Archive for the ‘housing’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 26, 2012
Darfurian refugees have begun to arrive in New Jersey, outside of New York City. (Approximately 480,000 Darfurians were killed, with over 2.8 million people displaced, in a conflict fueled by Sudan’s government between 2003 and 2010. In 2008 the International Criminal Court announced ten criminal charges against Sudan’s military leader and self-proclaimed President, Omar al-Bashir, including sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity.) The HIAS affiliate United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ says it will help to resettle three young Dafurian refugee men now, followed by several families and 25 young men in the next few months. The price of housing in the area is a concern, therefore the group is looking for donated space for transitional housing until the refugees can save up enough money from jobs to pay for housing. An article at New Jersey Jewish News explains:
After fleeing from the ravages of genocide in their native land, three refugees from Darfur are now crafting new lives in the MetroWest community with a large assist from the Jewish Vocational Service, a beneficiary agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.
Thanks to a $88,532 grant from the federal State Office of Refugee Resettlement, JVS has helped the men find transitional housing in the area, while providing caseworkers, translation services, English classes, vocational training, job coaching, and other support.
The men are the first wave of Darfuris to arrive in New Jersey, ahead of several families and 25 young men expected to be coming to this area in the next few months. JVS and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society hope to resettle 25 or more refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region, which suffered under genocidal attacks by the Sudanese government…
…“There are major issues,” said [Nancy Fisher, the agency’s assistant executive director for education and training]. “Each refugee is given $1,100 from the federal government when they arrive in the United States. For a family of five, the $5,500 can tide them over. But for the single guys, the $1,100 is not enough. We need to find them transitional housing at reduced rates. Housing around here is not cheap.”
To help out, JVS board members provided goods, services, and contributions for the refugees. The Sleepy’s mattress company donated five beds to a temporary housing facility in Newark for new arrivals.
“This is a huge expense we cannot pay for ourselves,” said Fisher.
JVS is looking for donated space for transitional housing.
“Maybe a large house or something connected to an old church or synagogue that is not being used, where they can spend a couple of months and get used to this country and its customs, then save a bit of money and move into their own places,” said Reilly. “For now, it would be helpful for some families to be willing to take in people, especially others who are coming soon”… Read more here
Posted in housing, Darfurian, New Jersey, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ | Tagged: sudan, refugees, resettlement, HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, New Jersey, Dafur | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 13, 2012
The first refugee family has moved into a vacant, foreclosed house in Cleveland as part of a program to rehab empty housing stock in the city. The project is a collaboration between the Cuyahoga County land bank and International Services Center. It turns out that the $40,000 expended to rehab the house is less than what it would have cost to demolish it. An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer explains:
LAKEWOOD, Ohio — A pilot program operated by two nonprofit groups to place refugees in vacant, foreclosed homes has settled its first family into a renovated house in Lakewood.
Bhutanese natives Ruk and Leela Rai, along with their 3-year-old son, Anish, moved into an updated century home on Hopkins Avenue last week.
Two years ago, the International Services Center resettled the Rais in Cleveland from a refugee camp in Nepal,where Ruk and Leela had lived for 20 years. Their son was born in the camp.
Through the center’s programs, they learned life skills and found jobs. And now they are the first recipients of the new housing program created bythe center and the Cuyahoga County land bank.
About a year ago, the land bank, which has acquired a number of empty foreclosed homes, teamed with the center to split the costs of renovating the vacant Lakewood home and renting it to a refugee family.
So far, the partnership has worked well. And there’s a good chance it will continue, as the center needs housing for its stream of refugees, and the land bank, which razes many empty foreclosed homes, needs occupants.
