest need for evacuees. Beyond that though, Pyle also said that volunteers will be of great need in the future, especially for their circle of care program.
The circle of care program, according to Pyle, is a program in which a group of six volunteers assists incoming evacuees with resettlement in the aforementioned cities. “[The volunteers] help with things like showing them around the community, connecting them to local resources, practicing English with them, showing them how to navigate the grocery store,” said Pyle. Additionally, these volunteers will help the evacuees with important mail and how to pay bills on time, as well as how to access free transportation to get to work on time.
According to Pyle, there are about 450 volunteers working with Catholic Charities for the time being, but she hopes to find 50 more in the near future. Currently, Catholic Charities has 42 circles of care working with the evacuees that have resettled over the past five years. “Because we are expecting quite a few more Afghans over the next couple months, we need even more volunteers for circles of care to help support them,” Pyle added.
Beyond the permanent housing, Buckley-Brawner added that Catholic Charities is helping recently resettled evacuees with their social services, as well as their employment authorization documents – which have finally started to arrive. Despite the progress, there are still major delays with obtaining their Social Security cards, however. Catholic Charities is working with Social Security now to speed the process up.
“For us, it’s following up to find out why there are delays so we can actually get most of these people employed,” said Buckley-Brawner. “They are all willing, anxious, and abundantly skilled, so if we can get the documentation, we can definitely get our clients employed.”
Buckley-Brawner described the stakeholders, nonprofits, and cities as compassionate people when it comes to working with Catholic Charities on this resettlement program. Outside of Catholic Charities, the Jewish Family Service of Western Mass. and the Ascentria Care Alliance are the two other resettlement agencies working diligently in the area. “I think that ultimate goal for all three resettlement agencies, as well as our stakeholders, is to feed our families and become resettled,” Buckley-Brawner added.
After permanent housing, the goal of Catholic Charities will be to establish an asylum status for the evacuees and find legal immigration lawyers to regularize the evacuees’ existence in the United States.
“I think part of this too has to be an understanding that almost all of [the evacuees] have left family members behind,” said Buckley-Brawner. “And this is of great, great concern.”
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