Here's the contract someone from @CatholicCharAtl, passing on my will and even knowing my impossibility to pay for such a high rent for a single person, signed to my name, with what they want to impose on me something that I did not agree with and I do not get who to stop this situation of abuse.
When you see the signature of the document, EVIDENTLY IS NOT MY FIELD, but also, it has a date before I came to the US and on other pages it is changing dates.
Since I arrived I asked the caseworker if I could move to another place, because it seemed to me that it was very expensive for a single person and because maybe I could try to search for networks of support that were in another area, but she told me that NO in a rotunda way, that this was the intended space for me to live and that they could only help me as a resettlement agency in this apartment, that they could not help anywhere else, or here.
Since I arrived I asked the caseworker if I could move to another place, because it seemed to me that it was very expensive for a single person and because maybe I could try to search for networks of support that were in another area, but she told me that NO in a rotunda way, that this was the intended space for me to live and that they could only help me as a resettlement agency in this apartment, that they could not help anywhere else, or here.
Before leaving Colombia to me I was told that there was a place where they would receive one and support him, that was going to conform to our realities, that was what was told us, but we were never notified that the agency was going to put us in places that were impossible to pay for us, nor was it told where you can DENCE when a REASENTATIVE AUGUST IS NOT CORRECTLY.
I arrived on October 19 at night and the caseworker of my case came to the apartment in which they received me on October 20 in the morning, from the IOM stock exchange he pulled out a series of documents (of which I have never been given a copy or details of what he took from there) and put me to sign some papers, of which they would allegedly give me a copy and explanations of what they were about.
Since the caseworker speaks little Spanish and not very fluently, what she could tell me for her language limitation was that she needed the signature for them to be able to receive my resettlement case. I signed and we stayed that she would give me the copy of the documents in a few days, as well as the explanations that even had to give me other people from the agency, that next week someone from the agency would visit me for those explanations, , On October 20 she also told me about the Matching Grant program, which was the one she handled and that if she continued to attend to my case, I would be in that support program that was 180 to 240 days of assistance to integrate into the country.
That day he also told me - more words, less words - that I did not worry about the payment of the apartment because they covered it until I started working. She knew clearly that I was VERY PRECENT about that, because to cover such a high lease at least two people are needed in a house, however, the caseworker ignored my concerns about it.
Besides, he went away knowing that I wanted to have in writing what the agency's commitments were with my case.
That day he also told me that the lease contract I had to sign it later.
Well, to make the short story, the copies and copies of the documents or explanations or anything never happened to me in writing what the agency's commitments were to my case, nor what the communication protocols would be to them, everything was left to the volition, what they wanted, what they would provoke them and when they provoked them, the rights were to them, but nothing to one as a resettled refugee. I mean, you just don't know what frame you are in and you don't have to be answered at all.
More or less a week and a half I arrived at the office of the resettlement agency after having lost me in the city (it is that if they don't teach us how mobility is in the city, it's hard to do something on our own, and they put us at risk). As I lost myself and was so stressful and frustrating that no one on the street would help you (first because this is a city of people with a car and, second, because no one speaks Spanish) I came crying to the agency. They knew clearly that I was lost and that I needed to go to their office to help me know how to go to Atlanta Metro to start an English course on Saturdays and knew that I needed to go to their office to give me the explanations of the signed documents and the copies that had not made me arrive...
Why did they know I needed and wanted to go to the office? Because from a church I went in to ask for help when they were lost, they called them and explained all that, but in the agency what they sent as an answer is that it was a whim of mine to go out to the street, that I had to stay in the house without leaving, that they could only help me go to the house locked up until they went next week.
After the agency's refusal to help me, I grabbed and walked away and said, "As I get there, because those people can't be TAN POCO SERIA and POCO RESPONSIBLE." After having had a very bitter time, I came there, lost, weeping and begging that, please, they would attend to me and give me the guidance I asked for.
For that day instead of helping me in what I was asking for guidance, they came out with them in @CatholicCharAtl had no responsibility for my case, that what they did was because they wanted, but that if "Are you no happy? Signa", that is to sign a document, any complaint document or whatever was asking for something for them, it was INMEDIATO IN THE CALLE and without any help whatsoever. ACTION CRUEL IN EXTREAM THE DAY, which has nothing of humanity or charity or Catholic. ATROPELLO TOTAL TO MY RIGHTS.
