Author: Danielle Gauthier

It’s no secret that housing is extremely scarce in New England’s cities. A “vacancy rate” is the percentage of a city’s existing housing that’s available to rent. Lowell, Massachusetts has a vacancy rate of 7%. Boston’s hovers around 2% and Manchester, New Hampshire’s is less than 1%.  

Affordable housing is even more scarce, and when refugees first arrive, they face significant disadvantages as prospective tenants. Having been forced to suddenly leave their home countries under terrible circumstances, they start out in the U.S. without the security of jobs, credit, references, the funds to pay their deposits, and often, the English language skills and cultural knowledge to build the needed relationships with property owners.  

What they do have is remarkable resilience, drive, and adaptability—and they have IINE. Refugees, asylees, and other protected immigrants are eligible for housing support under federal law, and the International Institute of New England has been successfully securing them housing before they arrive, setting up their apartments, and bringing them from their ports of entry to their first homes in the U.S., for more than 100 years. 

IINE is notified by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants that refugee families and individuals will be arriving about one to two weeks in advance. The word goes out to our Housing Coordinators and they’re off to the races, looking for housing that will meet the arriving refugees’ needs, is withinwalking distance to necessities such as grocery and convenience stores, and ideally, is situated in a diverse community that will connect them to fellow immigrants and former refugees who will embrace their arrival. Last year, IINE successfully found housing for more than 345 new arrivals. Read on to learn how.  

IINE housing coordinators draw from networks and experience. 

Paris Peters had a full 20 years of experience as a realtor in Boston before becoming an IINE Housing Coordinator at the beginning of 2023—so she already knew a lot about finding people housing in Boston. “Or I thought I did!” she says, laughing.  

She explains that finding housing for people who arrive without the resources of other potential tenants is a whole different ballgame, but she does draw from a network of about 20 realtors who trust her and understand what she needs, “my backbone,” she says. “They come up with something, even if we can’t take it. Every time I say, hey I need, this…they’re like, hey, we’ve got it.” 

Still, they won’t always have apartments that meet a particular family’s needs, so Paris has to constantly grow her network. “Apartments.com, Craigslist, Facebook has a whole housing section—I also am a member of quite a few real estate groups and find them to be the most helpful. I get the quickest responses from them. So, networking and using the community really, really helps. Something as simple as speaking to your neighbor—that has gotten me an apartment.” 

Sandrine Mukakinani, Paris’ counterpart in IINE’s Lowell office, was a local property manager who had been providing housing for our clients when she became an IINE Housing Coordinator in 2023. A former refugee from Rwanda, she was resettled by IINE in 2015, and after exploring several careers, became interested in realty. “It’s something I have a passion for doing. I like anything related to properties,” she says. “I want to grow in the property business. Doing this job…I meet many landlords, I learn a lot, and I can also serve our office. So, I like it. It’s challenging, yes, but I do accept that challenge because I’m learning.”

Sandrine says she has a network of about 18 realtors that serve as her go-to’s in Greater Lowell, and like Paris, frequently checks apartment listing sites, Facebook, and Craigslist as well. 

“I start with the landlords we already have an existing relationship with. I call, I send messages, I disturb them all the time,” she says, laughing. “I use my friends who are involved in properties as well. I do it all. Any way I can get to, luckily, yeah, we have something available.” 

For IINE’s Manchester, New Hampshire office, the network is much smaller but has been equally effective. “Manchester uses only three property managers,” explains Senior Program and Contract Manager Kateryna Kelly. “They manage not whole buildings, but large quantities of units in buildings here and there throughout Manchester.” One of these is actually based in Massachusetts and also finds units for IINE clients in Lowell. “We have a very informal relationship with him. Sometimes we just text him and let him know what we need and when.”

Property owners who are also immigrants are a good bet.  

Paris is the granddaughter of immigrants from Cape Verde, Sandrine a former refugee from Rwanda, and Kateryna, an immigrant from Ukraine. While their experiences were very different, they are all able to empathize with the challenges our clients face. They find the same is true when they connect with property owners who are immigrants. 

“Most of the landlords that I have found are also from immigrant populations themselves, or their parents were immigrants,” says Paris. “That’s the great thing about Boston. It’s got a large immigrant/refugee history and population. Either their grandparents, their parents, or they came from somewhere else, myself included. You understand what kind of difficulty it is, you know, moving from one country to another, what cultural shocks they’re going to go through, because they understand the process.” 
 
