What is the Match Grant program? More questions then answers

Your tax dollars:

This topic keeps coming up when we get refugee stories in local newspapers.  Usually a reporter is told that all the refugee resettlement agency gets is $900 (one time payment) per refugee to get them set up in apartments and usually the agency keeps $450 for its own administrative use.

Well there is also this optional Match Grant program described at the Office of Refugee Resettlement website here.  Frankly, some of this is not clear to me, but first here is a description of the program.

Program Goal

The goal of the Matching Grant program is to help refugees, certain Amerasians, Cuban and Haitian entrants, asylees, and certified victims of human trafficking attain economic self-sufficiency within four to six months from date of arrival into the United States.

General Background/ Program Description

The Voluntary Agency Matching Grant (MG) Program is part of the Division of Community Resettlement and is an alternative program to public assistance designed to enable refugees to become self-sufficient within 4 to 6 months from date of arrival into the U.S. Eligible grantees are Voluntary Agencies able to coordinate comprehensive multilingual, multicultural services for refugees at local sites – these same agencies are under Cooperative Agreements with the Department of State/Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

The Matching Grant Program requires a match from private funds or donated goods and services to partner with monies provided by ORR. For Calendar Year 2007, the program achieved 80% self sufficiency for the 28,137 participants. In CY 2008, ORR funded $60 million to the Match Grant Program With a per capita of $2,200; the MG program will serve 27,272 clients through 230 local affiliates of the Voluntary Agencies.

Eligible Applicants

Competition is limited. Only agencies that have on-going relationships with refugees that have been established as a result of providing reception and placement services under the terms of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of State (DOS) or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are eligible to apply.

The theory sounds good with the idea being to get refugees established in a job and on their own with minimum welfare demands and public support.   But, here is what I would like to know.

How much does the refugee get each month for the 6 months of the program from the $2200 in cash the agency gets?  All of it? Or, does the agency get a cut of it for administration?

Does the refugee living in subsidized housing pay any rent out of this money?

By the way, the “match” part of this involves the agency getting together $1000 in cash or donated stuff to “match” the federal layout of the $2200 in cash (Public-Private partnership mythology).  The agency gets to set the value of the donated stuff and does anyone ever check to confirm the stuff is worth what they say it is? 

And, the program doesn’t kick in for the first 30 days, so that means the agency has to initially lay out for all the needs of the refugee in the initial resettlement period that are required by the State Department’s Operational Guidance, here.   Refugees aren’t then being billed for expenses the agency originally provided for, along with that airfare bill the the resettlement agency wants repaid, are they?

So a refugee could get a job, any old job, sometime in the six month period of the match grant and lose it in the 7th month and still count as being successfully self-sufficient, is that right?

And, at the end of the period, the refugee could then go right back on all sorts of public assistance, right?

Since the program is only supposed to be for refugees who have a really good shot at self-sufficiency, doesn’t this make for problems within the same apartment buildings or neighborhoods when refugees compare notes about who gets what from the government?

We spent $60 million on this prgram in FY2008.    Find a Match Grant program near you, here.

Check out the most recent report (2007) and see how your favorite volag fared, here. I’ll bet these numbers are pretty rotten for FY2009!

I wonder does any outside source check the volag stats on self-sufficiency?  Also, I wonder if there is any penalty for “out-migration” which I assume means that some refugee bags this whole program and moves?

Readers, our goal in writing this blog was to inform the general public about how the refugee resettlement program works.  If you can answer some of these questions, please do so in the comments so that we all can learn.

Hire a refugee! You might even get a federal tax credit!

Your tax dollars:

As we continue to see a pattern of (excessively!) large numbers of refugees resettled in certain towns and cities near meatpacking plants, it’s pretty obvious there is something in it for the meatpacking giants in addition to being able to keep wages low and virtually having a captive labor pool to choose from, there may also be tax credits—namely the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC).   You can learn all about it here.

