But it can be tough for many to find affordable housing.

That’s why hundreds lined up outside a North Columbus church last weekend in hopes of getting a shot at a government-subsidized apartment.

I went there just to fill out an application, not to go to the E.R. and get pepper sprayed. It was very embarrassing.

Shrkuri Mohadem is a young mother who came to the U.S. from Somalia five years ago. She was outside the Sunbury Road church when the line reportedly got out of control and police were called. She was among those pepper-sprayed, but it was worse for her friend Ifrah Farah. She came to the U.S. from Somalia just four months ago and doesn’t speak English.

“I couldn’t see anything. I was trying to run, I didn’t know where to go or ask for help since I don’t speak English. The ambulance came, and I went to go to the ambulance so they could wash my eyes, but I couldn’t go there because I couldn’t talk to them,” Farah says through in interpreter.

She called it a wake-up call and a shock on a day she was hoping to take steps toward getting her first apartment.

Hassan Omar runs the Somali Community Association of Ohio, just around the corner from where Farah and others had their run-in with police. He calls the Saturday incident unfortunate and symptomatic of the larger housing problem.

He says cheap, abundant housing was a major reason thousands of Somalis flocked to Columbus in the 1990s. But growth has outpaced construction, and he says apartments that are available are often a poor fit.

Most of the Somali community, families are larger than ordinary American families. You’ll see some families that consist of eight or nine, and (apartment owners) decided the apartments are two bedrooms or three bedrooms.

The lack of cheap housing rests at least partially with the private sector, but Omar wants more housing assistance from the city, county, and state.

“We don’t want to say ‘We’re Somali’ and stay separate. We’re American and we are here. We are citizens and would like to assimilate, but we need outside support. We need resources to continue to increase the services, which are a necessity for the community to obtain more self-sufficiency.”

By resources, Omar means subsidized housing, English language programs, job training, and help for at-risk youth, all programs that have been victims of recent budget cuts.

The Columbus Community Relations Commission works with local non-profits that offer interpreters, employment services, and other assistance. WOSU asked for more details about programs and funding cuts, but the city did not respond to requests for comment.

Jamie Longazel is a professor at the University of Dayton and specializes in immigrant issues. He says cuts to subsidized housing and other social service agencies are an increasing trend around the country.

And so immigrant groups, particularly low-income immigrant groups, are probably are going to be the first ones, frankly, to see many of their services go. And so the absence of a program like this, or the removal of a program like this, isn’t surprising given the current economic climate.

Longazel is even more skeptical about the economic climate going forward, especially in cities. Longazel says there’s a new trend of immigrants moving to rural areas.

Back at the Somali community association, Ifrah Farah, the recent immigrant who was pepper-sprayed, pauses when asked if she regrets coming to the U.S.

So far, I not regret coming here, but it’s shocking that I just met this while I was just going there to get an application.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the federal trial. According to the indictment, the defendants, many in their 20s and 30s, were members or associates of three gangs called the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws who are accused of forcing teenage girls into prostitution and operated in Columbus, St. Paul Minneapolis, and Nashville.

The indictment says one girl was under the age of 13 at the time.

The conference was sponsored by several groups including the Horn of Africa Rescue Committee and the Department of Homeland Security. The speakers at the event were a diverse group. Mussa Farah, the Horn of Africa President spoke to the audience first in the Somali language but the words radicalization and extremism were evident.

Farah told the audience that Somali youth were the most important assets in their community. But he said, it was the responsibility of older adults to work, invest, advise and educate them so they become good leaders of tomorrow.

“We are very proud to live in a country that respects and takes care of many religions and countries in the world,” Farah said. “But we cannot take the safety and the security of our country for granted. As leaders of our community, the Somali community, we have the responsibility to engage the Somali American youth in an open discussion and strengthen the country’s safety and security.”

The safety and security of the United States was the focus of a message brought by Rob Glenn from Ohio’s Department of Homeland Security.

“The fact that we are all here today tells us that we acknowledge a threat to our way of life and it’s our way of life and it’s the American way of life and the Ohio way of life,” Glenn said. “Ohio and Columbus is no stranger to terrorism. We’ve had several of those who have been linked to Al Qaida and those who have engaged in terrorism but not from the Somali Community, not yet and hopefully that will never be the case.”

The three most prominent names in Columbus terrorism plots are Iyman Faris, Christopher Paul and Somali immigrant Nuradin Abdi. Abdi, who entered the U.S. illegally, was an adult when he plotted with others to blow up a Columbus shopping mall. Conference speakers stressed that intervention should begin while Somalis here are still in their teens.

