When walking through Catholic Charities’ Northside CYO's refugee resettlement office, it can be an overwhelming sight. Instantly, you’re hearing a variety of different languages – Arabic, French, Ukrainian, Pashto – all around you.
They serve refugees from all over the world, who come to seek help in the form of employment, housing, medical care, and legal assistance as they start their lives in the United States. No matter what language they speak, there’s always someone working at Catholic Charities who can interpret for them. In fact, most of those working there are former refugees themselves.
Unfortunately, those seeking help are now less likely to get it. In February, at least 50 workers at the organization – over 70% of their workforce – had either been laid off or furloughed indefinitely, according to Felicia Castricone, the Refugee Services Program Officer.
They’re not the only organization in Syracuse to face layoffs. Another major resettlement group, Interfaith Works, faced 19 layoffs in March – half of their workforce.
That’s because refugee resettlement organizations in Central New York and nationwide still haven’t been reimbursed for critical federal funds. This came after the Trump administration suspended the country’s resettlement program, leaving the groups struggling to meet the needs of Syracuse’s refugee community.
In fact, according to Castricone, Trump’s halting of incoming refugees affected those who were already legally cleared to settle into the country. As in, refugees on their way to the U.S. by plane were barred from entry.
“Their flights were canceled, so this start of a new life that they waited years and years for was gone,” Castricone said. “And many of those individuals already had relatives here. So we have relatives here who were waiting for those people, and now really have no hope of being reunited anytime soon.”
That halt in refugees meant the canceling of federal resettlement contracts. This also meant that resettlement agencies that provided the service in the past weren’t reimbursed and given compensation. For example, Catholic Charities is owed over $1.7 million, which makes up approximately half of their yearly budget for refugee resettlement services.
One service that’s particularly dependent on federal dollars is intensive case management. That’s when refugees are first arriving for the first time, and therefore require more time and resources for them to have a stable footing for them to settle. None of the funds allocated for intensive case management for this year arrived in their entirety.
To compensate, Catholic Charities had to support those vulnerable refugees at their own cost, knowing full well that the act would drain the organization’s limited resources.
“That was at tremendous cost to our agency,” Felicia Castricone said. “We thought we had to do it, but we had to absorb all of those unreimbursed costs.”
Additionally, federal funds were also used to pay for housing and rental assistance. Groups like Catholic Charities and Refugee and Immigrant Self-Empowerment (RISE) would make up for gaps in a refugee’s housing bill using those funds, ensuring that they had a place to live. They split that responsibility with Onondaga County, meaning that they each paid half.
“Unfortunately for us,” Haji Adan, the Executive Director of RISE stated at a fundraiser dinner, “the federal funding of that program has been frozen.”
Such a prolonged pause in rental assistance leaves many refugees, even those with full-paying jobs, less secure in their financial futures and more likely to face eviction.
Nevertheless, one of the services least affected by the funding squeeze remained their English language services. In the case of Catholic Charities, their ESOL classes are fully funded by New York State, meaning that their books and supplies remain properly funded.
The same can’t be said for the English program at RISE. According to Rajendra Sharma, the ENL Coordinator at the organization, their budget shortfalls mean that there’s less money to buy books. Additionally, the organization used to operate a shuttle service to bring students to class for their English lessons.
“But now,” Sharma lamented, “we don’t have the funds to pay the driver.” As a result, he said, they canceled one of their in-person classes since not enough people could go to it.
In spite of the massive drop in funds, all of Syracuse’s major resettlement agencies announced that they will continue to serve the city’s refugee communities in any way they can. In an open letter signed by Interfaith Works, another major resettlement agency operating in Syracuse, President and CEO Beth Broadway announced that “InterFaith Works of CNY will not close…We have survived past challenges and have come out stronger. And we will do so again.”
Without federal funds, the nearest alternatives come from state and local governments and from donations, though undoubtedly at smaller scales. It’s still unclear if any of these sources will adequately fill the funding gap left by the federal government.
Even if the funding gap can be filled or if federal funding is returned, Castricone said that the state of refugee resettlement won’t be the same as it used to be.
“Once this kind of funding is done, the whole system is impacted, Castricone said. "The staff isn’t there to quickly bounce back and do refugee resettlement again. The systems aren’t in place anymore.”
