Street roots., August 07, 2009, Page 11, Image 11

IB
Street roots
11
Education * Dialogue ♦ Independence
WORLDS, from page 1
upon very kindly,” she said. “That’s a
cultural issue.” v ? v. -
was,” Adan explained through a translator;
“When I got the eviction notice on my door
I didn’t know what it was - 1 thought maybe
; I didn’t pay a ticket”
As it turned* out, the couple had already
missed court dates, and they were on the
verge of being thrown out of their four-
bedroom home. They were able to stave off
eviction only with the help and mediation of
the Center for Intercultural Organizing, or
CIO, which isn’t usually involved in housing
issues.
CIO Executive Director Kayse Jama, who
also came as a refugee from Somalia and
worked frantically with HAP to keep the
family in their home, said the situation
demonstrates a distinct communication
failure.
The cluttered yard was “an issue, but not
an issue that should have gone to that
level, Jama said. “It has to be worked o u t-
more culturally appropriate ways of
communicating and explaining the rights
and responsibilities of the families.” |
Now Adan and Ismail are having trouble
determining how much money they owe
New Columbia,sihce their bills Were put on
hold during the eviction process they
weren’t aware of. Àt one point, as he showed
Jama a flurry of English-language documents
that he didn’t ùnderstand, Adan raised his
palms in resignation.
“We came from a war-torn country, and
we tried to work hard and get jobs and help
ourselves and our family and our children/
Ismail said, also through translation. When
they discovered that they faced.eviction, she
said, she briefly thought, “Why not send me
back to Africa? I don’t have anywhere to live.
Please send me back to the war-torn country
that I came from.”
ccording to Portland’s Immigrant and
Refugee Community Organization,
Oregon is hom è to abopC ^ p OQ African ’
immigrants and their families. Many came
as agency-sponsored refugees from conflict-
ridden nations like Somalia, Eritrea,
Burundi and Liberia, and their numbers
keep growing. In 1990, one in 30 black
Oregonians was born outside the U.S.; now
it’s one in 10, according tothe' recently
released State of Blade Oregon report.
Yet the African population’s increasing
prominence is not necessarily reflected in
Portland's services or its public
consciousness, says Evelyne Ello-Hart of the
African Women’s Coalition.
Ello-Hàrt, an impassioned advocate 4
originallyfrom the Ivory Coast, says the
African immigrant'and refugee community is
too often lumped in with the African
American community, when in reality the
two groups’ needs can be very different. She
says the city does little specific outreach to
thè African community, so that even when
there is assistance available to struggling
African families, no one knows it’s there.
“We areso many times left out because
people assume we are African American,”
Ello-Hart said. “I feel like someone just
dumped us in the Pacific Ocean when we
got to Portland.”
It’s hard to get a handle on how many |
Africans are struggling with housing issues,
but everybody has an anecdote. Ello-Hart
tells of a family of eight crammed into a
3-bedroom apartment with air) quality so bad
“Icouldn’t breathe.” Dana Wedel, who
teaches English to African women and
youth,' knows a Siidanese woman who left an
t the Plaza Townhomes, a HAP
subsidized housing property in North
Portland, manager Chris Connell estimates
that about 80 percent of his tenants are of
African origin. Connell pulls out a three-
ringed binder overstuffed with applications
for the complex. Many of the names seem
to be of African origin.
The waiting list for the townhomes is ,
closed, with 145 people hoping for one of
the 34 two-bedroom units. That’s about a
two-year wait if the apartments have a
regular turnover rate, Connell says - but
with the economy in the tank, no tenants
have moved out for six months.
“I think we were doing a disservice to
people by taking applications and giving
them hope,” Connell said.
Concentrated African communities have
emerged over time in several parts of
Portland, including the Plaza Townhomes
and. a particular cul-de-sac at the New
Columbia. That can be a great thing,
Steinmann of the African Women’s Coalition
explained, because families who understand
each other will trade things like childcare or
grocery shopping and have an easier time
settling in.
