State Creates Refugee Services Office to Help Hundreds

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) About 700 refugees arrive in Utah each year from war-torn homelands. And Governor Jon Huntsman admits the state's efforts to welcome those refugees is lacking:

"We have done an adequate job, but not an acceptable job," says Huntsman. "And that was made manifest to us by members of the refugee community."

Refugees arriving in Utah struggle to find jobs and tap into state-offered food and housing services. Those concerns, and others, prompted Huntsman and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon to organize a working group which recommended the creation of a new Refugee Services Office in the Department of Workforce Services. Huntsman made that office official yesterday, and DWS Director Kristen Cox says it's a good first step:

"I don't have any illusions the office itself will solve problems," says Cox. "It's going to be working with the advisory board and raising additional resources to deal with the challenges and crises our folks are dealing with. I think it's a step, a foundation, but it's not the ultimate solution."

Until now, the state's refugee efforts have been handled by a single coordinator. The new office will have a director and three staff, says Cox. Huntsman has also ordered the creation of a refugee advisory board that will report to his office and help raise money from private foundations to supplement federal refugee funds.

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