Housing

Discover new multilingual resources to help newcomers understand rental housing in the U.S. and basic home safety. Resources were created in partnership with Refugee Housing Solutions and align with the Domestic Housing Cultural Orientation Objectives and Indicators.  

GUIDE: Safety Planning and Emergency Preparedness for Refugee Housing: This resource, created by Switchboard, provides guidance and information to help service providers remember that each refugee family may have varying circumstances and needs.   

Best Practices for Hotel Partnerships to House Refugees and Other Newcomers: The resource gives an overview of the benefits of working with hotel partners and outlines step-by-step advice for pursuing such partnerships — from research and outreach, to negotiating and executing agreements, to ongoing protocols and engagement efforts that can be implemented throughout the partnership. 

Introduction to HUD Affordable Housing for Newcomers: This eLearning course covers the types of affordable housing programs offered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and their eligibility requirements. 

Refugee Housing Solutions (RHS) now has a Best Practices Toolkit. As the challenges of finding safe, affordable housing for newcomers to the U.S. have grown during the past few years, so too have the number and variety of housing innovations.

Guide: Leveraging College and University Housing for Newcomer Welcoming: In the face of the U.S. housing crisis, resettlement practitioners must embrace creative solutions to housing newcomers. One such solution involves partnering with institutions of higher education to meet newcomer temporary or long-term housing needs. This resource, created by Refugee Housing Solutions and the International Rescue Committee, offers additional guidance and ideas. 

Toolkit: Tenant Toolkit: This comprehensive tool from Refugee Housing Solutions contains vital information and resources on searching for housing, what to expect during the application process, key things to understand in a lease, what rights a tenant has under the Fair Housing Act, and more.  

Managing Newcomers’ Housing Expectations: Included in this Switchboard blog post are a few of the most important facts about housing in the United States to communicate to newcomers before and during the search. Refugee Housing Solutions recommends discussing these facts with newcomers shortly after their arrival—during cultural orientation or housing counseling sessions—to make identifying, securing, and maintaining housing as simple as possible. 

Renting in the U.S.: This 30-minute live event discusses the different types of rental housing in the U.S., the affordable housing crisis, affordable housing programs, and how to rent a housing unit. Watch the English event here.   

Emergency Housing: Three Ways to Connect with Local Shelter Systems: Many of Refugee Housing Solutions’ resources highlight ways to secure housing and avoid homelessness. If you are a newcomer, or are working with a newcomer, who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, here are tools to help find immediate shelter and keep you safe.    

Tool: Navigating Housing Screening Criteria: During the process when landlords and housing providers screen rental applicants, they often require documentation that newcomers typically do not have upon arrival in the United States. To decrease this barrier to entry, this resource, created by Refugee Housing Solutions (RHS) in partnership with Switchboard, outlines alternative documentation that landlords and housing providers should expect (and accept) during the screening process. 

Innovative Housing Solutions Spotlights: Read more here.

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri is aiding those facing eviction and are unable to get an attorney to represent them. Resources on this website can help self-represented persons defend themselves, and it can produce a document which the tenant can file with the court where their eviction is pending. Additionally, the website has tons of helpful information about evictions. 

Housing Selection 101: In this blog post, Switchboard and Refugee Housing Solutions (RHS) focus on the housing selection process for newcomers, from walk–through to move-in. This information is relevant for providers serving clients who have recently arrived in the U.S. and have immediate housing needs (such as Afghan newcomers), as well as providers serving clients with intermediate to longer-term housing needs. They also recently published another blog post, Helping Newcomers with the Housing Search. 

Newcomer Housing Tips: Four Steps for Outreach to Landlords: Switchboard has partnered with Refugee Housing Solutions to share training and promising practices related to housing solutions for newcomers. The tips in this post will get you started in forming positive landlord relationships to help secure housing for clients.  

Recruit, Retain, and Engage Landlords and Property Managers: This recorded webinar from Refugee Welcome Collective provides resettlement staff, community sponsors, and volunteers with information on how to engage and build partnerships with landlords and property managers. 

Switchboard has partnered with Refugee Housing Solutions to provide resources that address the affordable housing crisis. Below are the latest resources they’ve developed:  

Tool: Sample Housing Walk-Through Checklist: During a housing walkthrough, prospective renters—or those conducting the search on their behalf—can follow these general standards.  

Through a newly formed partnership, the Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange (CORE) and Refugee Housing Solutions (RHS) will work to better support newcomers on the topic of housing. In the months to come, CORE and RHS will produce more in-language client-facing materials and host events about housing, much of which will be shared through Settle In. 

Refugee Housing Solutions provides technical housing support to resettlement practitioners, landlords and property managers, refugees, and volunteers across the United States and partners with them to develop and implement cohesive strategies to increase the availability and affordability of housing.

It Takes a Village: Learning from Statewide Housing Partnerships in Idaho: This blog post from Switchboard provides four tips for State Offices for Refugees and others seeking to expand their housing partnerships with diverse stakeholders.

HUD has released FAQ from Office of Fair Housing on how landlords can be consistent on housing flexibilities. Additionally, HUD staff have undergone training on immigration statuses of Afghan entrants.

The state’s HUD team would like to share the link to HUDExchange Operation Allies Welcome page. Following that link, you will find a HUD Fact Sheet, link to the HUD Resource Locator, and a contact link to HUD-certified Housing Counseling Agencies.

Emergency Rental Assistance Programs: Opportunities for Refugees and other ORR-Eligible Clients: Housing is a key challenge facing refugee service providers and communities around the U.S. There is an opportunity to coordinate with state or local partners on the use of existing federal programs, Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) 1 and 2, to support clients, including refugees and other Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)-eligible clients. This Switchboard blog post shares information on these programs and tips for how to get started.

New Homes for New Refugees: A webinar from Welcoming America focused on helping agencies create a welcoming landlord network. Service providers in Pittsburgh explained their process and shared several helpful resources. Check them out below:

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