Multicultural association raises alarm over lack of housing in Stratford area for refugees

As more refugees from Ukraine and other countries continue to arrive in the Stratford region, the Multicultural Association of Perth Huron is struggling to find adequate housing.

Article content

At a Friday morning press conference, the association and its volunteers painted a grim picture of refugees staying in local motels, dangerously crowded apartments and church basements while some are even sleeping outside.

Article content

“Our newcomers – Ukrainians, some Africans – they’re sleeping in the park. …The situation is very hard now. …They are working, but the organization is struggling (to find housing for them). … We already have a lot of homeless people – people who were born and raised (in Canada) – and we can’t stop (refugee) families from coming. They have their visa; they have their work permit. They have the right to be here,” multicultural association executive director Geza Wordofa said.

Yuliia Suliatytska, an association volunteer who immigrated to Canada from Ukraine two years ago to escape her country’s war with Russia, pointed to skyrocketing rents as a big part of the problem in Stratford

Article content

“Two years ago, (there were fewer Ukrainian) families living here, but now every day that number is increasing. We now have a big problem with housing here in Stratford. …The housing here is (too expensive). One-bedroom (apartments) are $2,100, $2,200 (for rent), and now people can’t find housing here.”

On top of that, Suliatytska, who has two masters degrees, said she and others with high levels of education are unable to find work in their fields so are forced to take much lower paying jobs at local factories, fast-food restaurants and retail stores .

“My best friend is a neurologist. She has 31 years experience in Ukraine in a neurology hospital,” Suliatytska said. “She has a job here, but she works in a factory.”

Article content

With more refugees and other newcomers coming to Stratford every month from their home countries or from cities like Toronto, where housing is also expensive and resources are scarce, Wordofa and his resettlement co-ordinators across Perth, Huron, Wellington, Oxford and Middlesex counties are unable to find enough housing to meet the demand.

“I’m concerned because we are short on housing, and this is an unsafe experience not just for newcomers to Canada but also for the people we already have here in Canada,” said Katie McGarrel, an association volunteer who helps resettle newcomers in St .Marys and Middlesex County.

“It’s not pretty,” she added. “People are sleeping on the streets. We were called to Toronto because there was an influx of immigrants with very little information about any kind of support they would receive once they got to Canada. If it wasn’t for one of our developers that we worked with taking them in, they would have had no place to go. … We were promised a grant from the government to help in these types of situations and we have not yet been issued that grant. The problem is happening now, so we need that funding support from the government to be able to carry out the aid that is required for these people.”

Article content

To continue to provide housing for refugees arriving in Stratford and the surrounding region, Wordofa and the association are calling on all levels of government to help support people like the 12 Ukrainian families he says are currently living in motels or in tents in Stratford.

“If your status in Canada is refugee, we’ve allowed you in. I think there is an obligation,” said Tim Sparks, executive assistant for Perth-Wellington MP John Nater at Friday’s press conference.

“I just want to know how many of our homeless… are refugees and could there be a program specific to that? This is hopefully not a mental-health issue, not a crisis in family that caused (them) to be living on the streets. …This is a different kind of issue. If we pursue a program or a grant, let’s make sure it has application to what we’re trying to solve,” Sparks added.

[email protected]

Article content