They didn't give me the guidance I asked for, I was treated almost as a criminal for wanting to start an English course on Saturdays at the Latin American Association (where a journalist paid me the first level to start learning English there, because here in Atlanta you're practically dead).
It was so much the hostile deal that asked me why Gaby - who is the journalist who paid that level of the English course - had decided to pay for me those $70 of the course, that where that came from. I mean, almost as if it was a crime someone could give me that support. It was such the attitude of the casemanager at the time that they made me feel like if I wanted to go to learn English - which is indispensable here - was bad and was forbidden for me as a resettled refugee, as if I was committing a crime for wanting to go to English classes in an organization recognized here in Atlanta.
And to understand that it was exactly what they wanted to make me feel, that they told me they didn't have to tell me how to get to the Latin American Association to start my classes, that that was not their business or their responsibility. I asked them that if they didn't have to tell me how the public transport system was working here, that if that wasn't included in the cultural orientation that they were supposed to give me and that they had not given me (and that they didn't), they assured that no, that that was not in the cultural orientation... and didn't provoke them to tell me how to get to the Metro so they could go to take the English classes.
After that attitude, I asked them, please, to specify that it was within the cultural orientation that they planned to give us, because so I could know what I would have and what not... but they simply didn't tell me.
That is, in the background, an attitude like the one that the officials of the resettlement agency had that day which means to you is: you are a poor miserable resettled refugee, you don't have to right anything, just stop and wait if we want to give us a hint if we hear you don't, but go now and don't worry.
That day was when they told me (how way of punishment for having dared to go and insist on asking information and giving me the copy of the signed documents?) that they had been wrong and that I would not have the Matching Grant, but that the support could be (as well as highlighting the PODRY, the conditional ahead) only 90 days or less.
When I asked them what "MENOS" meant, which was the exact date, they said "DEPENDE". I asked them again what depended on and came out with that they did not know how much it could be... and so were their answers, without clarity, without certainty, without respect (i.e., as if it were a game of psychological manipulation) That logically generates anguish in any human being who is coming to a country and who at that time has no documents or speaks the language or anyone who receives it.
Since I am not one of those to remain silent in the face of an unjust action, bend my head and crawl, because I re-registered, "What will happen if that date comes that you do not tell me clearly and I have nowhere to go, what will happen?" Even at that time I could not go out to work, as the casemanager said, because I should expect my work permit approval document to arrive, a document that came to the office of the resettlement agency within a few days, but that in @CatholicCharAtl they didn't want me to give up for two months, thus denying me the possibility that I could get hired somewhere and sustain myself by my own means. They only sent me the document when I started publicly reporting on Twitter what was happening to that resettlement agency.
Well, after that meeting, I didn't want to write or ask anything to the caseworker, because OBVIOUS ALL THEM WRONG and how they didn't want to answer anything, because for what one's going to be on it... I just wrote it for the most important things, but nothing improved, everything was worse, it seemed like the instruction was "If you ask anything, you don't answer it or leave it waiting for days." In those days (we are talking like the second week after I arrived) tells me that I must sign the lease and I tell you that, please, I needed to read that contract before I could make an informed decision about what my responsibilities would be and analyze if I really would be able to fulfill it, because I already knew that if you don't speak English here in Atllanta any tranao you get is in less than $13.
Well, the caseworker was left to make it easier for me... but do you know what? (Haha, don't you read all this you should know what happened, right?) Well, he didn't give it to me either, he didn't make it easier for me. After that, she only insisted that I should sign it, but what she told me when I asked her about the document was that they had decided to sign it and had already signed it, logically on behalf of the agency.
@CatholicCharAtl he never said they thought of signing it to my name.
On November 15, after receiving several letters from the Department of Family and Child, denying me help that someone had asked for me and sending me letters for quotes that I was unaware of and that I had not fulfilled them (thing I asked the caseworker if she knew what it was about), because they make me a call from a government office where they start asking me for some help that I didn't know anything about. Here I explain to the government official what was happening to me with the resettlement agency and they tell me to personally present myself at the agency to ask the heads of the office to give me information about what processes were being done with my case, that had been received and that no, that was happening.
