Resettled Bhutanese in Idaho jobless, homeless

Kathmandu, March 26, 2009: Exiled Bhutanese families resettled in Treasure Valley of Boise city in Idaho State fear that in a month’s time, they could be out on the streets without a place to live, local media reported. 

The Treasure Valley

That’s because, like so many Americans now, they can’t find fulltime jobs and their federal housing assistance is running out. 

Local relief organizations provide them 400 dollars per person per month which is not enough to run the family and that the size of federal help depends on the size of a family. 

Local media quoted they feared they may be homeless soon, when their eight months of federal assistance money ends.

“There is no place to look for a job, no place to get money,” said one of them said. “And that is the really scary position here.”

Devi Kharel while expressing happiness that they are now in better condition than they lived in Nepal said, “It was a terrible situation. We lived under a plastic roof, with bamboo.”

In the last seven months, many still have not been able to find fulltime jobs necessary for the self-reliance they crave — and their housing subsidy is about to vanish.

According to the Idaho Office for Refugees, 549 refugees are receiving federal cash assistance in the Treasure Valley and as many as 30 are about one month away from losing those benefits.