On Friday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about a planned apartment complex in Brunswick, Maine.
The article reports:
Residents of a Maine town have hit out at the $13million construction of a complex of 60 apartments for asylum seekers, where they can live rent free for two years then pay a fraction of the rental price.
Locals in Brunswick have expressed fury over the project, which is being funded by a mix of private and public money and which has been heavily criticized by Donald Trump Jr.
The apartment complex in Brunswick is one of the many projects being launched by the town in what critics have labeled a ‘Taj Mahal’, red-carpet welcome for asylum seekers.
There are currently 180 apartments in the Brunswick Landing complex available for anyone to rent. A one bedroom unit costs $1,800 a month, while a two-bedroom costs $2,300 a month.
The new buildings for asylum seekers will allow residents to live rent-free for up to two years while they obtain work permits.
Then, if they obtain a job that pays half of the average local salary of $60,000, they will only have to pay a third of the rental price. It boils down to a monthly cost of around $500 for a one bedroom, and $690 for a two bedroom.
The article continues:
“Up in this part of the world, and up in Maine, they are giving illegal immigrants free housing — multi-million dollar free housing, while they’re kicking out veterans in the street,’ he said in a news clip shared by the conservative Maine Wire. ‘I mean, what’s going on?’
Maine has a population of around 1.3 million people and has recently struggled to deal with a rise in migrants. In Portland, city officials said they received more than 1,600 asylum seekers last year.
But for the 23 families who have already moved into the complex, the facilities are a lifeline.
Among those benefitting is a woman from Nigeria named Esther, who described the accommodation as ‘life changing’.
She moved into the complex after being moved between hotels and shelters.
‘In [a] hotel, there are rules and regulations,’ Esther told News Center Maine. ‘In a shelter too, we have so many people. We share the kitchen together. We share the restroom together.’
Scott Thistle, a spokesperson for MaineHousing, told FOX23 that fewer than percent of the $1.24 billion the agency has allocated in the last two years was for asylum seeker-specific housing.
Let’s take care of our veterans and Americans struggling with finances first.