It cost $40,000 to rehab the Lakewood house, which is cheaper than demolishing an empty foreclosed property… Read more here
Posted in Cleveland, housing, International Services Center, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: Cleveland, Cuyahoga County land bank, housing, International Services Center, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 26, 2012
“Car break-ins, ’30-plus’ broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman…kicked’, and theft.” Those are some of the incidents at Summer Place Townhomes in Lansing, MI that refugees say have happened to them since November. The refugees, from Burma, Bhutan and Iraq, say they have been the target of a group of 10 and 20 local teenagers. Some of the refugees find it hard to sleep at night, while others are taking turns staying up at night to watch for trouble. The Lansing Police Department doesn’t seem to know much about what’s happening though refugees have reported the ongoing crimes. An article at Lansing City Pulse has the story:
…Bo is a refugee from Burma and has lived in Summer Place Townhomes for about seven years…
…since November, Bo and his family haven’t been sleeping due to a combination of fear and duty — they take turns staying up all night to keep intruders away. Several other neighbors in Summer Place report similar situations.
“It’s been quiet, safe, secure,” Bo said, referring to the years leading up to November. Then he rattles off nearly daily instances when he and his neighborhood have been the target of a group of local teenagers, between 10 and 20 of them: car break-ins, “30-plus” broken windows, an old man getting punched in the face, a young woman “about my age kicked by those people,” theft.
So this is why you stand guard overnight. “Yeah, it’s very dangerous. We all worry. You gotta watch out and stay awake.”
Bo fears the worst: that the harassment will turn deadly. At one point, he armed himself with a pellet gun, which he said was subsequently taken by the Lansing Police Department. “We are not shooting for anything. I believe I’m doing the right thing. It’s like I’m security, protecting all people, not just the Burmese.”
As I walk through the neighborhood Saturday before meeting Bo, refugees from Iraq and Bhutan tell similar stories.
Dozens of young children — from toddlers to teenagers — were playing in the street and courtyards. Adults gathered around, keeping an eye on them. The day before, the group came and broke a car window, said Ammar Mahdi, a 41-year-old refugee from Iraq. Mahdi’s English was broken and, at times, his 10-year-old son, Yousif, acted as a translator.
“We need help. It’s every day,” Mahdi said. “I am not sleeping.”..
…Devi Ghimisey is from Bhutan and about the same age as Mahdi. He lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for 18 years before coming to the U.S. three years ago.
“They come while we’re sleeping. Kids playing football — they come and beat them up. They come and throw rocks,” Ghimisey said.
Recently, the group stole Mohammed Mohahamed’s children’s three bikes. Two weeks ago, they broke his neighbor’s house windows. Mohahamed is 33 and also came from Iraq. “I want to change this trouble,” he said. “I want the street here safe.”…
While this has been going on, arrests have been scarce…neighbors say the response from the Lansing Police Department has been inadequate…
…neighbors say they feel discouraged from calling the police because the trouble keeps happening — even after reports…
…Alfonso Salas, who owns Lansing Athletics sporting goods store…says that while it’s a rough neighborhood to begin with, he thinks it’s racially charged. And he warns that something needs to change, or “it’s gonna get bad.”
“Because of the color of their skin and who they are, they get beat up on,” he said. “I feel for them… Read more here
Posted in abuse, Burma/Myanmar, children, hate crimes, housing, Iraqi, Lansing, Nepali Bhutanese, police, safety | Tagged: attacks, broken windows, Burma, dangerous neighborhood, Lansing, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, Summer Place Townhomes, theft | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 16, 2012
Slum lords are notorious for failing to address maintenance issues. One result of this is the danger of fire (and here) due to failure of landlords to keep up the premises. A Nepali refugee family found this out the hard way last Wednesday in Louisville. A note at the Catholic Charities Louisville website identifies one of the families displaced by the fire as refugees:
Catholic Charities (Louisville, KY) – The Hari Subedi refugee family of six, resettled by Catholic Charities about a year and half ago, was one of the families displaced in the Buechel Bank Road Apartment fire today. While they and other residents lost everything, there were no injuries due to the fire.
The Subedi family did not need emergency shelter and are currently living with another Nepali refugee family… Read more here
A tenant in the apartment where the fire started said she awoke to a pop and found a socket beside her daughter’s bed on fire. She claims she began telling her landlord of faulty sockets when she moved into her apartment two years ago. The landlord allegedly placed tape over sockets in the apartment’s kitchen and told her an electrician would repair them, yet an electrician never came to the apartment to inspect the sockets. An article at the Louisville Courier-Journal has more:
Officials are investigating a fire that destroyed a building and displaced eight families Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex in the 2100 block of Buechel Bank Road…
…Chrishawna Johnson, who was asleep in the apartment where the fire started, said she believes the fire was caused by an electrical short.
