Viator House marks 8 years of offering safe haven for young immigrants seeking asylum
A prominent painting in the second-floor kitchen at Viator House of Hospitality contained two artists’ shared vision.
A path on the circular canvas led north across the globe to a fantastical house with many rooms. A bird flies above the Earth below.
It stood for freedom, one of the artists said.
Viator House of Hospitality in the Northwest suburbs houses young men who left dangerous situations in their homeland to legally seek asylum in the United States.
“None of our guys left home. Home chased them away,” the Rev. Corey Brost, Viator House of Hospitality executive director, told attendees of a Saturday open house — one day after Viator House’s eighth anniversary on Jan. 17.
Their names are not disclosed to outsiders, to avoid retribution. For the same reason the location of the residence itself must not be revealed.
Having made their treacherous way to America, the unaccompanied minors initially are held in federally funded juvenile detention facilities until their 18th birthday.
If no relatives are here to accept them, as the young men approach their 18th birthday attorneys or advocates working with them reach out to Michael Gosch at Viator House.
An Arlington Heights native and St. Viator High School graduate, Gosch held the initial vision for Viator House and is its director of programs and housing.
Now, 24 young men from 14 nations are staying at Viator House. Since its founding in 2017 it has provided a temporary home for 121 people from 28 nations.
Volunteers help provide the immigrants access to medical services, education, work opportunities and cultural assimilation as they await court proceedings which determine their citizenship.
More than 95% of its budget comes from private grants, faith communities and individual donors.
A 22-year-old immigrant who earned his high school equivalency certificate told attendees of the open house he is taking college classes in cybersecurity while working a full-time job — on top of helping maintain the facility and cooking meals.
As the Clerics of St. Viator is a men’s religious order, Viator House hosts only young men. A sister organization, Bethany House of Hospitality, opened in October 2017 to serve young women seeking asylum.
Brost said more than 30 people showed up for Saturday’s open house.
He added, visitors perhaps are concerned about incoming President Donald Trump’s vow to implement what he has called “the largest deportation program in American history,” with the Chicago area as an emphasis.
Brost said Viator House’s asylum-seekers have the legal right to be in the U.S. He is more concerned with a closed border that leaves young unaccompanied immigrants vulnerable, and a narrative that “paints them as dangerous.”
“What we’re trying to continually do is educate people that young people escaping their nation for safety and for freedom are gifts. They enrich our nation, and I’ve seen that now for our eight years,” Brost said.
A 25-year-old former Viator House guest — a restaurant manager who helped cater Saturday’s open house and whose immigration case is pending after nine years — said for people like himself “they should let them stay here and give them a chance. People come here to save their life.”