Around 50 people attended a discussion on the possibility of making Jamestown a refugee resettlement city.
Mayor Eddie Sundquist led the conversation at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church with people who represented groups who could provide potential services and support to a refugee population.
Sundquist said his office has received a lot of inquiries about how Jamestown could support the increasing numbers of refugees coming to New York State, which led to him speaking with resettlement agencies and the state to see if a pilot program would be feasible in Jamestown.
He said agencies are looking at areas that can offer affordable housing, employment, education, access to healthcare, and also deal with language barriers. Sundquist said the City’s role in last night’s discussion wasn’t so much to put together a refugee program but to gauge community interest in doing so, “We want to make sure, as the city, that bucket – our community – can handle that, is ready for it, can provide support for those refugees before we help turn the faucet on, start the water, and really bring people to this area.”
Sundquist said notes on the discussion will be compiled and sent out to attendees with hopes to set another meeting in the coming weeks.
Absolutely no this is not the area to take on refugees, we have enough people living the system and not working.
Don’t assume these people would not be working. Many of these people and skilled and educated but they’ve had to leave their country because of a regime that threatens their freedom. They wouldn’t even be here if they weren’t choosing life over death back home! Many of these people are actually skilled, highly educated, speak English, would be happy to earn a living, and have no desire to subsist on the small amount they might get from our welfare system.
Agree that Jamestown may not be ideal for this resettlement proposal.
Jamestown is the 10th worst city in WNY do you feel the need to move up???
This mayor must be sniffing fairy dust. Jamestown is circling the drain now….why add to the problem?
No there isn’t enough decent housing as it is . I don’t want to move but if more people come here I will have to. Still haven’t figured out how it’s affordable to live here. Rent is outrageous and landlords don’t like to fix problems .