BRUNSWICK, Maine — A group of apartment buildings under construction in Brunswick could be ready to welcome asylum seekers by the end of the year.
Developers Collaborative, the same agency developing the shelter for asylum seekers in Portland, is building these 60 units on Coral Sea Street in Brunswick. Kevin Bunker, one of the founders of DC, said he expects the first building of 12 units should be ready by August. The other four will be ready one-by-one, with all ready by November.
MaineHousing is paying the rent since the federal government prohibits asylum seekers from working for at least six months after filing their initial asylum applications.
"I think real estate can really be a tool for giving people a hand up," Bunker said. "The money is limited. We don't have unlimited funds and it's not realistic to expect that we would have unlimited funds. So, in a sense, it's going to be 60 very lucky families who are going to get these units."
Of the more than 1,500 asylum seekers who have arrived in Portland since January 1, 2023, about 300 are living at the Portland Expo; roughly 140 are living in the city's Homeless Services Center; and hundreds more are living in hotels.
"They definitely need that temporary emergency housing because the shelters are supposed to be able to turn and welcome new people. If the shelters aren't turning because no one can move out of a shelter then that piece of social infrastructure doesn't work," Bunker said.
Fatuma Hussein, executive director of the Immigration Resource Center of Maine, said her organization is in the planning stage of helping asylum seekers get settled in these units. The IRC is the service provider for people who will live in these units.
When Bunker and his team opened the waiting list for the 60 units, they got 250 applications in less than an hour, she said.
"For every unit that's been built, there are hundreds if not thousands of people out there that need that unit," Hussein said. "It's life-saving. It signifies hope. It signifies the beginning of a new home."
"There's all these questions about where's our workforce going to come from. Well, our workforce is trying to come here. We just have to let them," Bunker said.