“I heard a pop and I jumped up,” Johnson said. “When I came out of my room, my daughter’s bedroom was on fire. The socket beside her bed was on fire.”
Johnson said she began telling her landlord — whom she could not identify — of faulty sockets when she moved into her apartment two years ago. The landlord placed tape over sockets in the apartment’s kitchen and told Johnson an electrician would repair them, Johnson said.
An electrician never came to the apartment to inspect the sockets, Johnson said.
A message left at Willowbrook’s leasing office was not immediately returned Wednesday.
No sprinklers were present in the building, and no fire hydrants are on the property… Read more here
Posted in Nepali Bhutanese, housing, substandard, Louisville, housing, Catholic Charities of Louisville Inc., apartment house fires | Tagged: refugees, bhutanese, resettlement, Nepali, Louisville, slumlord, slum lord, Catholic Charities Louisville | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 14, 2012
As in the US refugee resettlement program, refugees in Australia are being resettled into housing often run by landlords looking for an opportunity to make an extra profit with tenants who do not understand their rights or fight back. In the Melbourne metropolitan area in Australia’s state of Victoria, a legal help group is helping some of those refugees to file complaints. An article in the Maribyrnong-Leader publication has the story:
REFUGEES are being forced to live in horrific housing conditions across the west, a new report reveals.
The Making It Home: Refugee Housing in Melbourne’s West document exposes how some of the most vulnerable people in society are being exploited by dodgy landlords and real estate agents.
The Footscray Community Legal Centre has detailed personal accounts from refugee and migrant clients, including loss of bond money, unwarranted repair payments, dilapidated housing structures and forced evictions.
The centre assisted them with more than 300 legal problems for housing and opened 88 files in 18 months.
Ethiopian Khalid Muslih said he was ordered to vacate a property in Tarneit for alleged outstanding rental payments despite always paying on time…
…Mr Muslih, living with his wife and son, said he decided to vacate the premises despite providing proof of payments.
Community [lawyer] Laura Berta said real estate agents often ignored pleas from refugees for repairs.
“Refugee tenants make easy targets because of their language difficulties and lack of understanding of the system,” Ms Berta said.
“We helped an Iraqi family who lived with a collapsed roof for a month and a Burmese family who survived the winter with no heating or hot water.”… Read more here
Posted in Australian refugee resettlement prgm, housing, housing, substandard | Tagged: Australia, landlords, legal aid providers, refugees, resettlement, slum lord, slumlord | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 4, 2012
The City of Boise has established a plan, known as the Refugee Resource Strategic Community Plan, to help refugees moving into the city in six areas of need – education, employment, health, housing, social integration and transportation. The city works with local businesses and agencies to help refugees with job training, learning English, finding housing, and made city transportation easier to use and help find better ways to connect people to city resources. Currently, more than 100 local businesses and agencies have joined in to help. An article and video report at Boise’s KTVB has more:
BOISE– Community leaders are the people who can make a town feel like a home. That is why in Boise, community partnerships are key to welcoming the refugee population.
Three years ago, the city started working on the Refugee Resource Strategic Community Plan. Local businesses and the mayor’s office teamed up to help refugees moving into Boise.
Theresa McLeod with the Mayor’s office says Boise’s plan is getting national attention. Last week, she presented the plan at the Episcopal Migration Ministry conference and says other communities are looking into creating similar programs.
“I think that spirit of collaboration we take for granted in Boise,” said Theresa McLeod, with Mayor David Bieter’s office.
The Refugee Resource Community Plan has formed partnerships in six different areas, education, employment, health, housing, social integration and transportation.
