The Quaker church's shelter closes at the end of the month, leaving 29 migrants with nowhere to go — but the pastor is calling towns that need workers and students.
The Quaker church's shelter closes at the end of the month, leaving 29 migrants with nowhere to go — but the pastor is calling towns that need workers and students.Drive east on Interstate 70 until Hays, Kansas, and then take exit 157 onto Highway 183. Continue down that road for about two hours, and turn left outside Greensburg. After driving ten minutes, you'll be in the town of Haviland, Kansas, with a population of just under 700 people.
With volunteers struggling to keep up and the church self-funding its shelter project, Reeser and other leaders finally decided to close the doors of the shelter on March 29, leaving the last couple dozen migrants there with nowhere to go except the streets.The church is part of the Religious Society of Friends, whose members are colloquially known as Quakers; Friends churches exist across the country, including in Haviland.
Rent in Haviland costs between $300 and $400 for one- or two-bedroom units, and the migrants would be earning upwards of $2,000 a month, Reeser says. Even better, Reeser realized that if he sent migrants with children, they could give a boost to Haviland Grade School, an elementary school with an enrollment of fifty to sixty students. With more students, the school could increase enrollment and get more money from the State of Kansas, he suggests.
Reeser's Haviland connections recently told him the town doesn't have enough housing for the migrants, and the rancher offering jobs asked for time to consult with a lawyer to make sure he wasn't breaking laws. The rancher then went on vacation and has been unreachable. Reeser is still expecting to move one or two families to Haviland, but not until May at the earliest, and they won't be from his church's shelter. The two migrant families met Reeser at the church's Spanish services and were selected to go because they're being discharged from a city-run shelter before the end of March. The father of one of the families is eligible for a work permit and only needs to go through the process of acquiring it, Reeser notes.
"There I have my clothes, I have my blankets, and, well, we've already slept a few times in there. And if that's what we have to do, so be it. We don't have a work permit, so we can't rent," she explains., which offer two weeks to individual migrants and 42 days for families with children. The couple has been staying at the Denver Friends Church for two weeks.
Angelson Lozano, a Venezuelan migrant staying at the Denver Friends Shelter with his brother, will have to leave the shelter on Friday."We don't really have any options at the moment," Lozano says."Right now, all we can do is stay in a truck." Reeser says that other churches in the metro area have opened as private shelters for a handful of migrant families or individuals, but insist on staying out of the spotlight. However, the Denver Friends Church wanted to be public about its shelter as a model for other churches.
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