Also, I just came across this handy resource called Refugee Works where prospective employers can learn about all the advantages of hiring refugees.

However, now I have many more questions.  Do the resettlement agencies have any sort of contractual arrangement with certain big businesses to hire their refugees?  Do poor and unemployed American citizens get the sorts of help and guidance that the refugees get?  Is there actually a federal-guided effort to get new refugees to meatpacking towns? (I think that was definitely happening in Iowa in the Clinton Administration, here)  And, since an eligible WOTC refugee need only be employed for, it looks like 10 weeks (400 hours), in order for the business to reap its tax benefit, could an unscrupulous employer just let someone go after that point and get a fresh refugee and start the process all over?

So, in addition to having a compliant (helpless really!) labor force close at hand with potential new employees rotating in as others burn out, move on, or are fired, these big business employers have employees who are subsidized by the taxpayer in the form of food stamps, subsidized housing, some medical coverage, etc.  Thus employers can continue, guilt free I suppose, to not pay a living wage.  I would also like to know what’s in it for the resettlement agency (aka refugee employment service)?

I’m pretty cynical these days so this brings to mind the concept of modern day slavery!

If anyone can answer my questions, or convince me this isn’t what I think it is, I look forward to your response.  If you don’t want to send a comment for the public to read, please e-mail me privately at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com

Operational Guidance to Resettlement Agencies document available

Since there has evolved a big discussion at my most recent Comment Worth Noting about Bowling Green, KY refugee resettlement, a reader suggested I tell you about a US State Department document entitled, “Operational Guidance to Resettlement Agencies.”   The document most recently revised in 2006 lists the requirements that resettlement agencies must follow when resettling new refugees—it is specific right down to the silverware required!  And, by the way, it says NO BUGS in apartments.

If you would like a copy of the pdf file, e-mail me at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com   I don’t live at the computer so it might take a few hours before I see your e-mail, but I will get it right out to you as soon as I see your request!

This is an important document you should have if you have concerns about the quality of care refugees are receiving in your community.

Update!   Here is a link to the 2001 version of this document, the 2006 document isn’t much different.  If you do want the 2006 version as well, please let me know.

States must submit refugee resettlement report each fiscal year

When I wrote about funds (lots of federal funds) going to Catholic Charities in Kentucky and Tennessee yesterday and today, I was reminded* of the Code of Federal Regulations that govern the Refugee Resettlement Program.  Readers wishing to try to understand this program better might want to look over the regulations here. 

I won’t pretend to understand them entirely myself, but I recall that State coordinators are required to submit a plan each fiscal year to the Office of Refugee Resettlement that has been approved by the Governor.

This is from 45 CFR Section 400.4:

(b) A State must certify no later than 30 days after the beginning of each Federal fiscal year that the approved State plan is current and continues in effect. If a State wishes to change its plan, a State must submit a proposed amendment to the plan. The proposed amendment will be reviewed and approved or disapproved in accordance with §400.8.

Regarding that line I have in bold, we are now at 30 days after the beginning of the fiscal year which began October 1, 2009 (FY2010).

From Section 400.5,  this is what the plan must include:

The plan must:

(a) Provide for the designation of, and describe the organization and functions of, a State agency (or agencies) responsible for developing the plan and administering, or supervising the administration of, the plan;

(b) Describe how the State will coordinate cash and medical assistance with support services to ensure their successful use to encourage effective refugee resettlement and to promote employment and economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.