I listened to the government official and went to the office the afternoon of that same November 15. When I arrived I was told that my caseworker was on vacation and that I should wait 15 days... I told them that I didn't need to talk to the caseworker if not to the heads of the office because they had called me from the government for appointments of which my nobody had notified me at the resettlement agency and to ask me for help from which I knew absolutely nothing.
I'm told the bosses weren't, they were out of the office, but since the lies have very short legs, they leave a door open and I see that there's one of the people I needed to talk to, and there I tell the person who was at the reception that there was no problem, that I waited there for the time that was necessary. It was like 2:00 in the afternoon.
Seeing that, I started calling people who could help me know what to do with what was going on, how and where I could report what was wrong there, what else I could do to the irregular situation that was coming up.
The person at the reception when he realized that I was determined to wait, followed with his story and said that it was that people were probably not going back to the office, that I better leave and go back another day or when the caseworker came back from vaccaiones to attend to my case.
Already at that time I had many more worrying, because the bus card was going to be defeated and the monthly payment of the phone and I didn't know how they were going to replenish it, just like the services (there were receipts coming to my name and I didn't understand anything about it, because nobody explained anything and if I hadn't signed the contract, how were public receipts coming to my name?)...
Well, with the lies they can't deter me from my decision to expect me to be treated to explain what was going on with my case and what the documents they had from me until that time (the approval of my work permit had already come to them and they wouldn't tell me anything about it) and the documents they had left to give me a copy, that they never gave them to me.
Almost at the end of their working day, like at 3:30, the casemanager came out to tell me that the caseworker was on vacation and that he had to wait... I tell him, hey is this is happening and I need answers. I show her the role where I refuse help from which I didn't know anything, and she tells me "Good! That's good for you!" I couldn't understand how I was going to say it was good algi that was obviously MALO. I insist that this is not good and that the people of the Department of Family and Children themselves recommended that I go and talk to them in the agency to explain, that that was my right.
The casemanager says - more words, less words - that they had already explained to me (thing completely false) and that I would wait for the caseworker to attend me. I insist that I did not need to speak to the caseworker, but with the heads of the agency to clarify what was happening to me, because the caseworker said things and then they pointed out that she had been wrong and that to avoid those confusions I preferred to go to the direct sources and that they would give me, by favpr, in writing the commitments that the agecia had with my case and what was being done and why I was not.
He tells me that they didn't have to give me anything in writing and I insist that it was so that I needed it, because already in the past to it had given me incorrect information by denying that resettled refugees could have a travel document to go to other countries (I needed to go to Mexico for the Colpin conference and awards, that's why I asked them about it).
The casemanager, instead of admitting her mistake, went out with her, had "witnesses", "several witnesses" that she didn't tell me that... that day we were just her, a Venezuelan lot working in that agency (and who since I arrived had treated me very hostilely) and I. I mean, it was false that she had "several witnesses." (There I said, "My God, how that lady is going to lie to me like that, and besides, let me go so quietly." Before that, I said something like "well, then you mustn't have a problem with us leaving all engraving, so let's record, then, because since you say that, the best thing for me is for everything to be recorded. You guys hook me up with the cameras, but I don't have proof of anything you're doing, so I'll also record to ensure that what everyone says is registered and then don't say it wasn't like that." There I told him that I had the right to have that information and that I was going to wait there, that I would not move until they told me what was happening." My main anguish was that they would give me a date of as long as I could be in the apartment under roof and with the services and on my work permit approval document... I told her that if she needed me to kneel to ask her for that, because she did, but to give me exact dates, certainty to know what I could do. I knelt him and the casemanager what he was doing was laughing, instead of respecting my right to ask for information and giving me that information.
That same day I told him, based on a picture that they have within the agency with the "rights and duties agreements", that I was only asking for what was set in point number 2 of section of rights (which they will be able to see in one that I will put down here) and in point one of the section of duties.
I was not given the information, threatened to call the police if I kept waiting for them to give me information and they left me in the agency lobby.
@CatholicCharAtl with the four doors closed and without me being free to leave the place.
Then they returned and increased the threats. A Venezuelan who works there, using sour language and little suited for such an office - and who served as a traductir of the casemanager (that the lady didn't talk to me almost anything in Spanish, but in English even though she knows how to speak Spanish)- went to tell me to go to avoid that -words more, words less- (let me go) a "VAINA". Then he said they were gonna get me "ARRESTADA" out of there. I mean, they were putting me in psychoterror so I could get scared and leave without asking anything.
