A Human Dream (continued)

THE JOURNEY HOME

In other cities, the low-income foreign-born population has begun to realize that, in an increasingly expensive housing market, Habitat’s no-profit loan simply is a good deal. Tucson, Ariz., is another city with an active refugee resettlement program, and Habitat supporters there have taken to calling the 36-house Balboa Laguna subdivision a “mini United Nations.” They may not be far off the mark; the neighborhood, scheduled for completion this winter, is home to families from Mexico, Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and the Pascua Yaqui Native American tribe.

Instead of being isolated by their differences, the families of Balboa Laguna hold several qualities in common, Habitat for Humanity Tucson executive director Michael McDonald says. Many have suffered in their pasts, and they share a determination to make the best of the new prospects they’ve found in the United States. “There’s a sense of energy and looking forward to opportunities with hope that’s palpable,” he says.

Several of the homeowners have applied multiple times and improved their credit to qualify for a Habitat house. Yet, it’s more than the desire for affordable shelter that motivates them to pursue the stability of homeownership with such tenacity. For many immigrants, and especially for refugees, the longing for a place to put down roots and put up weary feet to rest is compelling.

“That American dream of homeownership is consistent, whether they would describe it as American or not,” McDonald says. “Everyone wants a place where they can thrive culturally, religiously, economically.”

“It’s more than stability,” Louisville’s Temple adds. “It’s community. It’s a place for the children to grow up. One man said at his dedication, ‘Do not call me Sudanese. I love my country and where I came from, but I’m an American, too.’”

Most Habitat homeowners, be they immigrant or native-born, move into their houses with a regard for their hard-earned space that exceeds the financial relationship they have with that piece of real estate. With a Habitat house, immigrant partner families are finding shelters for that most universal of dreams: a home.