(c) Describe how the State will ensure that language training and employment services are made available to refugees receiving cash assistance, and to other refugees, including State efforts to actively encourage refugee registration for employment services;

(d) Identify an individual designated by the Governor or the appropriate legislative authority of the State, with the title of State Coordinator, who is employed by the State and will have the responsibility and authority to ensure coordination of public and private resources in refugee resettlement in the State;

(e) Provide for, and describe the procedures established for, the care and supervision of, and legal responsibility (including legal custody and/or guardianship under State law, as appropriate) for, unaccompanied refugee children in the State;

(f) Provide for and describe (1) the procedures established to identify refugees who, at the time of resettlement in the State, are determined to have medical conditions requiring, or medical histories indicating a need for, treatment or observation, and (2) the procedures established to monitor any necessary treatment or observation;

(g) Provide that assistance and services funded under the plan will be provided to refugees without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or political opinion; and

(h) Provide that the State will, unless exempted from this requirement by the Director, assure that meetings are convened, not less often than quarterly, whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the appropriate placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival. All existing exemptions to this requirement will expire 90 days after the effective date of this rule. Any State that wishes to be exempted from the provisions regarding the holding and frequency of meetings may apply by submitting a written request to the Director. The request must set forth the reasons why the State considers these meetings unnecessary because of the absence of problems associated with the planning and coordination of refugee placement. An approved exemption will remain in effect for three years, at which time a State may reapply.

(i) Provide that the State will:

(1) Comply with the provisionsof title IV, Chapter 2, of the Act and official issuances of the Director;

(2) Meet the requirements in this part;

(3) Comply with all other applicable Federal statutes and regulations in effect during the time that it is receiving grant funding; and

(4) Amend the plan as needed to comply with standards, goals, and priorities established by the Director.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0960–0418)

[51 FR 3912, Jan. 30, 1986, as amended at 60 FR 33602, June 28, 1995; 65 FR 15443, Mar. 22, 2000]

ACTION NEEDED

Beginning today, I am going to write to each of the State Coordinators listed here and ask for the state’s most recent plan.   I recommend readers who are concerned with the refugee program in your state do so also.   Note in the regulations above, state coordinators are required to be employees of the State.

* I first wrote about these regulations last February when I was addressing the issue of states being able to opt out of the program.   So far, only the State of Wyoming has done so.

Tennessee Catholic Charities rolling in federal dough now too!

USA Spending.gov sure is an entertaining government website for anyone interested in watching the flow of your tax dollars.

Yesterday, after I wrote about Kentucky’s Catholic Charities stash of cash, I noticed that one of Tennessee’s Catholic Charities had also brought in a large pile of federal dough in 2009 for refugee programs.  Yet,  Tennessee is way down the list of states when ranked by the number of refugees they resettle.

More interesting is to note what a huge jump in funds this particular Catholic Charities office received compared to previous years.  What did they do to deserve that?  Would someone in-the-know please write to us to explain (I feel like Glenn Beck must feel with his red phone line to the White House!).

For FY2009 Catholic Charities of TN, Inc raked in $8,539,705 of your federal tax dollars for refugee programs!   We will be eager to see how many refugees were resettled in Tennessee in 2009 to warrant that big hike.

In 2008, they received $1,880,242  (847 refugees resettled*)  To clarify, we don’t even know if Catholic Charities resettled the entire 847 refugees themselves.

In 2007, they received $194,392  (961 refugees resettled)

In 2006, there is no report    (724 refugees resettled)

* You can see here where I get the refugee numbers, check this out for your state too!

Go to this list of State Coordinators and note that Holly Johnson, employed at this Catholic Charities office, is also the Tennessee State coordinator for the refugee program, isn’t that interesting?   In many (most, I think) states there is a separate state office overseeing the program.

FY2009: How many refugees did we resettle and from what countries?

Just now I was looking for the statistics on the number of Cuban refugees we have resettled recently for another post I’m working on, and see that this website, The Cultural Orientation Resource Center*, has updated its numbers for the close of fiscal year 2009 which ended September 30th.

Here is the site, you might enjoy going over the numbers.  We resettled a total of 74,652 refugees.   I see we brought 730 Palestinians—that is new.  We’ve brought only a handful in prior years.  We are back in the thousands of Somalis, and the top sending countries are Iraq, Burma and Bhutan (really Nepal).

