Huron County’s Immigration Partnership Coordinator told county council today, housing is clearly the greatest need in accommodating Ukrainian families coming to the county.
But Kristin Crane says, if they’ve been brought over by friends or family, then housing is often take care of. And Crane says beyond that, one of the biggest challenges is finding out what services are available and connecting with those services. She says whether that’s getting your health insurance or your social insurance number, or registration or a resume, all of those things require paper work and appointments. And she says Settlement Services can help with that.
Crane says if they’re not being brought over by friends of families, then housing is the big priority. Crane says the Immigration Partnership is actively looking for housing that’s available in the county or surrounding area and that could be shared accommodations or an independent unit. But if housing is available, they can start collecting that information and forming those community groups to bring Ukrainian families to Huron County.
Crane points out, there’s no process in place to inform them of Immigrants coming to the county, but if they can have an inventory of housing that’s available, then people can contact them and they can connect the available housing with the people who need it.
Crane says without the housing they really can’t do much. But she says they are working with a variety of community groups to match up people with whatever they need in the way of housing, transportation, or support for language development. Anyone who has anything to offer is asked to contact the Huron County Immigration Partnership.
