San Diego has long been a top resettlement spot for refugees because of its proximity to the international border. Now refugee resettlement agencies are preparing for a potential influx of Ukrainians after President Biden announced that the United States would take up to 100,000 people fleeing the region.
Jewish Family Services, a refugee resettlement agency in San Diego, has said that they have helped more than 450 Ukrainians who have made their way to San Diego. The group runs a processing center for refugees in San Diego and many of the refugees they see are referred to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in San Diego for case management.
Donna Duvin, head of the IRC in San Diego, says her organization has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine closely.
"Whenever we see a humanitarian crisis that may bring people to U.S. shores, and especially to the San Diego area, we immediately start to think about what kind of capacity needs to be in place to be able to serve families," she said.
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Because the resettlement process into the United States can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months, Duvin anticipates that they may not see large numbers of Ukrainians in San Diego for quite some time. Nevertheless, she says their main concern, as always, is finding affordable and safe housing to place new refugees in the area.
"It's no mystery or no surprise that vacancies for affordable housing is a very serious concern for any of us who are doing this work, and so we are talking with anyone and everyone in our community, looking for opportunities to open up rental housing that could be available to newcomer arrivals," she said.
So far approximately 3.5 million refugees have left Ukraine, most of them have ended up in neighboring countries like Poland. Duvin says many have expressed that they wish to return to Ukraine when the war is over.
