AMHERST — A municipal resettlement commission that would help to find housing for up to 90 individuals who are seeking asylum in the United States is being proposed by an Amherst resident.

For the first time in writing, after pitching a similar concept orally in 2019, activist Vincent O’Connor of Summer Street is asking the Town Council to establish the Refugee and Asylum Applicant Resettlement Commission, what he sees supporting the town’s history of sheltering immigrants, refugees and asylum applicants dating back to pre-Civil War times, and more recently those escaping Nazi Germany, apartheid in South Africa, war-torn Cambodia and military-ruled Nigeria.

O’Connor said his concern is that the existing affordable housing developments have long waiting lists and those who are not yet U.S. citizens, or don’t hold green cards, can’t even get onto those lists.

The written proposal for the commission includes the procedure that would be followed, such as a bylaw that would establish a commission with 15 members. Those members would then solicit “from owner-occupants of Amherst residential properties, and owners of Amherst rental properties, offers to house refugees, asylum applicants, and individuals admitted to the United States on a temporary basis to receive health care services for illnesses, or for injuries, including rape and torture, resulting from war, civil disorder, etc.”

The idea is to have homes or rooms identified. Then anywhere from 38 to 90 people, calculated as a .25% or .5% of the 15,000 to 18,000 year-round residents of town, would be housed.

The commission would examine the suitability of any house offered, its access to transportation and the languages spoken by those who live in those homes.

Much of the information collected and any visits to potential homes would be done confidentially.

Prior to the Town Council meeting, where O’Connor said he would address the appropriate council committee, O’Connor said he is motivated by those who are wounded and injured in Gaza as the result of the war with Israel, and his previous friendship with a woman from Sudan who had been tortured and raped.

The commission would augment existing services and would serve as a way for resident to feel they are helping those in need.

“I want to make sure x number of people are available to house people,” O’Connor said.

His proposal in 2019 was to house undocumented immigrants amid the prolonged detention of those seeking asylum, understanding, he said, that the policies of then President Donald Trump could be reversed by a successor. That has since happened under President Joe Biden.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.