Obviously, since I was neither committing a crime nor doing anything wrong, nor being disrespectful, nor had I assaulted anyone, I said -words more, words less-, for it is worth, that I call the police, because it is recorded that I am asking them for information.
@CatholicCharAtl information to which i have a right, and that they refused to give it to me.
That day the very annoying casemanager said that I was not welcome and that they would not lend me any more servitudes... that is, it is not that they were fully and seriously lending them.
After that episode, in the weeks I find out that the lease had been placed in my name without me knowing anything, going through my will and my requests that it be located, please, in a less expensive place for me or in an apartment of this same amount, but of two rooms (most here are two rooms and it costs almost the same as this one that is like a loft-type efficiency).
I mean, the resettlement agency.
@CatholicCharAtl i got into a site that they know i can't pay, action that goes against the own recommendations that on official websites give to resettled refugees, to which they indicate - according to articles published to guide us: https://settlein.support/en-us/articles/10581811248413 - that we should be in places where we only pay 30-35% of our income (already having taxes).
When you see the rental price of the apartment, plus the basic services that I touch pay every month, you immediately understand that it would take between 85 and 100% of what a resettled refugee person, newly arrived and without speaking the language, could win at a job in Atlanta.
I mean, there's no way I can cover the lease payment where @CatholicCharAtl he chose for me to stay here with a contract that, although I do not sign, if I leave and try to finish it before the year, I will still have a series of sanctions and debts that could exceed $12,000-15,000. They did read well: $12,000 to $15,000.
Why that indebted amount? Well, simply in this region it is established by law that if the landlord decides to pay you all the contract, he can do it, holding you that as a debt that affects your credit health, that is to say, "THE CREDITIIA LIFE, YOU'RE DESTRUCTED IN THE USA." If you do not believe me... just review this article https://settlein.support/en-us/articles/7565895015069 and this organization material in Georgia: https://dropbox.com/s/gck6qg39my3c7s2/LCF%20Manual%20Spanish%2003-07-2023.pdf?dl=0 In both contents it is very clear that they will put a huge debt to me, that I am just coming to this country, without speaking the language and without work, because I barely received the work permit last Friday (The government sent quickly and weeks ago, my approval documents and work permits, but @CatholicCharAtl received it and had not wanted to give it to me, apparently waiting for the three months to be fulfilled here.
During the month of December and part of January in @CatholicCharAtl have been pushing me for third ways to deliver my social security, because they need it to impose the contract debt they know I can't pay.
For weeks they pressed me, they took me to extreme levels of distress in December. I didn't want to get out of the house because those of the complex when I saw me approached to press to give them the social security, even though they know that that contract I didn't sign it and that's it.
@CatholicCharAtl the instance you must answer for that contract.
But it wasn't just with the Complex, too if I went to some organization to ask for help to try to find a job, when they communicated with them.
@CatholicCharAtl to ask you about my working papers that you had for weeks, what you answered was that you could send it to me by mail, but you needed me to facilitate social security.
In that pressure and action they were until I decided to start publicizing the things that are happening to me to see who of the government @DHSgov @USCIS_es @USCIS he finds out and helps me stop those performances @CatholicCharAtl.
Only at that time is the resettlement agency @CatholicCharAtl stopped pressing for my SS and sent my official documents that had them for weeks without wanting to hand them over.
For those who do not understand well: as the resettlement agency failed to help me get the social security (even though I asked for help), because they did not have access to my SS number and without that number they cannot impose the contract debt so easily. That's why the pressure in December and early January to deliver it... However, there is also a document that has placed my name and those of the Complex and those of the agency say that I signed it (even though they know that I did not and that it is NOT MY WRIEF), so they can equally insist on imposing on me the commitment that they know that I cannot fulfill and mount the debt of it.
The only way that's not so is that the complex sign me a document of exoneration of any commitment, but that should manage it @CatholicCharAtl, which I should also be guaranteed that I can have time to work and gather the money to move from here.
TODAY, TO SHOULD TAKE THE SERVICE GAS to inform me that they're going to cut it, because those of the agency never paid the GAS SERVICE. I mean, in @CatholicCharAtl knew that if they didn't pay them, in the middle of winter they can cut the gas for heating, but that doesn't matter to them @CatholicCharAtl, the resettled refugees are worth nothing.