High housing costs halt Fort Collins refugee immigration

While national rhetoric on immigration, presidential executive orders and international factors slow the number of refugees settling in the U.S., a lack of affordable housing has all but halted refugee resettlement in Fort Collins, experts say.  

Just 13 refugees have resettled in Fort Collins since 2002, and none have moved to the city since 2012, according to newly compiled data from a USA TODAY Network investigation. Eleven of those refugees came from Iraq, and the remaining two came from Chad and Sudan. 

"Housing drives where refugees live," said Kit Taintor, Colorado's State Refugee Coordinator.

Cities the size of Fort Collins can serve as a boon for resettlement options, she said. But Fort Collins' lack of affordable housing coupled with student competition for rentals in the university town has significantly limited resettlement options, making matters "really challenging." 

Despite the low number of refugees settling in Fort Collins, a radically different story continues to unfold in a Northern Colorado city just 30 miles away. 

Since 2002, 1,110 refugees fleeing war, genocide and other ills in their home countries resettled in Greeley, a figure that has inched upward annually since 2009. Data show 270 refugees were settled in Greeley last year, and nearly all of them came from Burma and Somalia. 

Though housing prices are also inching upward in Weld County, a more established network of refugees and resources continues to draw refugees there. Many refugees are arriving as families or as extended family with hopes of connecting with existing family members who previously arrived, Taintor said.  

"Here in Colorado, we’re dependent on a whole bunch of other systems working and working really well,” she said, referring to the multitude of international programs, screening processes and existing refugee networks in resettlement cities.  

As of March 31, 311 refugees had resettled in Colorado this year — Denver, Lakewood, Greeley and Aurora led the state for resettlement cities. Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Iraq and Somalia were the leading countries of origin. 

A surge in the number of regional conflicts scattered across the globe has resulted in a spike in the number of refugees. The United Nations says there are more global refugees now than at any time since the aftermath of World War II.

The number of refugees arriving in the United States has dropped sharply this year because of President Donald Trump's threats to bar entry, even though his order for a total 120-day ban has been blocked twice by federal courts, a USA TODAY analysis of government figures shows.

The U.S. accepted 2,070 refugees in March, the lowest monthly total since 2013, according to State Department data. April ended with 3,316 refugees admitted, the second-lowest total since 2013.

"The statements from this administration about refugees are shocking to me," said Kay Bellor of Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which resettled 13,000 refugees in 26 states last year. "It's language I've never heard used with refugees, who have always enjoyed bipartisan support because they're the best part of what the U.S. does."

There were 1,910 refugees who resettled in Colorado last year, slightly higher than the state's five-year average of 1,748, data show. Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia were the primary home-countries for Colorado refugees last year.

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Syrians — the country whose refugees have continually generated the most news coverage in terms of resettlement — accounted for just 8.3 percent of Colorado resettlements last year.  

"I think that in Colorado, when you get into the communities, folks just don’t quite understand why people are refugees, why they would end up here in the United States, why they would end up here in Denver,” Taintor said. "That seems to be lost on people.”

Colorado ranked 19th in the number of refugees resettled last year. Texas, California, New York, Michigan, Ohio and Arizona had the most, accounting for at least 4,000 resettlements each. Delaware, Wyoming and Hawaii accounted for the fewest. 

"We’re really kind of middle of the pack in that we see a really diverse population coming in,” Taintor said. 

Not all refugees make it to destinations that can assist with resettlement. More than 5,000 perished in the Mediterranean Sea last year while trying to cross to Europe, and more than 1,000 have died so far this year, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.  

Alan Gomez with USA TODAY contributed to this report. 

Follow reporter Jason Pohl on Twitter: @pohl_jason.