Snohomish County, WA Fair Housing Discrimination: Refugees

A priority for the County in the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI ) was identifying the housing needs of recent immigrants. We worked with resettlement agencies to recruit residents and interpreters for focus groups held at a local community college, where many of the residents attended English as a Second Language classes. Focus groups were conducted with 48 residents in Bhutanese, Somali, and Spanish, in addition to persons experiencing homelessness. Study materials were available in six languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Somali) and distributed through trusted community networks.