A Michigan agency is offering a $500 per month payment for residents to take migrants into their homes. The subsidy comes as a number of cities struggle with the weight of the influx of illegal immigrants, including the use of tent cities and public buildings.
The state launched the Newcomer Rental Subsidy offering up to $500 per month per household for up to a year to allow an illegal immigrant to live there. The state said that the eligible immigrants include both legal and illegal immigrants, including Cubans, Haitians and Afghans.
According to the Amy Hovey executive director Amy Hovey, the program would allow migrants to “build a new life here.”
Michigan is now offering $500 a month in rental assistance for up to 12 months to ‘newcomers,’ as they call them pic.twitter.com/X8qgLYj4Jk
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) March 23, 2024
“This program is truly a win-win, as it addresses the most pressing barrier to refugee resettlement by meeting housing needs while setting up families for success with increased employment and opportunity,” she said.
The housing program also comes as word of a murder allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant in the state reached national news. Ruby Garcia was believed to be killed by an illegal immigrant during an attempted carjacking.
The Michigan plan comes as more than seven million illegal immigrants are believed to have entered the country since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
This includes several record-breaking periods in recent history. Last year saw the highest number of migrant encounters on record, with more than three million. December 2023 also saw the number of attempted crossings exceed 300,000 for the first time.
Furthermore, a number of cities have declared emergencies due to the increased flow of migrants. New York City is facing significant budget cuts and trouble housing migrants as almost 200,000 illegal immigrants entered the Big Apple since last year.
New York has implemented a number of migrant shelters and packed migrants into the city’s hotels. Despite this, the city has also had to set up a tent city. Photos of migrants sleeping on the street made national news last year.
New York City also closed a school this winter to house migrants that were being housed at a former airfield to get them out of adverse weather conditions, upsetting parents.