*After searching around I learned that the Cultural Orientation Resource Center is a program of the Center for Applied Linguistics which can be found here on USA Spending.gov.  I bring this to your attention to show how your tax dollars are distributed to the most arcane projects and programs and to make my point that refugees are big business—well, government-funded business that is!

Convicted criminals should not get federal grants

Your tax dollars:

As a follow-up to my post yesterday on USA Spending.gov, here is another government website you can check if you are concerned about someone you know getting a federal grant (contracts too, I think) and you know they have been convicted of a crime.

It is called debarment in government lingo when someone is disallowed or forbidden to receive government funding.

This is the site, it’s called the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS).  Yes, what a name, not one you would think to google!  

So, if you know someone getting federal grants and they have been convicted of a crime, check this list.  If they are  not on it, then write to the agency and to the agency’s Inspector General that is awarding the grant and tell them that so-and-so has reasons to be debarred.  There are other reasons besides a criminal conviction, but I don’t know what they are.  I didn’t research that.

This is filed in our category ‘where to find information.’

USA Spending.gov website seems much improved

Your tax dollars:

People ask me all the time, how much does refugee resettlement cost the US.  Frankly there is no way to figure that out with any accuracy.  However, thanks to USA Spending you can get a little idea of how much the federal taxpayer shells out for the program. 

I first told you about this handy website here, but when I first used it, it didn’t seem so up-to-date, but I notice now it is much improved.

USA Spending is where you can check out how much grant money (contracts too, but I didn’t go there) that businesses, local and state governments and non-profits are getting from the federal government.  To start with I wanted to know how much the Top Ten volags (refugee resettlement contractors) were receiving now (in my previous post I found numbers for 2008).   So here is what I found for FY2009:

Church World Service:  $31,098,497   (Note that almost $900,000 of this went to their Washington DC office.  We have heard that the US State Department pays for the volags DC offices, so I’m wondering if that is what that amount is for.  Then I suppose they use the DC office to lobby for more money and for promoting comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty.)

Ethiopian Community Development Council:  $7,898,621

Episcopal Migration Ministries:  No report, so it must get its money in another name.

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society:   $13,386,048

International Rescue Committee:   $90,790,153

US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants:  That is funny, there is no report for USCRI either and I even checked under its two other names, US Committee for Refugees and Immigration and Refugee Services of America.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services:  No report.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops:   They have their money sent elsewhere because I’ve tried to search for them before.  So, lacking any other way to find out where their (your) money goes, I’ve searched Catholic Charities and that amount for 2009 is $85,557,665.

World Relief Corporation:  $23,112,641

State of Iowa, Bureau of Refugee Services:   This is the tenth volag, but it’s beyond my abilities to figure out how much this agency gets.  I see the whole Dept. of Human Services which is the parent agency to the Bureau of Refugee Services gets $71,231,004 from the federal taxpayer. 

By the way, when you go to the links above, note in the lower right hand corner you can see how much each was awarded in previous years and you can also see a breakdown of what programs your tax dollars were used for.

Other refugee-related agencies that interested me: 

International Organization for Migration:   $301,623,246

UN High Commissioner for Refugees:   $641,255,483  (You might want to look at previous years to see how much our funding for the UNHCR has grown)

How refugees get stuff: houses, businesses, education and cars

Your tax dollars:

Yesterday a reader asked about special deals for refugees and I was reminded of the Individual Development Accounts—a special savings plan for refugees that provides matching taxpayer money—which I haven’t mentioned for a long time.  I see now there is new information at the site—a list of the 22 organizations and agencies in the country where this sweet deal is available to refugees this past fiscal year.

Here are the objectives right from the ORR website:

The objectives of the IDA Program are to increase the ability of low-income refugees to save; promote their participation in the financial institutions of this country; assist refugees in advancing their education; increase home ownership; and assist refugees in gaining access to capital.