Boise and the Idaho Refugee Center decided those are the most important areas to focus on to help refugees become part of our community… Read more here
Posted in Boise, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, housing, language | Tagged: Boise, community partnerships, Refugee Resource Strategic Community Plan, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 27, 2012
A single mother of a refugee family from the Central African Republic finds herself alone and isolated (a condition correlated with refugee suicides) five months after resettlement to Portland via Lutheran Community Services Northwest. Interviewed about six weeks after her arrival, she only knew how to get to the grocery store and to an organization which offers employment training and referrals, though her resettlement agency was required to give her community orientation. The family’s apartment is sparsely furnished, with not enough heat to stay warm and little light (this, though the State Department’s Operational Guidance contract document supposedly requires resettlement contractors to provide refugees with one lamp per room unless installed lighting is present). An article in the Portland Tribune describes the refugee family’s initial resettlement to Portland:
Monique Detoloum…[a] new Portland resident has found peace for herself and her four children, after surviving a reign of terror in the Central African Republic and six years in limbo in neighboring Cameroon…
…Monique and her children arrived here in late October, settling in East Portland. They are among the 944 refugees from more than a dozen nations who resettled in Oregon last year, mostly in Portland. Nearly 60,000 refugees from around the world have landed here since 1975. That’s an average of 135 newcomers a month, a steady stream of foreigners who are gradually expanding the Portland area’s ethnic mix and forever changing its complexion…
…Somewhat arbitrarily, since Monique had no family or connections here, she was assigned to Portland, aided by Lutheran Community Services Northwest.
Agency staff picked up Monique’s family at the airport, found her housing in an apartment on Southeast Division Street near 126th Avenue, helped enroll her children into David Douglas schools, arranged medical screenings and financial support.
Within her first week in town, Monique was referred to East Portland’s Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization [IRCO], which offers employment training and referrals, among other services…
…Interviewed about six weeks after her arrival, Monique knew how to get to IRCO and the Winco grocery store on Northeast 122nd Avenue, but hadn’t ventured further on her own. She was too flustered to think about going downtown, feeling pretty helpless without any English skills…
…Now, after five months, here she is still having trouble adjusting to cold weather. She just experienced her first snow, and says she doesn’t like it.
The family’s two-bedroom, one-bath apartment is sparsely furnished, with little light and not enough heat to stay warm…
…Monique has found a Baptist Church she wants to attend. But she says she is feeling isolated here, with no friends to talk to, only her children…
…Refugees rarely go back to their home country, Tauch says, but they do move around once they’re here, especially to find work. In January, a recruiter came to town and offered seasonal jobs to 52 Portland-area refugees at a Kodiak, Alaska, cannery, Tauch says. Last year, a Nebraska employer offered 100 permanent jobs to local refugees… Read more here
Posted in alienation-isolation, Central African Republic, furnishings, lack of, housing, language, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, mental health, Operational Guidance, Portland | Tagged: Central African Republic, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, irco, isolation, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Portland, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 4, 2012
A flashy car, sex, guns and a shooting take center stage in a newspaper article about a Galveston shelter that houses unaccompanied youth – The Children’s Center, Inc. Unfortunately the article seems to raise more questions than it answers. The reporter claims that the federal government “imported” unaccompanied alien minors into Galveston and then “dumped” them on an underfunded local social-services network, while complaining about a program (the federal HHS Transitional Living Program?) specifically intended to get youth on their feet and independent so that they won’t be dumped on the community. An allegation is also made that the shelter terminated a supposed whistle-blower employee after she contacted the organization’s board of directors.
Innuendo is also made about how one 18-year-old youth would have had the “money” to use a cell phone and be “driving a car” when its tires were shot out by an angry father who tried to entice the youth into coming to a park to have sexual relations with the man’s daughter. It seems as if no one realizes that youth tend to borrow cell phones, and even cars, from each other. I also wonder why the reporter didn’t just take the license plate number from the police report of the incident and check on the car’s ownership, and not speculating about the youth owning the vehicle. He also implies that the youth being robbed at gunpoint somehow brings into question why he was robbed, while not referring to any items that were actually stolen. Again, the police report would probably have indicated that.
Finally the reporter tries to create sensation around an incident in which he implies that the 18-year-old had consensual sexual relations at the shelter with a younger teenager. Although this kind of consensual sex is an age-old phenomena, in this case it would no doubt have been illegal. It’s not clear, however, that the shelter did anything improper surrounding the incident in which police were called. What any of that has to do with our society’s humanitarian attempt to care for and help unaccompanied alien minors and youth is not made clear in the Galveston Daily News article:
GALVESTON — If the first 25 days of January are any indication, illicit sex and gunfire are common themes in the young life of a Honduran immigrant who came to Galveston under the auspices of an obscure federal program.
