Syrian refugees about to face housing crunch in Calgary

The man leading the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Calgary is telling the federal government to stop sending families of more than six peoplebecause it's getting difficult to findhousing.

It comes asOttawa and Vancouver announced they will temporarily halt the flow of government-sponsored refugees because of a lack of housing.

• Syrian refugee flow to Vancouver and Ottawa temporarily halted over housing shortage

FariborzBirjandian, with Calgary Catholic Immigration Services (CCIS), says Calgary is about to enter a similar housing crunch, and already cannot accommodate any more big families.

"That was the only request from the community for the federal government to address the housing before bringing people here," he said."They ignored it somehow, and now suddenly they send us a family of 10. I just don't understand."

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Birjandiansays they can find housing for smaller families of four to six people, but anything bigger becomes too expensive.

"I have a family of 10 stuck because we can't find them accommodation. We could find housing with four bedrooms and a basement available, but they are very out of range for these people."

Birjandiansays the problem is two-fold:there aren't that many rental units that allow such big families and the money that Ottawa provides refugees isn't enough to cover anything bigger.

A family of fourreceives about $800 a month for housing, but they typically use other government money they receive to support a housing budget of $1,000/month.

There are currently 191 Syrian refugees in the city waiting for permanent accommodation: 138 are at a hotel and 53 at theCCISresettlement home.

Another 101 people have moved into permanent housing over the past month.

CassandraOsbornnow knows how hard it is to rent a home on a fixed budget.The 40-year-old is part of a group of Calgary friends who are sponsoring a Syrian family of five set to arrive any day.

Osborn'sjob was to find the housing and it wasn't easy.

She scoured the online rental websites.

"The majority of people wouldn't respond to me. Some of them said it's been rented, which was funny given that their ads stayed up there."

Then she contacted the two big landlords in the city that have offered discounted rent for the refugeesBoardwalk Rental Communities andMainstreetEquityCorp.and was told her family of five would need three bedrooms, which put rent out of their range.

Osbornsays they eventually found a sympathetic family that agreed to rent out the basement of a house at a discounted rate to meet their $1000/month budget.

Calgary at a Crossroads is CBC Calgary's special focus on life in our city during the downturn. A look at Calgary's culture, identity and what it means to be Calgarian. Read more stories from the series atCalgary at a Crossroads.