Sandrine reflects, “It’s not that easy when you come from far away, especially when you come from Africa. It’s a new country, new culture, new everything, new people. You leave your family back home, so you start all over again. It takes time to settle. The Lowell community has a lot of immigrants. So those [go-to] landlords—not all but many—they also came as immigrants. They understand and they are willing to help.”

IINE’s strong track record can make all the difference.

Building up a network of reliable realtors and property owners who will quickly respond to requests with opportunities takes charm, patience, and relationship-building.

“It does help when there is a program assisting a tenant,” says Paris. “I make that a benefit of us, a benefit for the landlord, and I use myself as a backup. I tell the landlord if you’re having a problem with the tenant, please call me.” She explains that not only will the landlord have her support, but that IINE’s clients have support, from federal benefits helping them to cover rent until they’re able to work, to interpreters who can help with communications, to case specialists and volunteers who are helping to orient them to their new lives and expectations. She points out that as far back as her records go, IINE clients have never been evicted from their apartments.  

Kateryna remembers struggling to convince a property manager she now relies on. “It took us a bunch of explanations of what we do, where clients are [in the resettlement process], that they are going to be employed…but once he started working with us, he saw how consistently we reach out, how responsive we are, and how consistently we can fill his vacancies. That’s appealing.” 

Volunteers turn a housing unit into a home.

When you’re bringing someone who has lost their home to their first new living space in an unfamiliar country, you want it to feel as welcoming as possible. Once IINE has secured an apartment, community volunteers spring into action, helping to deliver and set up furniture, plates, silverware and cookware, cleaning supplies, bedding, and even art for the walls, all donated by community members.

Mike Mailloux, Volunteer Coordinator at IINE’s Manchester office, explains, “We will make the apartment look homey and welcoming, put toys on the beds for the kids and provide everything a family may need for the first few months.” 

“Today I actually happened to be there when a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo—a mom and three kids—showed up. I opened the doors for them, and all the kids were super excited, running around the apartment and playing. They immediately busted open a box of toys in the living room. They were so happy that they had some stuffed animals. It was so fun and so nice to see that.”  

When IINE’s community volunteers secure housing for refugees, the keys are resourcefulness and persistence.  

The Westside Welcoming Committee Resettle Together team has successfully sponsored two families of refugees, including finding them housing. Group leader Jon Levine’s description of his approach mirrors Paris’s: “Call and beg, call and beg, and keep doing that.” 

“It’s just a matter of calling a LOT of real estate agents about any unit on any of the listing websites that looks like it could suit a family’s needs,” he says, adding that it helps to find realtors’ direct numbers, to which a member of Westside Welcoming Committee often has access as a fellow realtor. When he gets a ‘no,’ he asks the realtor if they have a contact who might say ‘yes.’ Once he gets his foot in the door, he has to make his pitch.

“There’s no greater challenge than getting the agent to believe you can produce a legitimate ’safe’ prospect for their landlord—safe meaning that they’ll pay the rent regularly and not cause trouble! Your own presence and demeanor in representing IINE and its clients can go a long way to doing that. It helps to have your finger on the numbers—to know exactly what you can (and can’t) assure the landlord in terms of rent funds. And if your community group is committed to seeing this family through, then making that clear to the agent and landlord as well.”

Jon likes to say:

“IINE has been settling families like this for more than 100 years, finding them housing, providing English language lessons, full medical coverage, and then working with them to find jobs so that usually within six months or so, they become self-supporting. And our support group of local Boston citizens is committed to doing everything in our power to get them on their feet as quickly as possible.” 

He’s gotten good at evaluating an apartment once he gets an offer. “There’s an invaluable website called walkscore.com. Just plug in the address you’re considering, and it will give you both a walkability and a transport score, with bus, T, and train routes near the location, as well as maps that show shopping in the vicinity.”

The Westside Welcoming Committee successfully found housing for a family of four from Iraq in the Boston suburb of Newton and a family of three from Cameroon in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.

“The first family is still in their Newton apartment one year later, and the kids love the school they’re in. I think the family in Dorchester was thrilled to have a place to call their own—they’re very happy with the space!” 

IINE is looking for long-term (12 months or more) housing in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for newly arrived refugees and immigrants, including families who are currently in MA’s emergency shelter system. Learn more about housing needs here. If you have housing to offer or know someone who might, please be in touch. 

