More than 1,600 refugees from Afghanistan are expected to arrive in Arizona by March. But the cost of housing in Arizona has been rising quickly and agencies working to resettle refugees are struggling to find affordable rentals.
“We’re looking for landlords that would be willing to work with us to secure some units and kind of hold those units while we wait for those refugees to arrive, which I know is a big ask,” said Jean Christofferson with Catholic Charities. "With the cost of rental units right now, it's really difficult to find anything that's affordable for these folks and the other challenge is we don't know when they're arriving."
Christofferson says another challenge is furnishing homes for refugee families.
"These folks when they arrive will typically not have anything with them, so they're completely starting over," Christofferson said.
Catholic Charities is taking donations of furniture, electronics and other household items. The organization is also seeking volunteers who speak Farsi, Pashto, Urdu or Dari.
