Somali family finds N.H. too expensive, plans move to Maine

CONCORD, N.H. – Besides his meager income as a landscaper, a Somali man has relied on food stamps to support his seven children and his pregnant wife. But there’s little left for things like soap, diapers, utilities – and rent.

Next week, against his family’s wishes, Mohamed Mohamed plans to move everyone to Maine, where he’s heard that life is cheaper and easier for Somali immigrants. They have been in Concord for 10 months.

His is not an isolated case, said Nasir Arush, a Somali translator who assists the family and other members of the Bantu communities in Concord and Manchester. A persecuted minority in Somalia, the Bantus fled to refugee camps in Kenya after civil war erupted in 1991. Many adults had no education and their children had lived in refugee-camp tents.

Arush said he is trying to help four other families in Manchester who have received eviction notices. Other families are just barely holding on.

“It’s an emergency,” Arush told the Concord Monitor in a story published Friday. “I think people will be on the streets soon.”

Arush said the family isn’t happy about leaving. Mohamed’s family felt welcome in Concord. Volunteers helped interpret his mail, negotiate complicated phone bills, and enroll his children in recreational programs.

Lutheran Social Services, a federal subcontractor that resettles refugees in New Hampshire, has placed 68 Bantu immigrants in Concord since last October. Lutheran and other resettlement agencies help with rent, job placement and other services, but offerings are limited by federal funding. Most of the benefits run out within eight months, said Ann Dancy, Lutheran’s director of refugee services.

“The big thing here is that rent is simply too high,” said Ellen Kenny, who teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages at the Rumford School and is one of the organizers of the Concord Multicultural Project, a confederation of volunteers who assist the city’s refugees.

“It’s just not affordable for people with low income, and that’s true of the Americans that live here in Concord as well as everybody else.”

Mohamed’s rent and utilities can exceed $1,100 a month.

The Bantus are having a harder time than other refugees at achieving self-sufficiency because their learning curve is steeper, Arush said.

“You have to teach everything,” he said, from how to cross a street safely to how to use a toilet.

More and more Bantu refugees are telling Arush they dream of life in Lewiston, Maine – a Somali destination that, they have heard, offers cheaper living, more public immigrant aid and shorter waiting lists for Section 8 rental assistance.

But for those who do leave, the decision is difficult and puts a lot of strain on the family.

Mohamed’s wife, Habibo, said it will be a very hard transition and hard to understand, Arush said.

“The kids are very active [here]. It will be very hard for them to leave in two to three days,” Arush said, translating. “I think there was a big argument yesterday.”