Mohammad bin Rahimi, an Afghan refugee who was a guard at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, and his family outside the1850s-era log cabin where they are living until they can find a home to rent, in Owensboro, Ky., Nov. 30, 2021.
Resettlement agencies have scrambled to find rentals in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and St. Louis as well as in towns like Owensboro and Reno, Nevada, where lease properties are in short supply, expensive or both. The coronavirus pandemic, complaints of discrimination and the sheer number of newly arriving Afghans have also posed challenges.
“We are very bored here. My wife cries every day. She is thinking all the time about her family in Afghanistan,” Zakirullah Ahmadzai, 32, said as his wife, Noorsabah Quroishi, 24, was wiping her tears with the fringes of her hijab in the dining room of a Comfort Suites. “They don’t say ‘no,’” said Diana Ford, a community leader who is leading an extensive volunteer effort to assist the newcomers. “They say, ‘We don’t have anything available.’”
“Already we had a shortage of rental properties, and now we have Afghan families desperately needing a place to live,’’ said Jaclyn Graves, chief executive of the Greater Owensboro Realtor Association. A sense of community has blossomed among the 160 Afghans at the motel, who have different ethnic, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds.
They should be free to return to Afghanistan who’s currently suffering a hunger crisis. Welcome to America. Now get to work, earn your keep, or get the heck out. nofreeloaders.
They are 'bored and crying everyday'. If the crisis is so bad, why stay? Sounds like it was better where you came from. If you're not grateful, go back. Something wrong in the world where the expectation is I am a refugee, but want a free palace in the western world.
Welcome to America.