VIEW LARGER Two young children do arts and crafts at a shelter that's part of the Casa Alitas program on March 1, 2024. Bishop Edward Weisenburger said in a YouTube video posted Thursday that with federal lawmakers at an impasse over funding to border states, the migrant services provided at Casa Alitas and other partners will be drastically curtailed.
“While we anticipate great sorrow at not being able to serve all who arrive at our door, we will adapt the best we can, even if we can only serve a far smaller number,” Weisenburger said.
The county-run effort served more than 240-thousand people last year providing food, clothes and short-term shelter. Operations costs exceed a million dollars a week, and funds are expected to run out by the end of March.
Casa Alitas program director Diego Piña Lopez says it costs about $10 to feed a person, $15 to feed and clothe them, and $80 to shelter them.
“Depending on how we all work as a community to get resources in place, we are going to see children under the age of three released on the streets downtown, maybe a different location somewhere, all the way to families and single individuals,” he said.
Piña Lopez says donations will help the most vulnerable asylum seekers first, including those families with very young children.
More information can be found at ccs-soaz.org/donate.
Children play at a shelter that's part of the Casa Alitas program on March 1, 2024.
VIEW LARGER Sleeping area at a shelter that's part of the Casa Alitas program on March 1, 2024. 
VIEW LARGER People wait for assistance at a shelter that's part of the Casa Alitas program on March 1, 2024. 
VIEW LARGER A staff member hands out baby formula at a shelter that's part of the Casa Alitas program on March 1, 2024. 
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