Ottawa Citizen (February 17, 2016)
Ottawa refugee experts predicted that finding housing for the Syrians now flooding into the city would be a major problem. They are arriving in a bunch, families are large, and there’s already a shortage of affordable housing.
But local landlords have stepped up to help, and it hasn’t turned out to be that difficult so far. That’s the general consensus among a range of people interviewed. More than half the refugees sponsored by the federal government who have arrived since December, for instance, have found a place to live. Ottawa has welcomed government-sponsored 737 Syrian refugees, and 405 of them have moved into their own apartments or townhouses, said Chamrouen Lay, the manager of Maison Sophia refugee settlement house.