“We have seen young boys take up their arms in a false pretense of glory,” Glenn said. “They’re fighting for the creation of a revolutionary state that would seem to bring Islamic justice to the world. But I can tell you this, I do not want Columbus or any other Ohio city or any city in the United States to be a haven of violence and extremism of any type.”

Time at the conference was set aside for evening prayers but not before attendees heard from Pastor Emmanuel Inah of Columbus’s Victory Church of God.

“It’s not just about Muslim but we have extreme views about Christian also,” Inah said. “We have Christians that are radicals also. It’s not about Muslim, it’s about an extreme view of whatsoever that you believe, and sometimes it can carry you across borders to do things that are contrary to what God has really laid down for us.”

Pastor Inah quoted passages from the Bible and the Quran to make his point. He warned Somali young people to guard against the wrong sorts of outside influences.

“I want to use this opportunity to encourage our youths to do not have this game played in your mind about what violence you can do in the name of God and you are going to profit anything,” Inah said.

Later, the audience heard from Isse Ali from the group Somali Unified Youth who explained the challenges facing Somali young people in the U.S.

“Somali young males in particular suffer from negative stereotyping and frequently unwarranted police attention,” Ali said. “Unemployment and poor housing are also seen as problems for the Somali community which also affects Somali youth as well through a lack of positive role models, poorer health and poverty and so on.”

Congressman Steve Stivers also addressed the conference. Stivers spoke about testimony that has taken place on Capitol Hill.

“Before the House Homeland Security Committee there has been testimony by FBI agents talking about attempts by some to take advantage of the Somali community — not here but in Minneapolis — to attempt to radicalize especially the youth in the Somali community,” Stivers said. “And we take that very serious here and we want to make sure that we take steps to prevent that from happening here.”

Ohio Homeland Security’s Rob Glenn urged Somalis to contact law enforcement officials if they suspect terrorist activity is being plotted.

“I would like to echo Rep. Stivers’ plea that the door is open and it’s up to you to engage with your government,” Glenn said.

When Northland Mall closed about a decade ago, the area lost some of its economic heft. Easton Town Center pulled commerce to the northeast outerbelt while Polaris Fashion Place attracted former Northland customers and residents to the next county.

“Then you started to see the deterioration of this strong, predominantly white community.”

Ohio Wesleyan University professor David Walker says as whites moved out of Northland, immigrants from Mexico and Somalia moved in. Walker researches what he calls the ‘material effects of globalization.’ and Morse road through the Northland area provided a case study.

“So, I was looking at this neighborhood,” Says Walker. “The Northland neighborhood, which wasn’t just any particular neighborhood but it was a very important neighborhood that very much anchored the north part of the city with the Northland Mall being a very important economic and cultural center there.”

Walker says what’s happening now on Morse Road is a distinctive form of urban renewal. While the city uses capital improvements and tax incentives to sustain economic activity, its immigrant owned businesses that have played a major role in reviving commerce.

“I fear what we may have seen if it had not been for the immigrant entrepreneurs investing in the blighted areas and run down businesses we would have seen an increase in tax incentives to bring more box stores to the area.”

In fact, Columbus city council did grant an $11 million 10-year tax abatement to Menard’s to attract a major retailer to the former Northland Mall site. The city also spent $900,000 dollars to spruce up Morse Road between I-71 and Cleveland Avenue. But Walker says what happened to the former Sun TV building on Morse Road where a Latino bought the building and converted it to a Mexican restaurant and grocery destination is just as important.

“He employs 45 full time people at his store. That’s one of nine stores he has just in Central Ohio.”

Across the street, a group of Somali immigrants operate what barber Abdul Mohamed describes as a community-based mall, 20 or more small shops, started mostly with funds from family relatives or community investors.

“So its not a corporate-owned, individuals that own their own businesses such as myself.”

Mohamed’s business is one of 90 listed as a member of the Somali-American Chamber of Commerce. Its Morse Road offices are a couple of miles to the east. Ehmed Abdul, moved to Columbus from Memphis to open the Good Deal Grocery Market in the Global Mall.

“And, a lot of people of our community was here so that way we can join and see what we can also offer.”

Abdul offers kitchen ware and food from the Middle East and Eastern Africa. A banner behind the check-out counter advertises Halal meats.

While census takers documented changes among the residents of Northland during the past decade, researcher Walker developed what he calls a perception map of the area. And he found some common threads across races and cultures.

