‘It’ll upend the community’: PA town roiled by talk of migrant housing in Civil War-era orphanage building

A Pennsylvania community is up in arms over reports that as many as 1,000 migrants were to be and reportedly still could be housed in a Civil War-era orphanage most recently used as a summer camp facility.

The building, located in Scotland outside Gettysburg, is owned by a Lakewood, New Jersey-based LLC, but officials in Greene Township cited a letter from a representative for an Indiana-based disaster response organization, USA Up Star, seeking to use it to “provide shelter for refuge[e] families.”

In an August letter to the USA Up Star staffer, Greene Township zoning officer Daniel Bachman wrote that its most recent use as a summer camp falls within its R-1 – or low-density residential – code and that higher-density shelter would not be permitted.

Bachman wrote that the company could appeal his ruling.

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Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster/File)

Fox News Digital reached out to USA Up Star for comment. On its website, it bills itself as a “service-disabled veteran-owned business incorporated in 2009 to provide best-in-class disaster, responder and warfighter support during disaster, contingency, surge, and displacement operations.”

The organization last followed up with Bachman by noting they are working with the federal government on the matter and would like further zoning information from Greene Township, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, the 2022 GOP nominee for governor who represents the area, said in a Friday interview he is extremely concerned about the goings-on with the partially decrepit Scotland property.

The retired Army colonel said that most recently an opaque wooden fence went up around the building. He also said that some critics are confusing its most recent use as a summer camp with the idea that migrant minors are already being housed there.

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If the endeavor to house migrants were to eventually succeed, Mastriano said, officials still have levers to pull to halt it.

He pointed to nearby Letterkenny Army Depot outside Shippensburg, noting the national security sensitivity of that tactical weapons and missile repair site and how its proximity to Scotland could constitute an avenue to bureaucratically block migrant resettlement. 

“It would upend the community,” Mastriano said. “There are 1,300 people [in Scotland village],” noting that the number of migrants and staff could equal or exceed the town’s current population.

Reached for further comment, Greene Township Supervisor Shawn Corwell pointed Fox News Digital to correspondence and other information on the matter published on the township website.

(Charlie Creitz)

In a statement co-signed by Mastriano and state Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg, praised Greene Township for its “strict interpretation” of its zoning ordinance.

The lawmakers added that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not have any jurisdiction on the matter but that they “became engaged as soon as we heard rumblings of this potential reuse.”

“This is our home township. Our families live here alongside you and your families,” they wrote. “We have been collaborating with Congressman John Joyce to relay information to him, as he works to represent Franklin County and make sure federal funding does not arrive in Franklin County for this purpose.”

Kauffman said the complex being turned into unaccompanied-minor migrant housing would “irreparably change” the township.

In response to the situation, Joyce, a Republican, drafted an amendment that he seeks to add to the annual Department of Health and Human Services appropriations bill authored by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., that would prohibit funds from being used by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) “… to provide financial assistance or other support for housing unaccompanied alien children at privately owned or operated shelter facilities or housing.”

When reached for comment as well as for information on the presence of a contract with the Indiana firm, the HHS Administration for Children and Families said they could not provide clarification or comment until Tuesday.

In a joint statement, Franklin County Commissioners Dean Horst, John Flannery and Robert Ziobrowski said many residents have expressed concerns about the matter.

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“Franklin County is already experiencing a housing shortage, and affordable workforce housing and quality rental options are at a premium. Our county’s population has increased every year since its founding in 1784; today it is the 13th fastest growing county in the Commonwealth,” they wrote.

“The addition of several thousand new residents at one time would only burden and stress the housing market even more.”

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The commissioners also expressed concern over the reuse’s effect on utilities and county services, but they noted that neither Pennsylvania nor Franklin County have jurisdiction in the matter.

Mastriano added that he believes the entire controversy is a result of the “open border” with Mexico.

The rezoning sought, he said, is “HC” or highway commercial zone, adding that this is not the first time the feds have put Pennsylvanians in such a position, citing past Biden administration migrant flights that landed at Allentown and Avoca.