Emmanuel House helps refugees find a true home in Aurora

Imaad Hasan and his family went through a whirlwind of harrowing change the past 10 years.

Hasan owned a wholesale store in Baghdad. A Sunni Muslim, he was kidnapped in 2005, along with his father and other relatives, when Shiite Muslims came to power. Although they eventually were reunited with their family, the Hasans decided to leave the country. In 2006 they became refugees in adjoining Syria.

Two years later, with the help of a local resettlement group, they came to the U.S. and moved into an apartment in Aurora.

And while he and his family were safer than they had been in Iraq - and employed again, and in an apartment instead of a refugee camp - Hasan yearned for a place of his own.

When told about the Emmanuel House homeownership program, he jumped at the chance.

"When you have a house in your new country, you have a new home. It is a big thing," Hasan said.

'Big thing' indeed

Emmanuel House organizers see homeownership as a way to break the cycle of working-class poverty. It stabilizes families, which in turn leads to better outcomes in school and employment, said Hayley Meksi, executive director of the program.

It began in 2007 simply as a way to reunite families torn apart by war, she said. In particular, it worked with refugees being resettled by Aurora-based World Relief, a Christian organization.

And while Emmanuel House remains a faith-based organization ("Emmanuel" means "God with us"), it is open to people of any nationality, race or religion.

It works by offering "networked savings" to help families save up for a down payment.

Participants live in an Emmanuel House-owned duplex or house for 18 months. They pay market-rate rent, typically $800 to $1,000 a month. For the first three months, all of the rent goes to Emmanuel House, and the participants start homeownership classes with The Joseph Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving Aurora by encouraging homeownership, especially in city-designated areas on its east side targeted for revitalization.

For the next six months, half the rent goes into a savings account, and for the last nine months, all of it goes in to that account. During that time, tenants learn personal-finance skills, including budgeting. Toward the end, they begin to meet with real estate agents and shop for a mortgage.

The program is made possible by donations and investments. Groups such as churches are sponsors, donating $400 a month to cover the cost of one of the rental units. They also provide volunteers to help with home maintenance and repair, provide financial training and become friends with the families. Participating churches include Christ Community Church of St. Charles and First Baptist Church of Geneva.

The rental homes, meanwhile, are bought by investors with a $30,000 down payment. Emmanuel House will improve and maintain the residences for 15 years, and then turn them over to the investor.

"We absolutely believe we cannot do this without a true network of support," Meksi said.

Graduates

So far, eight families have bought houses, five others are in the middle of saving and learning, and five are close to graduating into their own homes, Meksi said.

She said studies show children of homeowners are 25 percent more likely to graduate high school and go on to college. "They (homeowners) stay in a place four times longer (than renters)," she said.

Having a permanent place to live also means children can attend the same schools from year to year.

Transiency is one of the factors the state measures on annual school report cards, because the more children move, the more their education is disrupted, causing them to learn less. With less knowledge and education, their chances at obtaining good-paying employment diminish. Without good jobs, they stay poor. It's the cycle Emmanuel House wants to break.

"Emmanuel House just gives you the dream," Hasan said.

The Hasan family bought their house in 2010. Hasan and his wife repaired and remodeled it with the help of volunteers who provided advice on such tasks as refinishing wood floors.

The family includes Hasan, his wife, a 19-year-old son, and 18- and 13-year-old daughters. He has become a U.S. citizen, works as a machine helper for International Paper Co., owns a car-exporting business, and does occasional translation work for World Relief. He is thinking about taking a home equity line of credit out and using the money to help grow his car business.

"I was lucky. I love Aurora, Illinois. It's my new home. It's our new home," Hasan said.

Hasan is so enamored of the program that he serves on its board of directors. He said one benefit of the program was that it brings people of different cultures together. He is now friends with people from Sierra Leone and Burundi, he said.

"It is a reward for their hard work," he said of the program and its participants. "Emmanuel House is a program to put your first foot in your (new) life."