The Great Somali Welfare Hunt | The American Conservative
Moreover, Somalis soon learned that welfare benefits and public housing were more generous and better elsewhere, especially in New England. By February 2001, they had discovered Lewiston, and the influx began. The numbers of those arriving accelerated last summer, exceeding 100 a month. Although it is difficult to get an exact fix on the figures, it seems that more than half of all Somalis in Lewiston are on the dole. Welfare spending has more than doubled since their arrival.
One of the Somalis who has a job is Abdiaziz Ali, a 31-year-old father of five who arrived in Lewiston last year. Ali is a welfare caseworker. He greets new arrivals, puts them on welfare, and finds them housing. He is happy to be in Lewiston, where benefits are substantial, schools good, and crime low. He himself was robbed twice by local blacks in Atlanta.
Mohammed Maye, the president of the African Community and Refugee Center in Clarkston, has a map of Lewiston on the wall of his office. “Go to Maine,” he advises Somalis. He has recently opened a second office in Lewiston. Abdullahi Abdullahi, the president of the Somali Community Development Organization in Clarkston, tells Somalis that, unlike Georgia, Maine has terribly cold winters, but “the welfare system is better.” Better for sure. Lewiston provides welfare to anyone in need, and the state picks up half the tab. Recipients are allowed a generous five years of assistance before benefits are terminated, and, even at that point, extensions are not difficult to obtain. Single parents can stay on welfare and go to college. Public housing is also available, although, because of the influx of Somalis, there is now a waiting list. More than a third of the apartments at Hillview, Lewiston’s largest public housing project, are occupied by Somalis, many of them single mothers with large broods of children. The fathers are unaccounted for or still in Georgia or Africa. Those who are unable to obtain public housing are eligible for Section 8 vouchers, which the federal government provides to subsidize rental of private housing.
Just where all the Somalis will eventually be employed is a mystery.