“When we found then also that we saw overlapping agreements among Somalis and African-Americans and elderly longterm white residents of the appreciation of the Latino markets because of the variety of goods they had and because they were rather colorful and happy as opposed to these businesses that were empty for some time. ”

Abdul Mohamed, part owner of the Warya Barber shop in the Global Mall says changes in perception have helped him stay in business for the last eight years.

“At the beginning we never thought that we’ll be seeing a lot of Americans actually coming in and appreciate what we do here but come to see, people when they walk in and they’re like. You know what, this is a clever idea. We never thought this could be done but it is done and its working.”

Next week, Walker will present findings of his Morse Road research at forum on the Ohio Wesleyan campus.

“Dollars don’t really see color lines and race lines and ethnicity lines as much as people would perhaps believe.” Tom Borgerding WOSU News

At the entrance of the offices at 2210 Morse Road a large Census poster is difficult to miss. Once you’re inside, down the hallway and around the corner to the Somali Women and Children’s Alliance there are several more of the big census posters.

Hawa Siad heads up the alliance which serves the local Somali immigrant and refugee community. She does not think the local census bureau has done enough to inform the community about the census, and she’s afraid many Somalis will not be counted.

“The effort that was supposed to be made by the census has not reached the Somali community,” she said.

Siad said she and other community leaders have been working with the census office since last September to try to educate Somalis about the importance of the count. While she said the census has done some outreach in the community – several presentations, some events and information packets – she said it’s not enough.

“Unfortunately we have been trying to inform the census about the need of the Somali community to learn about how to fill out their forms, how to hire Somalis internally, in the offices, but the census has not been responsive about our plight,” Siad said.

Mussa Farah is the local census partnership specialist for the Somali community. And he was surprised by Siad’s claims.

“We have done a lot. We have been going to the mosque. We have putting up fliers. We have been helping them with the complete count. Any question they had. From today, yesterday up to now,” Farah said.

While most Somalis, Siad said, are in the U.S. legally, many have large families – up to nine in a household. And she said lots of them are concerned the personal information they report in the census will be released to landlords. And Siad worries many Somalis either will undercount the number of people living with them or simply not return the form. That’s why Siad wants Somalis hired for census jobs.

“They have more confidence on the Somalis. Rather than someone knocking on your door you have to report how many people live in your house. It’s a word of mouth. It’s not about events and fliers,” Siad said.

Siad claims local census offices have not hired Somalis who passed the required basic skills test and background check.

Kevin Conners is a local census office manager. He said there have been numerous Somalis hired for both internal and recruiting jobs. And Conners said just this week one of ten field supervisors hired was Somali.

Door-to-door canvassing does not begin until late April or early May. And census spokesperson Carol Hector-Harris said those jobs are just being filled.

“We’re just getting to the point now where we’re calling to see if people are still interested, people who qualified. And we’re about to hire and train them. That’s just now happening. Those calls began this week,” Hector-Harris said.

Connors said about 60 Somali-speaking people were hired as field workers for the 2000 census. And he expects they’ll need at least that many to help with this count. Hector-Harris said there definitely will be a need.

“If there were any members of the Somali community who do not return their form, then quite naturally we’ll need to send a Somali-speaking individual out to that community so that they can be counted. We’re trying to count everyone here. That’s the entire purpose of the census,” she said.

Hector-Harris said there has been a great sense of urgency for this census campaign. And she said that urgency likely led to what she calls confusion in the Somali community about when people would be called back for work.

Blackwell says those who immigrate to America at 17, 18, and 19 years old are just as much at risk as those who were born here or come here at a very young age. Blackwell says Somali youths join gangs for the same reasons as other young men.

“Obviously peer pressure is probably the first factor: the need to fit in, the need to belong, the need to be accepted. And quite frankly, in some of these neighborhoods, it’s very dangerous and unsafe, so they join gangs for safety, for protection. But then they also join gangs also as a means to make money,” says Blackwell.

Blackwell says that – while there are exclusively Somali gangs in Columbus – some Westernized Somali youths are joining more common street gangs, like the Bloods and the Crips. Blackwell says the Somali gang members have been involved in felony crimes such as drug dealing, weapons offenses, and robbery. He characterizes a lot of the crimes as common street violence.

“Home invasions, street robberies, street assaults, things like that. A lot of it is to just get credibility, but a lot of it now is to actually gain income. They’re becoming organized in an effort to make money,” says Blackwell.

Somali community leaders in Columbus admit gang violence IS on the rise, but they’re trying to reverse the trend.

