Holyoke, Mass., against accepting Somali refugees City asks U.S. to rescind grant

HOLYOKE, Mass. – A federal official said a decision is pending on whether to go along with this western Massachusetts city’s request and take back grant money to resettle Somali refugees.

Michael Musante, spokesman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, said city officials must discuss the matter with religious organizations that applied for funds to resettle about 300 Somalis before any decision is made.

The Holyoke City Council voted 12-2 earlier this month to oppose a plan to relocate the Somalis in the city of 40,000 residents, where paper and linen mills that were once engines of growth are now shuttered.

The resolution asks the federal government to rescind a $320,577 annual grant to be given out over three years. Councilors said the city lacks the money needed – even with the grant – to house and educate the refugees, who are members of Somalia’s Bantu minority.

Similar concerns have surfaced in Lewiston, Maine, where 1,200 Somalian immigrants have already settled. The refugees in Lewiston settled there on their own, without federal funding for the transition.

The Lewiston mayor recently set off a controversy with an open letter to Somali residents asking that they discourage friends and family from coming to the city because its resources were stretched to the limit.

On Sunday, Lewiston residents joined the Somalis in a march through the city to show the refugees are welcome.

In Massachusetts, Jewish Family Services applied for government funds to resettle Somalis in partnership with Catholic Charities and the Council of Churches of Greater Springfield.

“There are many in the city of Holyoke who believe that our city was chosen precisely because it has social and economic problems,” Raymond H. Feyre, who has been on Holyoke’s City Council for 20 years, wrote in a letter published in Springfield’s Sunday Republican.

Councilor Mark Lubold, who voted against the resolution seeking to have the government rescind the resettlement grant, said the council should have held off until after a public forum that’s scheduled for next week.

Musante said the federal refugee agency would rescind the money only at the request of the applicant.

“Jewish Family Services will sit down with the Holyoke City Council and mayor and discuss this issue that has come up and we will wait to see what the outcome of that is,” Musante said.

The charities still want to bring the Somalis to Holyoke, noting that it has low-cost housing the refugees need. Holyoke has the lowest per capita income in the state, according to city officials.

“We feel this is a great place to resettle refugees,” said Robert D. Marmor, executive director of the Springfield-based Jewish Family Services.