Refugees homeless because of the tornado want to remain in West Springfield, but are having a hard time finding new housing there.
Mohammed Najeeb, the long term relief coordinator for Lutheran Social Services, talks about the difficulties of finding housing in West Springfield for refugees left homeless by the June 1 tornado.WEST SPRINGFIELD – Homeless refugees living in the shelter for tornado victims are having a hard time finding permanent housing, according to an official at the refugee resettlement agency Lutheran Social Services.
They are having difficulties because of the cost of getting apartments and the general lack of available apartments in West Springfield, where most of them want to remain, Mohammed Najeeb, the agency’s disaster long-term relief coordinator, said Tuesday.
There is generally a scarcity of available apartments in the city that he said has been made worse by the fact that the housing stock has been affected by the June 1 tornado. The city has condemned 14 buildings of which five are residential, is eyeing condemning 11 more, all of which are residential, and has documented damage to about another 100 structures as a result of the June 1 tornado. Most of the destruction from the tornado was confined to the Merrick neighborhood, which is the poorest section of town and is heavily populated with refugees.
Najeeb said the refugees need low-cost housing and are also stymied by the fact that most landlords want the first month’s rent, the last month’s rent and a security deposit up-front.
“It is hard for them to (just) pay month to month,” Najeeb said.
So far, Lutheran Social Services has placed five families left homeless by the tornado and is working to find housing for 19 more families of as many as four to six people each.
There are currently about 90 people in the shelter the city has set up on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition fairground. Najeeb estimated about 80 percent of the families in the shelter are refugees and clients of Lutheran Social Services.
Najeeb said the tornado has particularly frustrated the refugees, most of whom spent years living in refugee camps before coming to this country. Added to that is the fact that getting refugee status from the United Nation’s High Commission of Refugees, which enables them to move to this country, takes one to three years, according to Najeeb.
Refugees have suffered from such problems as racism as well as religious, social and political conflicts in their own countries, he said.
After starting with nothing in this country, the ones at the shelter have now lost everything once again, according to Najeeb.
“They are frustrated. They come to this country with zero....We have refugees in the shelter who have been in this country a couple of months,” Najeeb said. “They are so frustrated. They just wanted their American dream, a job and a home. You see your American dream blown away by a tornado, gone right before your eyes.”
“Our house is totally damaged,” Lakshima Adhikari, 20, said of her family’s former home at 85 George St.
Adhikari, whose family is originally from Bhutan, moved here with them two years ago from a refugee camp in Nepal.
She said they have no relatives in this country to offer them help.
“We are looking for an apartment in West Springfield. It is hard to find one,” Adhikari said.