At this classroom in the Somali Community Association of Ohio on Cleveland Avenue, seven students – six women and one young man – are learning English as a Second Language, or ESL.

The class is part of a program called the Somali Youth Venture. It’s geared to young people ages 16 to 21 who often have had little or no formal education. The Venture provides courses in E-S-L, mathematics, and computer science. The classes are free, and the goal of the program is help students pass the high school equivalency test.

Somali Community Association of Ohio President Hassan Omar created the program. Hassan says he knows gang violence is on the rise in the Somali community. He wants to create his own brand of peer pressure to encourage youths to educate and improve themselves.

“When we get a large number of kids who are out of school and become involved gang activity in the neighborhood, we tried to get a program that helps them, that educates them, and make their life better,” says Hassan.

One of the students in the class, 17-year-old Liban Ahmed, has only been in the United States for a year and a half. He’s one of many older Somali teenagers who spent time in refugee camps where there was little or no access to education. Ahmed says his English improved dramatically since he came to the US.

“The first time I came in America, I wasn’t speaking English. So I was zero at that time. Right now, I’m feeling good right now,” says Ahmed.

Ahmed says he’s taking advantage of the program because he wants to go on to Columbus State.

Other members of the Somali Community are stepping up to help as well. Abdulkadir Ali is the Chairman of the Somali-American Chamber of Commerce, based in Columbus. Ali founded a new organization called New Hope to help deal with the growing problem of gang violence – although the organization is still looking for funding. Ali says he wants to direct troubled youths towards something positive:

“A better life than just going gang-style. Whatever they’re doing now, it’s not actually something beneficial to our own communities, or their own families,” says Ali.

Columbus Police estimate 50 to 100 Somali youths are involved in gang violence.

County sheriff’s deputies use interpreters in the field. Lawyers and court officials use them to facilitate legal proceedings. In 2005, the last year for which records were compiled, outside interpreters were called to Franklin County Municipal court four-hundred-fifty-three times to the tune of more than ninety-thousand dollars. Administrator Suzanne Ruzicka says Municipal Court also employs two full-time and two-part time Spanish interpretors and two parole officers fluent in Spanish. Ruzicka says for the most part the system works well but she’s aware that problems crop up from time to time. She says occasionlly lawyers are concerned that their message is not being accurately interpreted.

The Executive Director of the Franklin Common Pleas Court is also aware of the potential for problems. Atiba Jones says it’s important that interpreters are professional and adhere to high standards. The Ohio Supreme Court is currently reviewing those standards but it must be careful to balance the need for well-qualified interpreters against tight small county budgets.

Language interpreters can also be found in local hospitals.

Jaime Gonzales is visiting his infant daughter at Childrens’ Hospital in Columbus. The fifteen-month old baby requires treatment for birth defects. While Gonzales speaks some English, his lack of fluency, makes it difficult for him to understand his daughter’s medical treatment. It also makes it difficult for him to communicate with doctors and nurses on the case.

That’s where Annabella Sanchez comes in. For the last seven years, Sanchez has been coordinating interpretor services for Childrens’ Hospital. Sanchez oversees an in-house staff and a stable of free-lance interpretors who help non-English speaking patients or their parents communicate with the hospital staff.

Many professional intrepretors are trained at Asist Translation Services on Sawmill Road. Starting out in 1975 as a scientific translation service, Asist has grown into the largest interpretation and translation service in Central Ohio and among the largest in the Midwest.

Marketing Director Susan Bowles says classes for medical, legal and business and technical interpretors are held throughout the year. And, she says, Asist provides interpreters for area hospitals and law enforcement for non-English speakers who need them, even if the need for an interpretor comes in the middle of the night. Night-duty dispatchers take emergency requests, sending out interpreters who speak an ever-increasing number of languages. Bowles says Asist is fielding more requests for African and Arabic dialects.

Bowles says it was once common for an emergency room nurse or doctor to press an English-speaking friend or relative into service. Now, she says the risk of a misunderstanding or even a lawsuit demand the use of professional interpreters in many situations.

She says interpreters trained by Asist must be fluent in a second language, fully grasp their respective field of medicine, law, business or technology and be aware of potential cultural clashes that might cause additional problems. For example, she says in some Asian cultures it is taboo to tell an elderly relative he or she is dying. Conversely, American physicians are required by law to do just that. Often, Bowles says, interpreters are caught in the middle.

