Cuban Refugees

The New York-based volunteer agency that is sponsoring the 53 Cuban refugees who were housed temporarily under crowded conditions at the Chelsea Church of God has found employment and better housing for some of them in the Boston area.

Fourteen refugees began work Monday in a local factory and moved temporarily to houses of church members, John Rosario, case worker for the World Relief Corporation said yesterday. He added that 27 of them moved Monday to Mount Calvary Church in Roxbury, where they will stay in converted dormitories until he can find them jobs.

The refugees came to Boston from Florida after the great influx of Cubans there prompted the State Department to make a "massive resettlement effort outside of Florida," Art Brill, a spokesman for the Cuban-Haitian task force of the State Department, said yesterday.

Several of the refugees returned to Miami after a "disappointing and confusing experience in Chelsea," Rosario said, adding that "the attitude of Chelsea was very negative towards these people."

The church in Roxbury has beds, baths, toilets, a recreation area, and adequate heat, and is a better facility than the one in Chelsea, according to Rosario.

He said he believes he can find jobs for the remaining refugees within the month.