| An Iraqi family of six that recently came to Canada as refugees is desperately looking for better housing after living in a crammed two-bedroom basement apartment for more than two years.
The family, which asked not to have their last name published, is just one of many immigrant and refugee families in Calgary that is struggling due to a chronic lack of affordable housing. And immigrant aid organizations are becoming increasingly concerned about the growing problem.
Abtesam is the mother of eight-year-old, 10-year-old and 15-year-old boys and a 12-year-old daughter. All her children sleep in one room – the beds take up almost all of the space. Their basement apartment has virtually no natural light and the bathroom is about the size of a closet. The carpet is often soaking because the building leaks and the family recently had a mouse infestation.
Abtesam says the crowded living situation is negatively impacting her children’s education. Mohammed, the 15-year-old, says he finds it almost impossible to study at home because it’s too noisy with six people in such close proximity.
Meanwhile, Abtesam’s daughter Nawal changes her clothes in the bathroom for privacy, and all the kids say they can’t bring friends over to play because there’s no room to play.
Abtesam was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and says she thinks it’s due to stress over their living conditions.
"We can’t continue to keep living in this basement…. We can’t rent a big house. We can’t buy a house. So what do we do? My kids, I worry about them," she says. "Sometimes I think of going back to my country, but Iraq is in a bad situation right now so I can’t."
Fariborz Birjandian, executive director of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, says such stories are becoming increasingly common.
"Today I came to work and I have people coming to me and saying immigrants or refugees transferred (here) from other provinces are sleeping in the park. That breaks my heart," says Birjandian. "That’s the whole mandate of our organization is to prevent those kinds of situations and we can’t do anything about it. It’s happening. There’s nothing available."
When refugees come to Canada they are eligible for financial support from the federal government for up to one year. But Birjandian says the amount the government is providing for accommodation is extremely low – $303 for a single person and $606 for a six person family.
"It is just ridiculous. It is unacceptable. We’ve been lobbying and we’ve been talking with them and giving them facts and saying it doesn’t work – a basement apartment in Calgary is about $750 and it seems they’re not listening," he says.
He adds that there’s not enough affordable housing available for new immigrants and refugees who are struggling to adjust to life in a new country.
"I would say we need to look at this issue as a crisis," Birjanadian says, adding that the city should start allowing more secondary suites, and the various levels of government have to help fund more subsidized and co-op housing. He says the lack of housing for clients is causing a lot of stress for immigrant aid organizations.
"We don’t know what to do," he says.
Birjandian is concerned about the long-term impact that inadequate housing could have on refugee and immigrant families.
"They’re going to be stressed out, they’re going to be experiencing more family violence, more mental health issues, and people don’t come to Canada to sleep on the street, so housing is going to be an issue that’s going to cause a lot of other problems," he says.
Hadassah Ksienski, CEO for the Calgary Immigrant Aid Society, agrees that the lack of affordable housing is a "barrier" when it comes to integrating immigrants into Calgary society.
"There’s low vacancy, high rent, and also there’s very limited non-market housing in Calgary and there are waiting lists," she says. "There’s no major initiative in the city that would take care of some of these issues."
She says that immigrant families are often driven into poverty by expensive rents because there’s no subsidized housing available even when they qualify for it.
Abtesam and her husband are becoming increasingly depressed about their situation. They question why they would be accepted into the country as refugees, but then given so little help to succeed.
"If the government can’t give families like us housing, why do they accept us to come here?" she asks. |
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