A political refugee originally from Eritrea, Nejat Abdul Rehan, 31, is a transitional housing success story.
Four years ago, speaking no English and having very little money, Rehan left Saudi Arabia, where her family had abandoned her at 13, to come to the United States.
“I had no school, no nothing,” she said. A year after arriving in the United States, Rehan, unable to find a job, was living in a friend’s closet.
A few weeks later, Rehan discovered the Center for Multicultural Human Services (CMHS) in Falls Church, which provided her transitional housing for eight months and then helped her find a job.
“I was the first one in the transitional housing,” said Rehan. “After I found a job, they helped me save some money and find an apartment.”
Rehan, who now speaks fluent English and works as a hostess at the Ritz Carlton, moved into an efficiency apartment in Falls Church in 2003 and has been living there since.
Rehan was the first of many to benefit from a transitional housing program offered by the Center for Multicultural Human Services, a non-profit organization geared to help people from ethnically diverse backgrounds achieve self-sufficiency.
ON TUESDAY, June 28, Center for Multicultural Human Services received a grant for $550,000 from Freddie Mac Foundation to acquire five additional transitional housing units, which will provide housing for 16 more homeless families in Northern Virginia. In addition, the City of Falls Church donated a rent-free home on North Washington Street to CMHS for its housing program.
“The city seized on the opportunity to address affordable housing by making this property available to the Center for Multicultural Human Services,” said City of Falls Church Vice Mayor Martha “Marty” Meserve at the press conference announcing the grant. Of the affordable housing deficiency in the region, Meserve said that someone making minimum wage would have to work 214 hours a week to afford an average apartment in the area.
“Thanks to the major grant … more homeless families and their children have a safe place to call home while they adjust to their new lives here in the United States,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8), who attended the press conference.
Rising rent costs in Fairfax County and the increasing demand for homes has made finding affordable housing in the region difficult. The average rent in Fairfax County has increased 40 percent in the last four years and, in the 1990s, jobs in the county increased three times as fast as available housing.
“Family homelessness is a growing issue in our region — especially among immigrants — which has been exacerbated by the high cost of living,” said Dennis Hunt, executive director of the center. In 2002, 355 of 62,167 rental units were affordable to a household with two full-time minimum wage earners, according to CMHS.
Most of the region’s homeless live in the suburbs and children make up 31 percent of the homeless population, said chairman of the Freddie Mac Foundation, Ralph F. Boyd. “Providing struggling families with a stable place to call home strengthens these families and ensures that their children face a brighter future.”
THAT WAS THE CASE of Virginia Bonanjah and her son. When she was applying for asylum in the United States, she didn’t have a place to live and couldn’t find a job. “I was homeless, helpless,” she said. “God blessed me for discovering the center.”
Bonanjah, 45, came to the United States with her son, Bill, 7, as refugees from Cameroon. Bonanjah, who left her country because her life was in jeopardy for opposing the ruling party, said she was “lucky to escape to the United States.” With no place to live and no money, she experienced the hardship of homelessness.
Last June, CMHS started Bonanjah and her son in one of its transitional homes. Bonanjah, who now works at Sunrise Assisted Living, said that she plans to take a computer training class offered by CMHS.
Living in the United States for seven years, Norah Ibraham, 50, needed the services of CMHS when her marriage failed. “I tried to leave my house,” said Ibraham. She lived in CMHS transitional housing for two months before she was able to turn her life around.
“They gave me a house to live [in] and programs to learn English,” she said. Now Ibraham is a hostess at a Marriott hotel and has plans to own a house of her own.
The center’s housing program, which targets people facing cultural and language obstacles, serves 120-150 families and more than 400 individuals each year.
“This is doing God’s work,” said Moran, “and we thank you for making this happen.”
CMHS provides mental health services and other services to refugees, immigrants and survivors of war, including survivors of torture and trafficking. including mental health treatment, a domestic violence program, language classes, activities for at-risk youth and parenting classes.