Pima County is consolidating some of its services for asylum seekers away from several hotels to one designated location on Drexel Road near Interstate 19.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to provide Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona with a hospitality center for temporary respite and services to legal asylum seekers while arrangements are made for their final transportation to family members or sponsors elsewhere in the United States.
Supervisor Steve Christy voted no on the measure. He was also the lone supervisor to vote no at the meeting on another agenda item related to asylum seekers.
The latter item renewed a contract for hotel shelter services that provides rooms for asylum seekers who have COVID and need to quarantine. The renewed contract cost $2.2 million, for a total of nearly $13 million the county has allotted for that purpose, all of which was covered or reimbursed by grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The new location on Drexel Road will be in addition to migrant services provided at the Casa Alitas Welcome Center, near South Kino Parkway and Ajo Way, which is run by Catholic Community Services. The county allotted about $418,000 for expenses other than the lease cost related to the Drexel space, also to be reimbursed by FEMA humanitarian grants.
The services include temporary respite, food, hygiene items, baby supplies, shower facilities, a change of clothes and help contacting family or sponsors in the U.S. and facilitating transportation arrangements to leave Tucson and get to sponsors.
The county leases the Drexel property, which includes a building and accompanying fenced parking lot and outdoor space. A portion of that space has been adapted to provide the humanitarian services for migrants.
The county has been contracting with hotels to provide these services when Casa Alitas was at capacity, but officials say the Drexel location will provide a more stable location.
Using hotels for this purpose was a system put together quickly when there was a surge of asylum seekers. But if a surge of asylum seekers occurred while there are many visitors in town who need the hotel space, such as for an event like the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, then the county could run into a situation of limited bed space, said county spokesman Mark Evans. At the new space, county officials will know they have the designated bed space.
The county saw a record surge of migrants at the end of 2022, with border officials releasing about 12,000 people in November and more than 15,000 in December in Pima County who needed migrant services; about a quarter of them were diverted to migrant services in Phoenix.
During the surge, Pima County officials weren’t sure if they would have the space to accommodate all the asylum seekers who needed services.
“It was extremely stressful,” Evans said. “Not only did we have all the county hotels and Casa Alitas in full use, but the city-contracted hotels were in full use. It was, at times, hour by hour because we had people leaving every day and then we had more people coming in.”
Those numbers dropped in January and February to about 4,900 and 6,900 respectively, and for the last two weeks there have been about 350 asylum seekers a day receiving services through Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona.
Pima County has spent more than $23 million on migrant services since summer of 2019, which is being covered by FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program. A recent federal spending bill included about $800 million for the program to go nationwide to cities and jurisdictions providing migrant services.
The county has about $10 million for the current grant period, which ends March 31. It has received a grant award for April and June and will continue to seek additional funds.
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