Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Syrian refugees in Coho

[Katie Henry (katie-henry]

> On Dec 20, 2015, at 10:21 AM, juva <juva [at] comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> We are join starting the idea of housing a Syrian refugee family.  Are there 
> any other cohousing communities working on this?  If so I would like to 

> connect. 

My family has been involved in resettling Iraqi refugees who were targeted for 
retaliation after assisting US military forces as interpreters and medical 
professionals. I own rental property and have had several families as tenants. 
A few observations:

1. The people we worked with are EXTREMELY hard-working and motivated. Many of 
them were medical professionals whose credentials didn't transfer to the US, so 
they worked crummy jobs and put themselves all the way through school 
(pharmacy, dental, medical) again. They are determined to succeed and prosper 
and build good lives for their kids. I am in awe of their work ethic. They 
don't want to be on the dole. Anyone who can make it through the refugee 
screening process is going to have a certain amount of hustle.

2. They're great tenants. They wouldn't dream of being late with the rent. They 
take good care of their space. From a landlord's perspective, the problem is 
that there may not be a family available when you have a vacancy. I would 
prefer to rent to a refugee family and give them cheaper rent, but I can't 
leave my units empty indefinitely waiting for a family to arrive.
3. The women cook up a storm and, even better, give food to their landlady. You 
could possibly work out an arrangement in which the family prepares community 
meals and does cleaning in exchange for some or all of the rent. I am very 
serious about this. It allows the mother to stay home with the kids while still 
contributing financially to the family. We had quite a network of neighbors who 
would have Iraqi moms provide dinners or cater parties. 


4. At least in my area (rich liberal NJ suburb of NYC), it's easy to drum up 
community support for refugees. Here's an article about a church in my town 
sponsoring a Syrian family. There's been a real outpouring of support.

http://villagegreennj.com/towns/maplewood/maplewoods-morrow-church-sponsors-syrian-refugee-family/
  
5. The hard part is helping families navigate the bureaucracy. The social 
service agencies that sponsor refugees try, but they are swamped. For example, 
it's really hard for refugees to get copies of their education records so they 
can go to school here. The school may be bombed out of existence, or the local 
government may refuse to cooperate because the refugee is on an enemy list. If 
they do have transcripts, they have to be translated in certain ways to be 
accepted by US institutions. It can take months and months to resolve. They are 
eligible for Medicaid, but if you have any experience with Medicaid, you know 
how hard it is to find a decent doctor and get an appointment even for a 
native-born American, much less for someone right off the plane who doesn't 
speak much English. My sister is an expert at this aspect, so if anyone 
actually gets this far, I'll put you in touch with her.

Katie Henry