City of Olympia will use funds to help immigrant, refugee families. Here’s what it will cost
The Olympia City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to provide $30,000 in council goal funds to help immigrants and refugee families who have settled in the city and throughout Thurston County.
The move was proposed by council member Clark Gilman. He said due to recent federal funding cuts, about 40 refugees in Olympia have lost access to money and support that the U.S. government had promised them to help resettle and acclimate.
Gilman said many refugee and immigrant people who are legally settled in the area have had help through the Christian nonprofit World Relief. The agency has been working through the federal government’s refugee resettlement program to provide services to families. It’s one of the programs that was affected by funding cuts to the United States Agency for International Development, also known as USAID.
Gilman said World Relief helps people find stable housing and a job, receive orientation about their new culture and language, and help with getting their children enrolled in school.
“These families are just seeking safety and a place to plant roots, and Olympia has been proud to welcome newcomers,” Gilman said. “We’ve had a long history of that, and are proud to do that today.”
He said allocating $30,000 of council goal funds to the nonprofit would help sustain its support services for refugees in Thurston County. He also requested that the council formally urge the cities of Tumwater and Lacey as well as Thurston County to join Olympia in contributing to ensure a coordinated regional response to the community’s needs.
Gilman said those who have settled in Olympia have been feeling stranded for the last month. He said he learned at a meeting March 1 that all but one of the immigrant and refugee families have found longer-term housing and aren’t in a temporary living arrangement.
Council member Dani Madrone thanked Gilman for his leadership on the issue. She pointed out that Gilman has been engaging with the immigrant community to learn about the needs they have.
City Manager Jay Burney said Gilman’s involvement with immigrant and refugee families goes back to before World Relief had an office in Thurston County.
“I think he’s been advocating for this work and for World Relief and the immigrant refugees that are resettled here long before this request came,” Burney said. “So when there was this risk of federal funding being cut and there was a worry that the meetings would stop because they got canceled, he called the partners together himself and offered to keep the conversation alive.”
Burney said $30,000 seems like a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but it’s huge to the individuals who need it.
“It sets the stage for World Relief to say, ‘Hey, here’s what the City of Olympia is doing. We need your help for others,’” Burney said.
Mayor Dontae Payne said the funding allocation is a big deal because Olympia is a city of action.
“We do what we say,” Payne said.
He said immigration and refugee resettlement can be a political and polarizing conversation, but that the referral is about helping people who are in Olympia legally.
“This is about making sure that we put their humanity first above all else, and do what we can to assist them,” he said.
Payne said he’s proud to support Gilman’s proposal, and he’s really hoping Olympia’s neighboring jurisdictions join in the effort.
“I know we’re all in different budget situations, but I’m hoping that they can contribute something to it, because this is an example of when the federal government does not do its job, that cities have to then come in and step up to the plate and do what they should be doing,” Payne said.
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