Immigrants seeking normalcy look to buy homes

PORTLAND – Norman Gideon had a home big enough for his family, with room to spare, in southern Sudan. That was before Islamist gunmen killed his father and three brothers. Gideon and the rest of his family were forced to flee.

Gideon’s family has lived in Portland since arriving as refugees in November 2004.

Now he’s looking to buy a house, a milestone that’s an integral part of the American dream for most people.

“We need to have freedom; sooner or later we’re going to have citizenship, and we should have a house,” he said.

For Maine’s refugees, many of whom fled conflict and came to Maine with no possessions, owning a home “means stability – something they haven’t had in a long time,” says Pierrot Rugaba, director of Refugee and Immigrant Services for Catholic Charities in Portland.

Recent estimates from Catholic Charities indicate that refugees make up slightly more than 5 percent of the Greater Portland population.

Most, like Gideon, stay in the city to be close to community, find work, learn English and make the transition to life in a new country.

Yet when it comes time to buy a home, they are being priced out of the Portland market. The mid-2006 median selling price of a home in Maine was $194,500 – nearly two-thirds higher than five years ago, according to the Maine Real Estate Information System.

In Cumberland County, median price levels have come within dollars of the $250,000 mark, and homes in Portland are close to $260,000.

Nonetheless, there’s an emerging market of first-time home buyers, said Sharon Brobst, a loan officer for TD Banknorth in Portland, who says she sees a half-dozen refugees or immigrants in her office inquiring about loans every week.

Rugaba said it’s hard for refugees to save to buy a house because they are often sending up to 30 percent of their wages back to their homeland to help relatives.

Yao Binimu, who lives in North Waterboro with his wife, Heidi, and their 6-year-old son, Isaiah, has four more children still in the Ivory Coast. He has been supporting them since he arrived in the United States, and now he and his wife are trying to bring them to Maine.

“I don’t make enough money, and I don’t save enough, because I have to take care of my four kids back home,” Binimu said. “I had to find a home that would fit in my life.”

For his part, Gideon has his eyes on a four-unit building in downtown Portland.

“It could be suitable for the whole family,” he said. “My three adult boys, myself and my wife, we all want to try to live together.”