The man, 18, was shot at on two occasions and hit once during that time. He was accused once and suspected once again of having sex with underaged girls — one 15 and one 12. The suspicion arose at an island homeless shelter; the accusation sparked gunfire at an island park.
His hosts at the Children’s Center Inc. called the man “George” in interviews. And although he is named in several police incident reports, he has not been charged with a crime. And so he’s called “George” in this article, too, in keeping with the newspaper’s policy of not naming people who have not been charged with crimes.
As far as the public record and the police are concerned, George has been a victim of crime more often than a suspect. All the same, the situations he encountered, whether through bad luck or bad action, raise many questions about how he and other young men like him came to be here, why they remain here, who’s paying for their stay and who’s responsible for monitoring their behavior.
Events during those 25 days in January also raise questions about oversight in a federal program that imports illegal immigrants into communities like Galveston, serves them for a time, and then, apparently, just dumps them onto an underfunded local social-services network… Read more here
Posted in Galveston, housing, ORR, teenagers | Tagged: alien youth, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, Transitional Living Program, whistleblower | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 11, 2012
A volunteer helping Karen refugees in Kansas City added a comment to a December post about Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City (JVS).
My wife and I have been working with the Karen refugees in KCMO for two years. Nothing has changed with JVS they still put refugees in terrible housing conditions, they do not explain the lease arrangements with them. We have several families that face legal action now because they did not understand that they could not just break a lease and move. Also they take all Karen refugees to Bank of America to open bank accounts, without explaining anything about checking accounts, balancing a check book, etc. (my wife and I have done this). Most Karen refugees especially adults are left to take care of themselves too soon, very short or no English classes at all. Lack of helping to find jobs, do not explain WIC program with lots of families having months of expired unused WIC coupons due to lack of no knowing what to do or to do it. JVS is a waste of time for the Karen refugees, we have close to 40 families that we work with, taking to medical appointment, helping with WIC, TANF, Food stamps, Medicaid and any other needs to include transportation to appointments, even lighting their furnaces in the winter. We do this for free and do not work for any group…it is out of compassion and love for the Karen refugees…something that should be a requirement for anyone working with refugees no matter where they come from…. See December post
Posted in housing, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, Jewish, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, Karen, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of | Tagged: Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City, jvs, Karen, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 6, 2012
Karen refugees from Myanmar resettled to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area in North Carolina got a chance at a local community planning meeting to discuss challenges they face in the community. For those who are illiterate in their own language, learning English is a major barrier, which in turn leads to problems with integration. Large families and the Karen refugees’ need for a place to grow food has made finding affordable housing difficult. An article in the Chapel Hill News discusses the Karen refugees’ resettlement challenges:
CARRBORO – The volunteers…have taken the community planning process to…Carrboro to speak with the community’s newest immigrants, refugees from Myanmar, formerly Burma…
…The…volunteers asked the group what they liked about living here and what problems they have…
…the immigrants said some people look down on them because they don’t speak English.
“They integrate to the degree they know English,” [Mayor Mark Chilton] said. “Some do, some don’t. It’s hard. Many of them are illiterate in their own language. To go to school and even hold a pencil is hard for them.”
Several men said it’s hard to get a job if they don’t speak English and, even if they do, it’s hard to get a permanent position or move up…
The buses are not always available when they need them, especially on weekends…
Many said housing was a problem.
“When we apply for a government house they tell us our income is too high,” Lei Say, 25, said through an interpreter. “When we go to rent, they say your income is too low because you have a big family and only one person is working.”
Sometimes rules require more than a family can afford, he continued. “If you have five people, you have to live in a two-bedroom,” he said…
And those who can afford a home sometimes run into cultural differences, she said. Some immigrants can afford a subsidized townhome, for example, but most want a yard because they come from an agricultural tradition and want to grow their own food… Read more here
Posted in Chapel Hill-Carborro, housing, Karen, language | Tagged: Burma, Carborro, Chapel Hill, Karen, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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