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GREENSBORO — A decision by the State Department and Lutheran Family Services’ national affiliate to halt arrivals to the nonprofit’s local office won’t mean fewer refugees.

Instead, refugees will be redirected to other nonprofit agencies in Greensboro and High Point, routed to LFS offices in Raleigh and Columbia, S.C., or sent elsewhere in the U.S., said the agency’s executive director, the Rev. Laura Benson.

From Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, the agency was to have resettled 185 people on a State Department contract. By early February, 74 already had arrived, Benson said. They came mostly from Bhutan, Iraq and Burma (Myanmar).

Between now and June 30, when LFS will stop resettling refugees locally, the seven-person LFS resettlement staff will turn over casework to the other three refugee settlement agencies in Guilford County.

Those agencies and the number of refugees they already expected to resettle without the added LFS clients are:

• World Relief of High Point, 425 refugees.
• Church World Service of Greensboro, 150.
• N.C. African Services Coalition of Greensboro, 90.

In recent years, church sponsors have voiced mounting frustration with a lack of communication and coordination with Lutheran Family Services, which has operated in Greensboro for 31 years.

But some immigrant advocates worried that Tuesday’s announcement that LFS is closing may compound the situation.

“It’s going to be hard,” said the Rev. Virginia Herring, assistant rector at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, which hosts the monthly Refugee Information Network of Guilford.

“All three of the (remaining) agencies were understaffed for the amount of work that they were being called upon to do. That isn’t going to change.”

LFS’ Benson cited economic circumstances in Greensboro, and “the gap between our revenue and our expenditures” as the reason the office is being closed.

A major difficulty has been finding jobs for newcomers, as well as attracting donations and working with sponsors who have their own budget challenges.

But these are hurdles all three nonprofits face, and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has made no corresponding move to halt arrivals.

“We are all in the same boat,” said Sarah Ivory of Church World Service. “None of the other agencies are stopping their arrivals.”

Despite the harsh winter and difficult job market, refugee advocates say conditions — and community awareness — have improved from one year ago.

For one thing, federal funding has doubled. And in Greensboro as a whole, the caseload declined by about 200 between this fiscal year and last.

Meanwhile, Ivory said, faith groups that have not been involved in refugee sponsorship for many years are offering to help again.

“One positive thing is that the community has been stepping forward so that it doesn’t have a gaping hole when (LFS staffers) step back,” said Ivory, a former interim director of refugee services at LFS.

“We’ve seen a big increase in our volunteer pool.”

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lorraine.ahearn@news-record.com