WASHINGTON – Thousands of undocumented children in Maryland want shelter this winter but organizations who want to help say the federal government is making them wait.
In August, Maryland Catholic Charities submitted their grant application to care for 50 immigrant children at their St. Vincent’s Villa Dulaney Valley Campus in Baltimore County.
But in a statement, Executive Director Bill McCarthy says the Office of Refugee Resettlement, under the Department of Health and Human Services, has not responded to the charity’s request.
“At this point, Catholic Charities is still waiting to hear about the status of the grant application that we submitted to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in August, and we have no indication of when that determination will be made,” he writes.
The grant would cover “transitional shelter services.”
McCarthy adds that he expects Catholic Charities will eventually be awarded the federal grant.
In a statement to WTOP, the Administration for Children and Families says “there have been no decisions made yet on the applications for residential services funding under the Unaccompanied Alien Children program.”
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