6 things to understand about how the climate crisis is displacing people worldwide and what we can do to help

“The period of global warming has ended; the period of global boiling has arrived,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced during another record-breaking summer for global temperature in 2023. Global warming affects food and water supplies, causes rising sea levels that decrease livable land, and creates destructive natural disasters. It’s already a factor in displacing millions from their homes worldwide each year, often termed “climate refugees.” Countries around the world need to prepare for this problem to get much worse if trends are not reversed, and as we work to reduce the causes of climate crises, we also need to better protect the people most at risk.  

Here are 6 important things to know about “climate refugees.” 

1. “Climate Refugees” are people who have been forced to leave their homes because of the effects of climate change, but the term isn’t entirely accurate.

“Refugee” is a term with a precise legal meaning. Defined by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, refugees are people who have left their home countries and are unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. When granted, refugee status gives people important rights in their new country, allowing them to stay, work, and receive life-changing support from resettlement agencies like IINE. Currently, refugee status is not legally conferred to people who lose their homes because of the climate crisis. 

“Climate displaced persons” is a more accurate umbrella term for those displaced by the climate crisis. The term “climate migrants” often appears in the media, but only describes those planning to stay at their destination temporarily.  

2. Not legally considered “refugees,” people displaced by climate disasters are not protected by international law.  

Legislation has been proposed to protect climate displaced persons, but so far has stalled. U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a bill to establish a Global Climate Change Resilience Strategy in 2019, and then with Nydia Velásquez (D-NY) in 2021, and again on November 20, 2023, with IINE’s endorsement. Among other needed measures, it would create a U.S. resettlement pathway for climate displaced persons.  

3. Climate disasters can destroy homes either very quickly or slowly over time. 

Climate disasters can take two forms: sudden-onset and slow-onset.  

Sudden-onset climate disasters are events that strike quickly and cause tremendous damage like earthquakes, hurricanes and cyclones, tsunamis, floods, and volcanic eruptions. In many cases, they cause people to migrate to new areas within their own countries, becoming “internally displaced.”  

Slow-onset climate disasters are not caused by one sudden event but are the consequences of prolonged stressors like droughts or slow but devastating erosions like when sea-level rise shrinks habitable land. These disasters can be not only destabilizing, but in some cases, make places permanently unlivable.  

4. Even when not the sole cause, climate disasters worsen other causes of displacement.

Seventy percent of refugees and eighty percent of internally displaced people have fled from countries that are among the most affected by climate crisis according to the UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency.

Climate change is a threat multiplier. For countries struggling with stressors like poverty and job loss, competition over dwindling resources, damaged infrastructure, and government corruption, climate disasters make these challenges worse, which can enflame tensions, provoke conflicts and push people to the breaking point of needing to leave their homes.  

Climate disasters can also make people more vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking. “Traffickers can exploit [climate crisis] conditions by promising food, shelter, and other resources, sometimes posing as disaster responders or social service professionals to gain trust,” according to the U.S. government’s Office on Trafficking in Persons.  

5. Globally, women, children, persecuted minorities, indigenous people with strong ties to their land, lower-income people, and migrants of all kinds are disproportionately at risk from climate disasters. 

Disadvantages can be dire. These populations are more at risk because they tend to have less decision-making power, fewer government protections, fewer resources to adapt to climate-related shocks, more to lose when land becomes unfarmable, and less ability to resist when others try to force them to leave their land or take their resources.  

 
The “climate justice” movement also points to the fact that those who have contributed least to the climate crisis—counties that are less industrialized and less affluent—are disproportionately affected by it and should be compensated. An often-cited study in The Lancet pins 92% of excess CO2 emission on the United States and the European Union.  

6. To minimize climate change’s negative impact and best protect the most vulnerable populations, we must prepare now.

We can lessen this crisis through cooperation and collective action. There is much to be done, including: 

• Supporting well-defined legal immigration pathways, humanitarian protections, and freedom of movement across borders for people displaced by climate disasters. Read about Sen. Markey’s proposed “Climate Displaced Persons Act.” 
• Supporting the many climate mitigation projects led by indigenous peoples, refugees and internally displaced people who are often both most at risk, and most knowledgeable about sustainability.  
• On the local level, supporting affordable and sustainable housing and sustainable infrastructure to make room for more people long term. Read the recommendations of Massachusetts’ new “Climate Chief” and
  read about the process of updating New Hampshire’s Climate Plan.
• Ensuring that new arrivals to the U.S. have access to information in their own languages about local efforts to mitigate climate change, and rights, protections, and procedures in the event of local climate emergencies.  
• Contributing to efforts to reduce and mitigate carbon emissions and increase sustainability on the local level.  
• Committing to welcome and support climate displaced people in all the ways we currently welcome and support refugees.

