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As deadlines loom for potentially expiring federal assistance, the Greater Portland Council of Governments announced Thursday the start of a new fundraising effort to build temporary homes for more than 1,000 asylum seekers.

At a news conference Belinda Ray, the council’s director of strategic partnerships, said the Safe in Maine fund is geared toward finding a better temporary solution for those coming to the Portland area from abroad.

“That is a fund that we are establishing in direct response to the large number of asylum seekers in our region who are currently housed in hotels, but we’re also launching it in response to the knowledge that the geography of the world’s population is in flux,” Ray said.

Ray said the goal is to pay for the construction of 200 units of transitional housing, where asylum seekers would stay while working to locate for a more permanent solution and reducing or eliminating expensive hotel stays. An apartment with a kitchen would cost a family about $1,300 a month, she said.

The group’s initial fundraising goal is at least $1.5 million.

Right now, there are about 1,400 asylum seekers, or about 400 families, temporarily living in hotels in the area, costing as much as $12,000 a month in hotel fees and other expenses such as food, Ray said. Much of those costs, she said, are covered by general assistance funding, with reimbursements from federal funds, but it’s estimated that those reimbursements will be scaled back starting July 1 and may be gone completely in October.

In a press release, GPCOG suggested building compact modular homes, such as those produced by Nomad Micro Homes in Vancouver, Canada, but Ray stressed that the housing could ultimately include more traditional apartments.

“The exact configuration has not been determined. There are many possibilities for how to establish this temporary housing,” she said.

Ray said GPCOG is setting a timeline for completion of the project at “within two years,” saying organizers wanted to be sure they found the right location. Ray said that GPCOG had its eye on several different parcels in greater Portland, but declined to say where. She said GPCOG would be working closely with local municipalities, especially given the potential strain of a large number of new residents, particularly school-aged children, might have on local services.

“We want to make sure communities are engaged, that we aren’t plunking something down without really understanding how long the services will be there. We want this to be something that will be solidly and comprehensively established and will serve us for decades,” she said.

Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, voiced her support of the new fund.

“The creation of transitional housing for asylum seekers is a systematic and structural change that we have long been advocating for,” she said.

Portland Mayor Kate Snyder praised GPCOG’s fund and its ongoing efforts to find an alternative to asylum seekers living in area hotels.

“Hotel housing for people, for families, is not ideal and we have recognized that from the beginning,” she said.

Westbrook Mayor Michael Foley said there was not enough hotel space for the city to help, but he announced Thursday that the city would be contributing $5,000 to the fund.

“We have been eager but unable to help with this crisis until now. We could not jump fast enough at this opportunity,” he said.

Ray said the fund will accept donations from individuals, businesses, foundations and other entities. It’s also possible, she said, that the state or federal government could contribute, citing Gov. Janet Mills’ earmark of $20 million in her recent supplemental budget for addressing homelessness.

“Some of that funding could help to fund this project,” Ray said.

No one is under contract with GPCOG to build the housing yet, but Ray said she is interested in working with local affordable housing developers.