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.

La Plaza Tapatia on the West side attracted close to 100 people from both the Latino and Somali communities in Central Ohio.

Community leaders like Lilly Cavanaugh encouraged the group to fill out the census forms which will be sent out in March.

“Using this information for the Latino grass roots organization is important when they’re applying for grants and for funding resources from different organizations because they always want to have information as to how many Latinos are there in the different communities and who are they.” Cavanaugh says.

Cavanaugh admits some Latinos are fearful of what the census count means.

“They may fear that the information will not be kept confidential so you know some people may fear is this going to be reported to immigration. They may fear the number of people that are living in the homes.” Cavanaugh says.

28 year old Jessenia Catalan is a waitress. She came from El Salvador 3 years ago to work. Her two children are back home with her mom and dad. Catalan says she wants to know more about the census. As she spoke to us, census worker Josue Vicente interpreted.

“In Spanish .At this moment she doesn’t have enough information about the census. She knows it’s important but she would like to have more information on what is the census about and how that will be affecting her and the community.” Vicente says.

Vicente and others say every year 400 billion dollars of federal money is put back into community programs. The census count determines funding for schools, roads, hospitals, job training, child care and senior citizens centers.

“I think our task is not for those of us to make sure they fill out the form, but make sure you advocate and make sure that everybody knows about the census.”

U.S. Census partnership specialist, Mussa Farrah says the Somali community was left out of previous efforts.

“There have not been not many outreach I think within the Somali community. They never knew the value how why it is important that people are being counted.” Farrah says.

21 year old Kamal Osman from Somalia is a college student who also works part time. 2010 will be his first census. He says he is not here to just get government help.

“When I talk about myself first year I wasn’t working, but the second year I was working. I don’t take anything from the government as far as that. I don’t even get any financial aid from the government for my college right now. So, there are the people who work hard and there are the people who doesn’t know the language.” Osman says.

Columbus is said to have the country’s second largest population of Somali immigrants, but exactly how many people that includes is not known. The census count should help both Somali and Latino communities.

The 2010 census road tour continues to spread the word.

Imagine that one in ten Americans has died in the fighting. An even bigger number – equal to the populations of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky combined – has been forced to flee their homes. Even more Americans have left the country altogether. Basic things like food, water and shelter are often hard to find.

You probably can’t imagine that. We’d need to go back to the Civil War to find trauma and loss on that scale in US history. But many of the 45,000 Somalis in Columbus can imagine it, because what I’ve described is their experience.

Somalis are the largest migrant population in the world. Right now, almost 300,000 of them live in Kenya in the world’s biggest refugee camp, which was built to hold 90,000. Toilets overflow. People share space with garbage. Children suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. Men and women are housed together and rape is common. Earlier this year the camp saw an outbreak of cholera, but medicine, like water, is scarce. UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visited the camp earlier this month. “I wish more people could meet them,” she said, referring to the refugees. “Then they would have a stronger desire to help.”

Many Somalis avoid the camps, but wherever they go the odds of finding true sanctuary are slim.

The syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer thinks we should just say no to Somalis. “No people is more different from Americans than Somalis,” she said. QUOTE “They live in ethnic enclaves, they are anti-individualist, they fear the outside… we cannot and should not attempt to engage and assimilate people from non-amenable cultures, particularly in an age of radical Islam.” UNQUOTE.

If Somalis live in enclaves they are only doing what most every group of newcomers to the US does at first. If they fear the outside, maybe that has something to do with lessons learned from life in war zones and refugee camps. And if they are oriented toward family and community – and what else could Geyer mean by anti-individualist? — then I say we have a lot to learn from them.

But beyond all this, Somalis in Columbus are people with histories, aspirations, friends and family members they’ve lost, others they hope to see again. Most have made grueling journeys, impossible choices, and had experiences the rest of us wouldn’t want to have nightmares about. Let’s engage each other, and when we do let’s keep that backdrop in mind.

Any given evening, the parking lot at the International Mall is packed with tidy, used cars vying for a parking spot. Abdi Aziz is on his way home after making a few purchases. They have different stuff, they have different clothes for the men, jeans, different shirts, the women, same, different clothes, lot of women clothes they sell right here. Says Aziz.

The International Mall, or Banadir as Somalis call it, is special for a couple different reasons: it was the first mall Somalis set up shops in in 2000. It’s also recently been purchased by a trio of partners. One of them is Abdullahi Warsame. “this type of business which we call kiosk you know the Somalis like it, Somali women, Somali business people. We have almost similar of this in Somalia. Says Abdullahi.

The building, located close to the old Northern Lights shopping mall off Cleveland Avenue, used to be an empty warehouse. Abdullahi rented the building, created partitions to rent to Somalis, and started collecting his own rents. He did very well, well enough to buy the building. But the landlord doubled the asking price, and Abdullahi turned to another Somali, Mohammed Dallin, and an American, Neil Barkan. Without Neil, both say they wouldn’t have been able to buy the property. That’s because as Muslims Abdullahi and Mohammed were prohibited from paying interest on a loan. Barkan is modest about his role, but says there were other obstacles to Somalis who wanted to buy commercial real estate. “They didn’t have a credit history per say, they didn’t have a resume if you will on what their experiences were in this country. Says Barkan.

Barkan says he’s witnessed an economic revitalization along this stretch of Cleveland Avenue, an economic turnaround he says was possible because of the large numbers of Somalis in the neighborhood. “For a lot of years it was an area that was more, I don’t know about forgotten, but the need wasn’t pertinent, but it was getting by. People drove from here to there and just drove through it. With the influx of residents, Somali community residents, it became apparent that services were needed, and certainly making the area better solved goes a great deal towards solves certain problems within the community. Says Barkan.

Better services meant expanding the road on Cleveland, and improving the lighting for safety. A few years after Somalis transformed an empty warehouse into a busy strip mall, the city took notice and made the improvements.

There are about 50 kiosks for rent at the International Mall. With the purchase, the new owners have refurbished the second floor of the building, and quickly filled up the spaces. Maaki Osman is one of the new tenants. A master tailor, Maaki is cutting fabric to match a head scarf with a skirt for one of his customers. “This is hijab. I used to do before this one. This is hijab before. This is skirt. They call umbrella skirt. Says Maaki.

It’s culturally specific services like these that keep Somalis coming back to the International Mall, and keep Somali businesses in the black. Maaki has another space at a Somali mall on Morse Road.

The competition for retail space at the International Mall is good news for the new landlords. They paid a premium on the property, one point three million dollars, but they see the purchase as a long term investment – one that will pay off in several years, and benefit the city as much as it benefits the Somalis who live and work in Columbus.