Program description:

Individual development accounts are matched savings accounts available for the purchase of specific assets. Under the IDA program, the matching funds, together with the refugee’s own savings from their employment, are available for purchasing one (or more) of four savings goals: home purchase; microenterprise capitalization; post secondary education or training; and in some cases, purchase of an automobile if necessary to maintain or upgrade employment.

IDA grantees provide matched savings accounts to refugees whose annual income is less than 200 percent of the poverty level and whose assets, exclusive of a personal residence and one vehicle, are less than $10,000. Grantees provide matches [using your tax dollars] of up to $1 for every $1 deposited by a refugee in a savings account. The total match amount provided may not exceed $2,000 for individuals or $4,000 for households. Upon enrolling in an IDA program, a refugee signs a savings plan agreement which specifies the savings goal, the match rate, and the amount the refugee will save each month.

In addition, the IDA grantees provide basic financial training which is intended to assist refugees in understanding the American financial system, budgeting, saving, and credit. The IDA grantees also provide training focused on the specific savings goals. The specialized training ensures that refugees receive appropriate information on purchasing and managing their asset purchases.

Here are the 22 organizations and agencies that received money in FY09 (we have already begun FY10):

1 Alliance for Multicultural Community Service Inc. Houston TX

2 Cambodian Mutual Assistance Assoc of Greater Lowell Lowell MA

3 Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County San Jose CA

4 Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden Camden NJ

5 Catholic Charities, Diocese of St. Petersburg, Inc. St. Petersburg FL

6 Diocese of Olympia Seattle WA

7 ECDC Enterprise Development Group Arlington VA

8 Economic & Community Development Institute Columbus OH

9 International Rescue Committee New York NY

10 Maine Department of Health & Human Services Augusta ME

11 Mountain States Group, Inc. Boise ID

12 Neighborhood Assets Spokane WA

13 United Way, Inc. Los Angeles CA

14 Western Kentucky Refugee Mutual Assistance Society Bowling Green KY

15 Lao Family Community Development, Inc. Oakland CA

16 World Relief DuPage Wheaton IL

17 Women’s Opportunities Resource Center Philadelphia PA

18 ISED Ventures Des Moines IA

19 Business Center for New Americans New York NY

20 International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis St. Louis MO

21 Jewish Family & Vocational Services, Inc. Louisville KY

22 Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc. Nashville TN

I wonder how much of the money went for administering the program.

By the way, note near the end of the ORR web page there is a link to a document that summarizes how much of your money has been redistributed with the help of 54 grantees since 1999.

Reforms needed:   I can’t tell you the number of times I hear from annoyed citizens about how refugees get stuff that other Americans don’t get and it is creating tension in some “welcoming” cities—-mostly because the citizens don’t know how the refugees are getting the stuff.

This program is a prime example of the point I have made from the beginning of writing this blog.  If the government, through our elected officials, thinks this is such an important initiative it should be discussed in public forums (in the local paper, etc.)  in those cities and states where the program is available.    All the facts about refugee resettlement must be made public, it shouldn’t be left to citizens to dig around on obscure websites for information.    

I suspect that a large part of the reason for the secrecy is that government officials know that there will be anger, if the program were thoroughly discussed.

If I’m wrong and the program is well-publicized, I welcome anyone sending me links to news clippings where this program has been made public and I will post those links.

Emerging Infectious Diseases: a useful site at the CDC

The Centers for Disease Control has an interesting section entitled ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’ that you might find a useful resource.    I came across it just now and note this recent article and study about the health of Burmese refugees arriving in Australia.

As we consider the cost of health care in America, the health of refugees should be considered.

We have a category here at RRW called ‘where to find information’ and I’ll post this link there for your future reference.  I found that one need only use the sites search function for “refugees”  (presumably the search could be narrowed to specific refugee groups) to find all sorts of interesting studies on refugee health issues.