Refugees making Lewiston next stop

By DAVID CONNERTY-MARIN, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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Fadumo Issa arrived in Portland in April with her four children and little else. On Tuesday she will give up Portland's large Somali community, the mosque on Brackett Street, the services of Reiche School for her children, and move to an apartment in Lewiston.

Portland's extremely tight rental market made staying here nearly impossible.

"I am very happy going to Lewiston, but I would have been more happy to stay here," she said through an interpreter.

Many new immigrants like Issa, as well as other low-income people, are being forced to relocate to Lewiston because of the affordable housing crunch in Portland. Caseworkers are telling people staying at Portland's emergency shelters – even those with jobs and incomes – that they should look elsewhere to find a place to live.

The city's rental vacancy rate is less than 2 percent. Apartments with more than two bedrooms are especially scarce. That makes new immigrants – many of whom have large families – highly vulnerable.

Families from Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere are being relocated to Lewiston, Biddeford, Sanford and other cities where there is less pressure on the housing stock.

"We're moving them wherever we can find a place," said Regina Phillips, family services supervisor at the city of Portland's family shelter.

In Lewiston, the impact is so great the city is beefing up its social services department to accommodate the newcomers. The mayor and others say they welcome the diversity and potential economic benefits of filling vacant housing.

Phillips said many families prefer to stay in Portland, especially Somali families, because the city is equipped to deal with new immigrant families, and because there is already an established Somali community here.

More than 150 Somalis – 26 families as of last Thursday – have moved to Lewiston since February. About 60 of them passed through Portland first. Another four families are expected in Lewiston this week.

The city of Portland does not force anyone to move out of town, but increasingly is suggesting it as the best way to find affordable housing.

"The first person we placed in Lewiston, she was leery," Phillips said. "But she decided to go. Everyone else followed."

Most refugees come to Maine in two ways: with the aid of Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Services, or as "second-wave" immigrants – people who came to another U.S. city first and chose to relocate to Maine.

Those in the first group get housing assistance and are placed in an apartment almost as soon as they arrive. Catholic Charities provides intensive case management by helping refugees find jobs, enroll their children in schools and get other services they need.

The city's general assistance program – the same program that helps any destitute individual or family – takes care of the second-wave immigrants.

"We're kind of a miniresettlement program," said Robert Duranleau, director of the city's social services division, which runs the general assistance program. The city offers many of the same services, though with fewer benefits.

Immigrants from the second group may have arrived in this country just days or weeks before, sponsored by a resettlement agency, only to give up those services and head for Portland.

The new arrivals may have family in Portland, or find their host city large and violent, opting for the quiet and safety of Maine for their families.

It is impossible to say how many Somalis live in Portland now. As of April, there were 265 Somali students in Portland's schools. More than 100 of them had enrolled in the previous nine months.

From May 2000 to April 2001, 41 Somali families have been served by Duranleau's department. Another 16 second-wave families from Sudan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere also received help.

Catholic Charities Maine has helped 324 Somali people in 77 families locate here since 1990.

Duranleau said it can be hard explaining to the newcomers just how bad the housing situation is in Portland.

"They say, 'I want a first-floor apartment with a back yard,' " Duranleau said. But he said a family is lucky to find anything in Portland, especially if it is a large family requiring more than three bedrooms, as many of the immigrant families do.

A city study conducted one day in March as part of a survey of the homeless population found only 10 three-bedroom units and four four-bedroom units available for rent.

"If you're apprehensive (about Lewiston), what's the alternative?" asked Gerald Cayer, director of Portland's Health and Human Services Department. "A motel or the shelter."

Between January and April of this year, 93 people in 17 families were moved to Lewiston from the family shelter.

Some families are choosing Lewiston on their own, saying they prefer the quieter city, and because they perceive Portland to be more dangerous.

Awile Bile spent only four months in Pittsburgh before moving to Lewiston.

He gave up his refugee benefits in Pennsylvania and came to Maine. Even in Africa he had heard that Maine was a good place to raise a family. He stopped in Portland for two days.

"I have children and as soon as I came to Portland I heard about sexual abuse and child molestation in the newspaper and saw signs to watch out for people," Bile said. "I have children, I have concern."

Bile, his wife and six children headed to Lewiston. With help from the city, he found a place to live at Hillview Apartments, where three other Somali families also live.

"I miss the larger (Somali) community," Bile said. "But I still have the most important people here and we're doing great and I'm very proud of them."

Ten of the Somali families in Lewiston relocated from a very large and established Somali community in Atlanta, with no stopover in Portland. Abdiaziz Ali, a Somali caseworker hired by the city of Lewiston last month, is one of them.

"I moved here because it's a very safe place," said Ali, who has five children. Carjackings, muggings, school fights and drug abuse in Atlanta, where more than 30,000 Somalis live, convinced him it was time to move after five years.

He and several others started to research cities around the country, and decided on Lewiston. Families began helping each other make the trip to Lewiston.

Ali said other families arrive in Portland, hear that it is a tourist city with lots of traffic in the summer, and they want someplace quieter.

Already the Lewiston community has a communal day-care center and a religious school. They use the school for prayers on Friday, the Muslim sabbath.

Ali says plans are under way to open a specialty food store and a clothing shop.

Rental agents in Lewiston are benefiting from Portland's tight housing market. Landlords with vacant apartments have come to the city looking for immigrant tenants. Some have rehabilitated units that were dormant.

"We are finding many people coming up from the Greater Portland area to find rentals in the Lewiston area," said Robert A. Berube of Apartment Connection. "We noticed a big increase in the last three to six months."

Jeff Ahlberg of Reny Property Management said his agency has also seen an increase, especially of immigrant families.

"The families we've housed happened to go all to the same place," he said. "They have support around them, and continued contact with the family shelter in Portland."

The influx of Somali families has been an education for Lewiston city officials, who say they welcome the new immigrants.

"(At first) we weren't able to keep up," said Sue Charron, Lewiston's general assistance administrator. "Portland's shelter people helped with case management."

Charron said the city initially placed families in shelters and hotels, but now it is finding landlords willing to rehabilitate vacant units to rent out.

Once, sitting in her office, a Somali woman went into labor, but the language barrier made it difficult to give her the assistance she needed.

She and other city officials have learned a lot in very short order.

They've connected with a telephone-based interpreter service that has helped overcome language barriers, and hired Ali as a part-time caseworker.

The city is also arranging meetings of many social service agencies to go over legal obligations, cultural customs and other information that will help them interact with the new immigrants.

Portland social services people like Cayer and Phillips say Lewiston has been very responsive.

The city isn't doing anything for the immigrants that it doesn't do for other families, Charron said. But the increased number of immigrants is causing the city to start offering services, like case management, that it has not offered before.

"I see it as a tremendous opportunity," said Mayor Kaileigh Tara. "We have much more affordable living up here; it's not a long commute to Portland."

Portland's housing crunch comes while Lewiston is busy demolishing old buildings that are substandard and eyesores. The population dropped from 39,000 to 36,000 over the past decade.

"The Somalis will bring the richness of their culture, and I want the city to grow, not shrink," Tara said.

Staff Writer David Connerty-Marin can be contacted at 791-6325 or at: dconnerty-marin@pressherald.com

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