Manchester Union Leader, December 14, 2011
By Beth LaMontagne Hall
 

The Executive Council is expected today to release $355,000 in federal funds for state refugee services it had previously put on hold.

The move comes days after the state Office of Minority Health and Refugee Affairs and refugee resettlement agencies Lutheran Services and International Institute of New Hampshire complied with an information request made by mayor Ted Gatsas last week. Gatsas had argued the money should be withheld until those agencies answered the city’s questions about how the refugee resettlement program works, how they monitor refugee success and where and how the money is spent.

Alderman Pat Long, who is widely involved in Manchester refugee issues, said he supports releasing the funds. The U.S. State Department did not agree to the city’s request for a moratorium on refugee resettlements next year. To ensure the refugees that are coming are taken care of, that money should be released, Long argued last week at the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.

“Now that the State Department says we’re getting 200 refugees, I don’t see the need to hold the money”, said Long on Tuesday. “I understand the leveraging argument, but I lean a little more toward releasing the money because the refugees are here and this money is helping them”.

Long’s proposal won the support of half of his fellow Aldermen, but was defeated when Gatsas cast the tie‐breaking vote against asking to release the funds.

Now the questions have been answered, Gatsas said on Tuesday, it is up to the Executive Council whether to release the funds.

Gatsas said he will continue to fight for a moratorium. The majority of refugees should not go to

Manchester, Concord and Laconia, he said, but should be more evenly spread throughout communities in the state.

The Executive Council tabled four grants for refugee health and school interpreting grants on Nov. 30 as a way to leverage better communication and cooperation with the refugee resettlement agencies and the resettlement cities. Some of the funds are going to the Manchester Health Department, while the majority of the funds are headed to International Institute and Lutheran Services. Those grants are just a piece of the expected $2 million in federal funds expected to come to New Hampshire this fiscal year for refugee services.

Councilor Ray Wieczorek said he expects the grants to come off the table and pass.

Although the city received responses to its questions, Gatsas and Long said they have mixed feelings about some of the answers.

While Lutheran Services was forthcoming with its answers and shed light on how the refugee resettlement and tracking process works, Long said, the state and International Institute could have done better.