Cheyenne's housing and welfare department went down to Greeley to recruit the Somalis because they had plenty of housing money and welfare. Thank God for Wyoming weather - even free money can't make you tough enough for a Wyoming winter.
I can't speak to what the housing people did or did not do, but I got the distinct impression that benefits were not as lucrative here as in Colorado, and a lot of the people had ties to Greeley. The state also has been fighting any attempts to expand Medicaid even though the feds would put up 90% of the money. We'll have to wait and see what happens this year, now that a lot of mineral extraction workers are getting pink slips and coal companies are filing for bankruptcy protection.
