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By Andrew Stanton
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A new program in Maine will provide asylum seekers with free housing for up to two years as cities across the country continue grappling with an influx of migrants.
The United States has seen an influx of migrants entering the country in recent months, at times creating new challenges for city officials as they seek to allocate resources for them. Finding homes for migrants has become a key issue, particularly in communities that already have housing shortages. Many have been living in shelters and hotels across the country, but one city in Maine is launching a program to give some migrants free housing.
Brunswick, Maine, plans to open 60 new apartments for migrants, with 24 of the units already complete, according to local news station WCSH-TV. The units are specifically planned for migrants awaiting their work permits, a process that can take more a year.
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The program is being led by the Maine State Housing Authority, the news station reported.
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According to news station WGME, the state will help pay for migrants' rent using funds approved by the state Legislature. The program has enough funding to pay rent for up to two years, but migrants will need to pay 30 percent of their rent once they find a job, the news station reported.
After the two years of the program are up, the housing, built by the group Developers Collaborative, will be converted to a mix of market-rate and affordable-housing unless officials decide there is need to extend the program, WCSH reported.
Dan Brennan, the executive director of the Maine State Housing Authority, told WCSH that the program is a "unique solution to a very exciting opportunity in our state."
"We have thousands of folks coming to Maine who want to make Maine home. We're doing everything we can to help that situation," he told the news station.
More than 250 families applied to live in the apartments when the wait-list opened last May, prompting officials to close it, reported The Times Record.
Newsweek reached out to the Maine State Housing Authority via email for comment.
Brunswick is a city of more than 20,000 people roughly 26 miles north of Portland, the state's largest city.
Maine, which has about 1.3 million people and has long been viewed as having a housing shortage, has struggled to manage an influx of migrants. City officials in Portland have said that more than 1,600 asylum seekers arrived there last year, reported WSCH.
The city planned to house migrants at the Portland Expo Center, which could hold 300 people, but that hit capacity last year. Housing designed specifically for migrants in southern Maine is scarce, with one other 52-unit complex in South Portland offering housing for them, reported the Press Herald.
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