Since last year, as many as 600 Somali Bantu refugees have left apartments, jobs and schools in other states in search of a better life in Columbus only to end up homeless.
Government and social-service groups have struggled to provide basic human services to the newcomers discouraging others from following.
The federal government, which agreed to accept Bantus fleeing civil war in Somalia, provides money to states to help refugees start new lives. But it doesn’t offer money to help secondary migrants — refugees who have left other cities to join relatives or look for cheaper housing or better-paying jobs.
Many families who arrived in Columbus with little more than the clothes on their backs found shelter at the YWCA. But in October, the YWCA and the Community Shelter Board adopted a policy prohibiting homeless families from using the shelter unless they have lived in central Ohio for at least a month.
That makes it harder for the refugees to qualify for emergency subsidized housing — for which the government picks up 70 percent of their rent — because people in shelters are officially “homeless” and get priority.
“If people don’t have a place to sleep and are doubling up with friends or living out of a car, aren’t they homeless?” asked Rachel McIntosh, who heads a nonprofit group that helps immigrants.
But shelter officials say they can barely keep up with demand from residents and that people shouldn’t rely on shelters when they move to the city without a house, work or relatives to help them.
“Our shelters are not intended to help people with relocation assistance,” said Barbara Poppe, the shelter board’s executive director.
Poppe and refugee officials said they have asked groups that work with refugees in other states to discourage their clients from coming to Columbus. The government also expects refugees to stay in cities until they are self-sufficient.
A national housing expert called the YWCA’s residency requirement unfortunate.
“A community shelter should help the homeless regardless of who they are,” said Scott Robbins, program manager for refugee housing at Mercy Housing in Denver, who was brought in by the state to help Columbus with secondary migrants.
Apartment owners, the government, refugee-resettlement and social-service folks should work together to provide more low-income housing, Robbins said. Getting into governmentsupplied housing in Columbus can take nine to 18 months if families aren’t declared in emergency need.
US Together, one of two Columbus refugee-resettlement agencies, has helped 181 Bantu families from other cities apply for child care, housing, jobs and government benefits since April 2005.
“On a good note, we’ve found housing for every one of our homeless families,” said Nadia Kasvin, one of the organization’s leaders.
It wasn’t easy, she said, especially because many of the Bantus had lived in the United States fewer than six months before moving to Columbus. And a majority never attended school or learned to read or write.
US Together used an emergency grant from the city to put homeless families, some of whom have as many as 10 children, in motels for a few days while social workers searched for affordable apartments.
Community Refugee and Immigration Services has assisted 78 families from 14 states since December 2004. Fourteen of those families are living out of cars or with other Bantus, moving night to night to avoid eviction, said Abdul Giama, one of two caseworkers helping the Bantus.
“We have a goal to serve 224 clients total a year, and within six months, we had already surpassed that.”
The group has applied for $150,000 in emergency aid from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Source: Columbus Dispatch, May 14, 2006
