July 23, 2024, 17:12 | Updated: July 24, 2024, 8:23 a. m. m.
Kent refugee camp, June 3, 2024 (Photo: Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio)
(Photo: Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio)
BY SAM CAMPBELL
About 170 asylum-seeking refugees living in a Kent camp were moved into transitional housing over the course of a week, King County and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) told KIRO Newsradio.
It is one of the largest seismic movements ever recorded for a group of refugees who have moved from one city to another in King County over the past year as gradual housing relief efforts dwindled. .
Jon Grant, LIHI’s chief strategy officer, said the organization was primarily inclusive of women and children.
“These are very young children; There are babies and toddlers who were sleeping outdoors in this box during the heat wave,” he said. “So we try to act as temporarily as possible to attract as many people to the place as possible. “
According to Grant, the vast majority of refugees were placed in rental housing in homes owned by LIHI in King County. Grant said LIHI also offers a rental subsidy.
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In an email to KIRO Newsradio, a spokesperson for King County said the state has given the county a total of $5 million for refugee relief. But it appears that only a portion of this money was diverted to help the Kent refugee camp.
Grant said the recent relocation of the 170 refugees was funded with about $1. 2 million through King County. He described it as a stopgap measure to fill the void while LIHI, its partners and refugees wait for a public program to begin this fall.
“We see this as an interim investment for a broader program that’s being built at the state level,” Grant said, referring to the Washington State Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. “It will coordinate a statewide effort to provide others with housing and legal assistance. This will be implemented in September.
Meanwhile, 40 to 50 refugees, mostly from countries in Africa and Central and South America, remain in the Kent camp on Central Avenue, near the ramp to State Route 167. Several men living in the camp told KIRO Newsradio that they are worried. that the expected help will not arrive soon enough because they are running out of food.
Previous coverage: Hundreds of asylum-seeking refugees set up camp in Central District Park
The camp relies primarily on food donations, but donations have slowed, refugees said. Refugees showed KIRO Newsradio reporter Sam Campbell the tent set up as a makeshift kitchen, where propane tanks used to cook food had been emptied and canned food materials are in short supply.
They built their makeshift tent in the kitchen, where propane is running out and canned goods are dwindling.
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Alexander Jiménez from Venezuela spoke with KIRO Newsradio, his comments translated from Spanish to English.
He asked citizens to “ask the municipality to approve, through the LIHI, other rooms so that those of us who remain here can also leave this camp. “
But even after leaving the camp, Grant said the money for transitional housing for the 170 refugees would cover rent for about six months, after which he expects the state program to take over.
It’s not permanent, Grant said, but this approach is because many refugees are still waiting for approval from the federal immigration government regarding their asylum status.
“One of the most demanding situations is that for a lot of federally subsidized housing, they’re going to be eligible until their asylum status is demonstrated through the United States (Citizenship and Immigration Services),” he said.
Instead, LIHI and other partners working with them, he said, have focused on transitional developments that do not require citizenship.
But housing is part of the problem. Illnesses and illnesses worry others within the camp. M’beka, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo, told Campbell that many needed medical attention, he added.
“I’m sick, I have tuberculosis,” he said, adding that he still had no option to stay in the camp, where he feared transmitting the infection to others. “It’s dangerous. There are many other people who suffer from diseases. . . It’s a problem.
Fitness officials in King County told KIRO Newsradio in an email that mobile medical groups had visited the Kent camp. Grant told KIRO Newsradio that his groups knew that a user at the camp had tuberculosis, but fitness officials clarified that there was no indication of an *active case* of tuberculosis (TB).
Health governments distinguish between active tuberculosis and inactive infections; the latter do not pose any threat of spread.
“We check to see if Americans at camp have an inactive TB infection, as it is not a notifiable disease like TB,” a spokesperson for the public fitness department wrote in the email. “But because TB is much more common in the places where asylum seekers come from, they are at higher risk for it. “
Health officials have said he has to spend hours with active TB in an indoor setting to be in danger of infection. It is not yet clear whether the individual case of M’beka is an inactive infection or a potentially unreported and unproven active disease, as man has done. did not provide any medical history to KIRO Newsradio.
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Teams from Harborview Medical Center and other physical care organizations worked with LIHI to provide care to the refugees, Grant said, adding that there were still other people living in the camp with “serious” untreated conditions.
“There have been outbreaks of COVID-19, we know of at least one case of tuberculosis,” he said. “And we’ve tried to prioritize other people based on their medical wishes for housing assistance that we have, but we know that there are other people who still have pretty serious medical issues that we haven’t been able to treat. Hopefully, we can mobilize more resources to make sure that other people who are sick, other people with serious health problems, can get housing. They want to live in a safe environment and recover.
At the time of publication, it is unclear when the remaining refugees will be placed in housing.
“We would be more than satisfied to serve those other people and provide them with housing if the county or state had more funding,” Grant said. “We are in talks with our government partners to see if this would be possible. But right now, those other people are out and they want to have housing.
A Kent city official familiar with the ongoing discussions told KIRO Newsradio that “things are moving,” but may only provide explicit details.
KIRO Newsradio has reached out to King County for clarification.
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