The majority of Syrian government-assisted refugees who have arrived in B.C. are still living in temporary housing or hotels.
So far, out of nearly 680 government-assisted refugees, only three families have been settled into permanent homes, said Chris Friesen with Immigrant Services Society of B.C.
Although the ISSofBC has over 1,110 housing leads, he says the challenge is "the families are larger than we anticipated."
The average size of a refugee family is six, Friesen said, while the majority of the housing offers have been for shared living or basement suites that would not be appropriate for larger families.
"We've very short of larger, permanent housing accommodations for five to eight family members. That range is really where we need it," he said...Best o' luck finding that, um, range, in places like Vancouver and Surrey.
But what about the money they're getting from the Trudeau government? With families that size, surely they'll be getting tons of support, right?:
Refugees will get a housing allowance to cover their first year in B.C., but it's not a large amount. A family of four with two children under age 19, for example, will get $800 a month.$800 a month?
In Vancouver?
That should get you digs about the same size--or even smaller--than the "two-room house in Jordan" where a refugee family mentioned in the Ceeb report used to live.
What do you want to bet that, in a year or so, more than a few disenchanted Syrian refugees will be outta here?
2 comments:
These people that have been imported into this country are imigrants not "refugees" They came from safe areas in Lebanon & Jordan. In order to come here they had to sell "assets"(John McCallum) before they could leave. On arrival I saw people that were well dressed, in good physical condition with much luggage and upscale accessories. Better dressed than the goods being handed out by the PM for "disgusting" photo ops. The position of govt was that this initial group of "refugees were vetted and sponsored by Canadian groups.
As a sponsor of a family a certain amount of pre arrival screening of the sponsoring group must have taken place. I recall seeing on Toronto TV a Catholic family group fawning over their sponsored family group and the fund raising efforts to support this group as the govt did not supply adequate resources for a new arrivals. Where are the BC sponsors? A family of six does not work well in a 1 one bedroom basement apartment.
I am certainly not in favour of importing people that tend to want the same lifestyle they left behind. I do have an islamaphobic attitude in that I see certain behaviours that do not integrate well into Canadian society. Adopting practices that accommodate religious or cult activity that interfere with my Canadian identity. Example: providing prayer space in public schools or altering job practices to accommodate the phobia against certain products. Kicking my dog is NOT acceptable.
M.Buckley
"What do you want to bet that, in a year or so, more than a few disenchanted Syrian refugees will be outta here?" We can only hope! Unfortunately, they'll probably just move somewhere else in Canada.
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