King County Council members push back on criticism over handling of asylum-seeker crisis

The plight of a growing number of asylum-seekers looking for shelter has been juggled among various community and religious organizations that are calling on elected officials to do more.

Some of the asylum-seekers, many of whom have found their way to Tukwila, continue to live in tents outside of the Riverton Park United Methodist Church, while others have been housed in hotel rooms. Without consistent funding, though, the latter has proven to be an unstable, temporary solution to a persistent problem.

RELATED: After a protest at City Hall, asylum-seekers in Seattle wonder what's next

Groups like Super Familia, a mutual aid organization led by undocumented and unaccompanied youth, have stepped in to demand help from the City of Seattle and King County.

"We get temporary solutions like one week of housing, two more weeks of housing... and then after that, if we don't continue to show up in person, our City Council officials and the King County officials end up ignoring us," said Rosario Lopez, a community organizer with Super Familia.

But members of the King County Council told KUOW's Soundside it's not that simple.

RELATED: As asylum-seekers flow into Washington, state lawmakers earmark $32.7 million for housing, immigration services

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who represents King County District 8, told KUOW's Soundside the county has delivered on promises to get help to migrants looking for housing.

"Look, we're trying to be both responsive in getting dollars out the door, and also responding to concerns about how we can ensure that community organizations have trusted partners who will receive the funding," Mosqueda said Thursday.

King County has announced $1 million in assistance, slated for yet-to-be chosen nonprofits than can serve asylum-seekers. The county initially intended to give the money to nonprofits chosen by the community. But the county instead opted to create a grant process through which organizations could apply for the money. Those groups will now go through a RFP, or request for proposals, process.

Mosqueda said that change came at the community's request, and effectively slowed down the process of getting money out to service providers.

"It's unfortunate that the funding wasn't deployed as fast as we had originally intended, but [we] wanted to honor that RFP request," Mosqueda said.

Organizations have until noon on March 12 to apply a portion of the $1 million available. More information can be found here.

In the meantime, the number of people in need of shelter continues to grow.

Asylum-seekers continue to arrive in the area, many seeking help at Riverton Park United Methodist Church.

RELATED: Tukwila is swelling with asylum-seekers. What can be done?

Rev. Jan Bolerjack told Soundside the church is caring for about 1,000 people right now. About 350 people stay at the church overnight, many in tents in the parking lot. More than 100 sleep inside the church, with two people per twin mattress on the floor. The church is also housing 50 people in local AirBnBs, and another 120 in a hotel. Others find accommodations elsewhere, but return to the church for assistance and services.

Councilmember Jorge Barón, who represents King County District 4, said part of the problem is they don't have good data on the number of people in need.

"Just to give you a sense, in the Seattle Immigration Court, there were over 3,200 cases filed just in the month of December. It's the highest number that we've seen," Barón said. "We don't have control, nor do we know exactly how many people will be arriving, say, in February or how many might arrive in the coming months."

Ultimately, Barón — who also served as the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project before being elected to the King County Council — said the U.S. immigration system needs to change.

"The system of processing asylum claims needs to be reformed in a much more trauma-informed way, in a way that will be that will be able to expeditiously but fairly adjudicate those claims, so that people can actually know whether they're going to be able to stay here long term," he said. "Right now, people are waiting years and years in this limbo."