LIMA, OH (WLIO) - One week after Mayor Sharetta Smith addressed Lima City Council about Haitian immigration, the Neighborhood Concerns Committee met inside Council Chambers to discuss the exact definition of a family.
At Monday night's meeting, Lima City Law Director, Tony Geiger, explained that the current definition of family in Lima is "any number of individuals living together as a single housekeeping unit and doing their own cooking on the premises." Councilors brought forth the problem of people overcrowding in single-family homes that first primarily involved college students but now affects the recent influx of Haitian immigrants to Lima, with the Council investigating a possible family definition change. One Haitian immigrant, Amos Mercelin, attended the meeting, where he spoke to Your Hometown Stations about his current experiences and why he fled Haiti.
"I am now in Lima on the program they call the Humanitarian Program Parole. We are obliged to leave the country, that beautiful country, because there is no hope there: gangsters, the abuse of the girls- they kidnap people. They remove, they cut the good part of the body- kidney, heart. They sell to other countries- so you have a dream.... You want to be something in the future. Your parents pay schools. Some of your parents, they sell their cars; they sell their goat to send you to school, and they kill you anyway," shares Amos Mercelin, a Haitian who immigrated to Lima.
Lima City Council will continue discussion regarding any family definition changes. Additionally, Third Ward Councilor Carla Thompson, announced that there will be a community informational session regarding the influx of Haitian immigrants this Sunday, May 5th, at 1 PM inside St. Rose.