As more people are displaced worldwide by the climate disaster, IINE is prepared to welcome them. We are proud to provide life-changing services to more than 10,000 refugees and immigrants every year. Please consider donating today to support our work. 

During the harsh chill of their first New England winter, several of IINE’s refugee clients are finding warmth in beautiful, hand-crafted blankets from longtime community volunteer Lydia Walshin.  

Each time Lydia donates one of the colorful “Welcome Blankets” she has crocheted, she attaches a card with a message of welcome that explains their story: 

“Welcome to the United States. We are so happy you’re here. 

My name is Lydia and I live in Boston with my husband, who immigrated here from Canada. My grandparents came to the U.S. from Poland in the 1920’s and lived in New York, where I was born. My grandmother taught me to make blankets like this one, so it feels good to share my grandmother’s love with you all. This pattern is called a “granny square”—granny is short for grandmother! 

I hope your life in the Boston area will fill you with peace and joy, that your family will find comfort and friendship, and that you will feel free. People here are friendly and will try their best to help you. My family and I wish you all the best.“

Lydia started making Welcome Blankets back in 2017 as part of a national craftivism project. She sent her blankets first to museum exhibits, and then to the southern border where they were distributed to newly arriving immigrants. It was one way she could use her skills to take positive action and ease the anxiety she felt over anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies surrounding the recent presidential election.  

Another was volunteering as an ESOL tutor. “I had never done this work before, but I was a writer for my whole life,” Lydia explains. She is a food writer with several ebooks to her credit and a blog called Lydia Likes It. “I had a pretty good command of the English language, had traveled a lot and had to make my way as somebody who only speaks English in many countries around the world, so I thought, let me give it a try, and I loved it.” 

A resident of Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, she started volunteering at several local agencies serving immigrants and particularly liked working with IINE.  

“IINE was great! The teacher was very creative and really got me hooked on it! The students obviously respected him. They worked hard, and they laughed a lot. They were determined to succeed here whatever it took, and I was so impressed with that.” 

Lydia has steadily continued to volunteer in ESOL classes, drawing on her passions for food, international soccer, and writing to connect with adult learners from all over the world. 

 She also regularly checks IINE’s website to see what kind of donations are needed. When she saw some winter needs listed, her Welcome Blankets seemed like a perfect fit. 

Lydia connected with IINE’s Volunteer Coordinator Kate Waidler, who was happy to receive Lydia’s Welcome Blankets. Lydia started making and donating more and more of them. She doesn’t know who specifically will receive them but says, “I try to send them off with lots of love in my heart and hope that that spirit takes them where they need to go.” 

Annis Roberts is one of the IINE Case Specialists who has had the pleasure of giving a Welcome Blanket to a recently arrived family. “Their almost three-year-old-daughter loved it!” Annis says. “She loves pink so this was the perfect one for her. When I left, she was wrapping her doll in it, so safe to say she was very happy to receive it!” 

Lydia calls the pink designs, her “Barbie” blankets. She is also fond of making rainbow-colored designs. “I make a lot that are rainbows because I think rainbows are optimistic, and we’re trying to say to people, ‘We are so glad you’re here. We want you to have a wonderful life, and we’re here to help you.’ I think rainbows say that.” 

She hopes other volunteers will join her in making Welcome Blankets and emphasizes that they are an easy project for any fiber arts crafter. They can be sewn, knitted, or crocheted, and the Welcome Blanket Website offers patterns, photos, and sources for materials. For her, the project is a way to keep up the momentum.

“As somebody who still teaches students and goes to classes, this is something I can do at home that keeps the movement going but is a bit quieter and calmer. It brings me joy to picture people opening a box and seeing the blanket and saying, ‘wow!’ I think that’s great.” 

If you would like to become involved in making Welcome Blankets, you can reach out to Lydia directly at lydiawalshin42@gmail.com. 

Interested in IINE’s volunteer opportunities? Click to find a list of ways you can get involved.