“It creates a social space that really help’s
women be able to get out and be in the
community,” Steinmann said.
The benefits are.so stark, in fact, that
;when the New Columbia held a focus group
for African families in the complex, many
asked if management could intentionally
house African immigrants and refugees next
to one another.
“Many of the families said, ‘Could all the
African families be placed in one section of
New Columbia?’” explained John Keating,
HAP’s assistant director for community
building. “I can see why folks would want
that, but Of course, from a fair-housing
M
A
N o rth A m erican culture,, you corild n e v er do
Clockwise: Saleman Adan, Suleqa Ismail, Fartun (9), Fatheya (6)„ Faiza (3), Fuad (17.
months) at their apartment in Portland.
apartment in another state without notice —
she didn’t understand that it would mar her
rental history — arid now has trouble finding
somewhere new to live. Jama is aware of at
least two other New Columbia families in
danger of eviction because they couldn’t
read bills or warning letters.
“It’s the same pattern,” Jama said. “I
don’t know how many else are facing this
problem.”
Advocates stress that the primary
obstacle for the African community is the
same as for other low-income Portlanders:
The town has a serious shortage of
affordable, quality rental housing. The
waiting lists for HAP’s public housing and
subsidized rent programs are both closed,
with over 3,000 people on each.
But there are cultural factors for African
urimigrants and refugees that can make the
situation even more precarious, and the
language barrier is just the beginning.
African families are frequently larger than •
the average American family, for example,
and occupancy standards can dictate that
they must rent larger apartments - which
can be even more of a stretch to afford.
“A lot of families I’ve seen, that’s one of
the barriers - they have so many kids,” said
Susi Steinmann, who coordinates the .
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African Women’s Coalition’s literacy
program. |
. With nowhere else to go, households with
family or homeland connections often end
up moving in together.
“There’s a very strong sense of
community in the African community,”
Steinmann said. “People are not going to be
'on the street before they’re absorbed into
another household.”'
Ello-Hart agrees, and she stresses that
over-packed households represent a real but
difficult-to-trace manifestation of
homelessness In the African community.
“You won’t see Africans under the
bridge,” Ello-Hart said, “But you will see
households over capacity.’” i
But while home-sharing may make sense
to a family that has lived through a crowded
refugee camp, it often violates leases: HAP
clients, for instance, can lose their public
assistance entirely if they are found to have
extra people in the household.
Meera Batra, who manages a parenting
program within the New Columbia, says
she’s seen it happen.
“Somebody knows somebody from their
village who lives in a different town, and
they invite them over to come lookfor a job
and stay, with them ...rind it’s not looked 1
that. That would be seen as segregation and
prejudice.” Instead, Keating said, HAP tries
to sponsor events for the mini-communities
that emerge.
HAP is also trying to determine the best
way to communicate with residents so
problems like Adan and Ismail’s are less
frequent, though no definite solution has yet
emerged.
“How can you meet them halfway?” Batra
said. “It’s going to be hard to bridge that
gap... Managers and everyone need to be
open to more trainings and talks, and
getting the community in to talk to them
about what works for them.”
There’s still a long way to go, advocates
say. According to Jama, the African
immigrant and refugee population is still
considered one of the most underserved in
Portland. The Center for Intercultural
Organizing work to help immigrant
communities advocate for themselves, but '
Jama says there’s also an onus on the city to
take care of those it takes in. “We have an
obligation to make sure that they’re
supported,” he said.
Ismail and Adan say they will do
everything they can to follow the rules and
keep their home. Adan is training to work as
a truck driver — be was about to take his
licensing test when the éviction came up —
and though their experience of late has
been frustrating, they keep it in perspective.
“There’s no war here,” Ismail said. “Thé 1
issues that we dealt with here are nothing
compared to (Somalia), so we’re absolutely
grateful that we’re safe and we’re here./
3035 S.E. Division • Portland, OR 97202
503.234.7499
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