How many more asylum seekers are our state and local leaders planning to bring to Brunswick, and when are they planning to take care of Maine taxpayers who were waiting for housing before asylum seekers arrived?

Rent for asylum seekers will be paid for the first two years, using state funds approved by our Legislature. Once those tenants can start working, they reportedly need to pay 30% of their income for rent.

I know many Mainers who have been waiting for affordable, low-income or elderly housing. These people have put in applications and were told that it could be a two- to five-year waiting period. Now come the asylum seekers. The funding mechanism involves state support to cover migrants’ rent. If it’s state money, isn’t that from taxes we paid? Maine taxes are supposed to be used to pay for our schools, law enforcement, roads, parks and other shared community resources.

Look around. We still have Maine veterans and homeless people living in shelters, waiting for housing and state aid.

Maine tax money should have gone first to Mainers in need, but millions of our tax dollars are now going toward asylum seekers. Are all Mainers going to be given the same courtesy that our government has given to the asylum seekers? Maybe it’s time our leaders show Maine residents that we, too, matter.

Heather Nering
Brunswick

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