It’s unlikely the plan to accommodate asylum seekers in Unity will occur
A proposal to accommodate a few of Portland’s rising variety of asylum seekers at Unity Environmental College’s Quaker Hill campus is unlikely to occur — at the very least not by August as some officers had hoped.
Regardless of Portland’s self-imposed mid-August deadline to maneuver asylum seekers from the Portland Expo the place they’ve been housed, there aren’t any concrete plans or funding in place and thus far, there hasn’t been a gathering between all the stakeholders impacted by the proposal. Actually, the primary e mail communication between Unity and Portland officers solely occurred lower than two weeks in the past.
The Higher Portland Council of Governments group has since requested to fulfill with the Unity Choose Board or converse at one of many board’s conferences, however a ultimate date hasn’t but been set and the assembly gained’t occur till at the very least September, stated Tom Bell, the group’s communications director. Unity officers wish to see that assembly occur in public, not personal.
Whereas there was all the time a hope that the proposal could be accepted by the point the non permanent shelter on the Portland Expo was set to shut, Bell stated the group will proceed to pursue the proposal to ultimately home some asylum seekers on the faculty in Unity. The group’s total plan to accommodate asylum seekers on the faculty in Unity has been occurring since earlier than that emergency shelter even opened earlier this yr, Bell stated.
Nonetheless, Unity city officers have repeatedly stated they don’t assist the proposal at previous Choose Board conferences. They spotlight issues about the fee and duty that the city could possibly be required to undertake to assist an inflow of asylum seekers, in addition to expressing frustration over an absence of communication between Unity and Portland officers.
The governor’s workplace said it was reviewing the proposal in early July, however has not made any additional bulletins on the standing of the plan.
The primary direct communication between the Higher Portland Council of Governments and city officers was an introductory e mail despatched to the choose board on July 17 by Belinda Ray, the council’s director of strategic partnerships, in response to paperwork obtained by way of a Freedom of Entry Act request. That e mail got here greater than a month after the Portland group handed alongside a proposal to accommodate asylum seekers on the faculty in Unity to the state authorities.
Unity Selectman Tim Parker Jr. instructed Ray the city board was not all in favour of assembly privately with the group, and stated at Unity’s most up-to-date choose board assembly that any dialog between the city and Portland officers must be held publicly.
Officers from the Higher Portland Council of Governments in June proposed housing asylum seekers on the Unity faculty campus to deal with the shortage of area at Portland shelters and non permanent housing. Portland’s Mayor and Metropolis Supervisor requested the state to approve the proposal in a June 29 letter to Gov. Janet Mills, saying the town plans to shut non permanent emergency housing opened on the Portland Expo on Aug. 16, probably displacing a whole bunch of asylum seekers.
College President Melik Peter Khoury has maintained that the varsity is open to the concept of housing asylum seekers on its Quaker Hill campus, which solely has just a few dozen college students housed on campus as the bulk attend courses on-line. In previous statements, Khoury stated the varsity wouldn’t transfer ahead till it sees a plan outlining how the method would work, with enter from native and state officers in addition to advocacy teams.
