The Bangor branch of a Maine nonprofit is preparing to find housing for 150 refugees in the next year in a city grappling with a years-long housing crisis.
Catholic Charities Maine opened its Bangor office and began welcoming refugees to the community in 2022. Since then, the number of people coming to the region has increased by 50 annually.
Now, Catholic Charities Maine’s Bangor office is expecting 150 refugees from numerous countries from October 2024 to September 2025, who will require about 25 to 30 residences, as the average size of a family is four people, according to Melissa Bucholz, assistant director of Catholic Charities Maine’s Bangor office.
Securing housing for more refugees each year is becoming increasingly difficult as Bangor is in the midst of a housing crisis that’s driving up the cost of buying a home and making affordable apartments harder to find for everyone. The problem has grown so much that it’s now surpassed finding employment as the hardest part of helping refugees settle in Maine.
That shift has happened slowly over the past decade, said Julie Allaire, chief program officer for Catholic Charities Maine.
Allaire credited it to employers becoming more familiar and comfortable with hiring immigrants as more refugees arrive in the area. Additionally, more Mainers are aging out of the workforce, and declining birth rates have failed to fill the gaps.
Today, employers approach Catholic Charities looking to hire refugees, Alliare said.
To find housing for incoming families, Bucholz will call landlords and property managers to gauge their interest in renting to refugees. Occasionally, people are willing to rent to a family without hesitation, but most questions about who the refugees are.
Refugees are people who leave their country due to persecution or fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The people who settled in Bangor last year were from 11 different countries, but the largest demographic came from Syria and Venezuela.
Bucholz often spends time breaking down misconceptions and stigmas, such as the belief that refugees can’t work after they arrive.
Adult refugees are eligible to get a job on the day they step foot in Bangor, Bucholz said. Nearly 90 percent of the adults who arrived in the city in the last fiscal year are employed.
The organization also assures property managers that the people who are entering the county have passed numerous background checks by the federal government.
“They’re the most background checked people in the United States,” Bucholz said.
Some federal funding is available to get refugees settled, which can go toward housing costs or to purchase furniture and groceries for families when they first arrive.
“It’s very limited funding and often can’t cover all of that, but we try to use it as best we can to pay the first month’s rent and security deposit for clients when they arrive,” Bucholz said.
Newcomers are responsible for their own rent after the first month and are held to the same standards as every other tenant, Bucholz said.
After refugees move into their new home, Bucholz works with them to make sure they understand how to be good tenants and neighbors. This includes ensuring they know how to pay their rent on time and understand American social norms so they can build trust with their landlords.
These strong relationships can help a family stay housed and increase a landlord’s chances of renting a unit to another refugee family in the future.
“Building good relationships with landlords is so important because when we’re looking for housing, we want to have good references,” Bucholz said. “I hope the landlords that have rented to our clients before have had an enjoyable and positive experience.”
Bucholz said the refugees she works with are eager to settle into their new homes and befriend their neighbors, and neighbors generally embrace them. In some cases, these bonds lead refugees to share traditional meals or holiday celebrations from their culture with their community.
“I think that’s something really special, to watch the relationships form organically and the cultural exchange that happens,” Bucholz said.
On one occasion, a refugee wanted to introduce themself to their new neighbor and Bucholz said Americans often bring food as a gift to break the ice.
The person misinterpreted this advice and bought a birthday cake from a local grocery store to offer the neighbor. Coincidentally, it happened to actually be the neighbor’s birthday.
“They’ve been good neighbors to one another since that day,” Bucholz said.