Bowles says Asist turns away more potential interpreters for training than it accepts each year. In addition to interpreter training, the company also provides cultural classes for people doing business abroad, or entertaining non-English speaking clients. In addition, she says the company translates materials for the Internet, print ads and radio and television commercials. One of their interpreters will broadcast this years Emmy Awards to a Portuguese-speaking audience in Brazil.

Protesters stood in front of the Franklin County courthouse holding signs calling for justice and a stop to police discrimination. They say Abdi’s death was unnecessary. Officers were called to Abdi’s east-side home last year after a mental health care professional signed an affidavit to have him treated for schizophrenia. Officers say when they arrived he was waving a knife and acting aggressively. Court documents say after a brief struggle Deputy Jason Evans fired one round into Abdi’s chest.

Several witnesses told police they did not see a knife, and the deputies were too quick to use deadly force. East-side resident Abdi Rahim Sheikh was among the protesters.

“The community is very upset on how the events developed, and the police officers were not accountable,” Sheikh says. “Those same police officers that were supposed to take people to hospitals, not kill them.”

Sheriff Jim Karnes insists Abdi did have a knife, and he lunged at the officer who shot him. Karnes declined to comment further. Prosecutors have not filed charges against any of the officers. Members of the Abdi family have filed a lawsuit against Karnes. They claim the Sheriff violated Abdi’s civil rights by not providing his deputies with adequatetraining for dealing with the mentally ill. Attorney Fred Gittes represents the Abdi family.

“He was going to be taken in for health treatment, and within 60 seconds he was dead,” Gittes says. “Even though there was no one near him, it wasn’t a hostage situation. He was standing by himself on the sidewalk.”

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien is defending the county in the suit. He says he can not say much about the case, but he did give the county’s official response.

“The allegations that the incident itself was a violation of Abdi’s civil rights would have been denied, and the allegation that the deputies used improper or excessive force would have been denied.”

The first conference in the lawsuit is scheduled for early next year. Both sides estimate the case will last about a year. Steve Brown, WOSU News

Twenty-Four political candidates outlined their positions on issues ranging from local tax policy to the war in Iraq. Mahdi Taakilo, president of The Somali Link Newspaper says the first-candidates forum for the city’s growing Somali population is a political watershed. “Really as new Americans in this country we want to be part of the democratic process in this country has.” Says Mahdi Taakilo

Mahdi estimates more than 20-thousand Somalis in Columbus have now gained citizenship and are eligible to go to the polls next week. Among the audience, young woman Ubah Gani and her mother Ali Bilan. “I’m here to support whoever we think that could help us as community as like American. We become part of America now, we have so much gaps.” Says Ali Bilan. Her daughter adds:”I’m not a citizen so I can’t vote. But I can still tell my friends like to vote or stuff like that, so.” Says Ubah Gani.

At the podium, candidates tried to bridge those gaps. Republican congressional incumbent Pat Tiberi spoke of his immigrant grandparents and his constituent services. His challenger, Democrat Bob Shamansky referenced President Bush’s use of the term “Islamic-fascist” and then told the audience, “The U-S is not at war with Islam.” Green Party candidate for governor, Bob Fitrakis drew the loudest applause after speaking out against the war in Iraq and warrantless wiretaps.

Still, some spot interviews of audience members indicate more local concerns. Farhiya Isse says even though many Somalis earn citizenship and learn English they are still too often turned down when applying for jobs. “Take as example my people. Is the hardest job that we can get jobs is the language. And I understand everybody don’t speak the language but they really try hard to understand but most they don’t give us jobs. So they say you don’t speak that well so good-bye. So I want to say that will be the biggest problem, jobs and people having issues about it.” Says Farhiya Isse.

Muhammed Hassan will turn 18 years old in January. His family has been in Columbus for 7 years and while he’s not eligible to vote next week he says he will cast a ballot next November. He’s worries about crime. “The streets that we live at, the area that we live at is not very good to be honest.Drugs are on the street, violence everywhere.” Says Muhammed Hassan.

Muhammed Egal traveled to the forum from his west side agency. He serves as Vice President of African Refugee Education Service at Sullivant Avenue and Georgesville Road. He says the political activity by the Somali community is a signal to local, state, and federal political leadership. “We are the new Americans so we are requesting our brothers and those who are guys who are running for candidates to look back and to try to support our community. We have so many issues. We are farawy behind from the rest of American communities.” Says Muhammed Egal.

He adds that as more Central Ohio Somalis gain U-S citizenship they boost their potential strength on election day. He says the community leaders will watch closely next week to gauge turn-out among some of the area’s newest Americans.

Tom Borgerding

WOSU News