Word-of-mouth brings immigrant families to Habitat for Humanity

For many immigrant families struggling to find affordable housing in Eastern Iowa, Habitat for Humanity has been a boon.

Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity builds five or six homes a year in Johnson, Cedar, Washington and Iowa counties. Of the six families most recently selected for a home, five are immigrants.

A similar pattern has existed for the past several years.

Iowa Valley Habitat Resource Development Director Laura Shoemaker said the agency is not purposefully selecting immigrant families - the committee that reviews applications doesn't see the family's name, race or country of origin.

'We do see a lot of immigrant applications that come in. It's kind of a word-of-mouth thing,” she said.

'Sometimes when a family immigrates to the area, they have other family members that come to the area. If they find Habitat works for them, they might tell their friends and family about it.”

That's how Abdineko Mausa and Andjela Uredi heard about the program. The couple, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, have 11 children. They were living with 10 of those children in a two-bedroom apartment in Coralville when they applied for a Habitat home.

Their oldest child lives in Canada. The rest range in age from four months to 20 years old.

The six older children fled with their parents from war in the DRC to Tanzania, where the family spent eight years in a refugee camp. They moved to the United States in 2010, and to Iowa in 2012.

The family joined volunteers Friday to officially break ground on the six-bedroom house in Iowa City Habitat will build with them. Situ, 19, attends West High School in Cedar Rapids and acted as translator for her parents at the groundbreaking.

She described the difficulties of sleeping and getting ready in the morning with so many children in their small, one bathroom apartment.

'We used to be late for school,” Situ said. 'My brothers were sleeping in the living room.”

‘Sweat equity'

The actual construction on their home won't start until August. Iowa Valley Habitat helped them find a three-bedroom house with a finished basement to move into until then and is subsidizing the rent so they can afford the additional space.

Situ, her siblings and parents picked up hammers and eagerly chipped in on Friday to build wall frames. The family must put in 250 hours of 'sweat equity” for each adult who will live in the home.

Situ said she wouldn't mind doing the manual labor to make their home a reality. She said as a child, she helped make bricks to build her family's house in the DRC.

'It's our house, so I will be very excited to help build it,” she said.

That willingness to participate in the process is part of what Habitat looks for when selecting partner families. Other considerations include need, income and ability to repay a loan.

Habitat homes are not free - they come with a monthly, zero-interest mortgage spread over an average of 20 to 25 years. The Mausa and Uredi family will pay about $650 a month for their mortgage, including taxes and insurance, the same rate they're currently paying for rent.

They also don't have to come up with thousands of dollars for a downpayment.

'We're looking to help individuals that can help themselves,” Shoemaker said. 'It's a hand up, not a handout.”

She said Iowa Valley Habitat receives about 50 applications a year. Many are disqualified due to concerns over their ability to pay the mortgage.

'We find that sometimes the immigrant families tend to carry less debt than Americans do,” she said. 'We do have a debt crisis in this country.”

That doesn't mean no American-born families are receiving homes.

In Linn and Benton counties, served by Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, around half of the partner families are American-born and half are immigrants, noted Bea Flodeen, Cedar Valley Habitat director of communications.

She said Cedar Valley Habitat serves around 25 to 30 families a year through a combination of new construction and rehabilitating older homes.

'They kind of become our advocates. They tell the other families what its like to go through the Habitat process,” she said. 'It becomes self-perpetuating.”

One of those advocates is Slyvain M'zuza, a pastor at Full Grace Ministries in Cedar Rapids. He and his wife are from the DRC and have six children.

Their family received a Habitat home four years ago. M'zuza said he's since told other members of his church - which has a congregation made up of a mix of Americans and African immigrants from several countries - about the program. Several of those families since have been approved for homes.

'I told many other families, and not only Africans, but Americans, too,” he said. 'An American woman from my church, a single mother, is now living in a Habitat house.”

Flodeen said she wants to make it clear the program is welcome to all.

'We want everybody to come and apply. We want to serve everybody, no matter where they're from,” she said.

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