By FRANCESCA ALLODI-ROSS, Executive Director.
A Miracle on Edna Lane
The opening of Romero House’s fifth building, Edna Lane House, was a miracle.
Several stars aligned in a way I still find hard to believe. First, a Bulgarian man (and
refugee himself) called the office one day in April asking if we would be interested in
renting a building that had recently become (mostly) vacant. At the same time, the City
had been persistently asking us if we would consider expanding. They valued the work
we had been doing to welcome refugees for three decades and knew our model was
stronger–not to mention cheaper–than sheltering families in hotels or even existing
shelters.
Finally, our Board received a donation last year that had already gotten us thinking
about if and how we wanted to grow. We were ready. What are the chances?
Especially the fact that this building was only one block away. Neighbourhood and
community is essential to what we do and we would not have considered something
much further. If you had told me six months ago that Romero House would double in
size by the end of the year, I would have said that’s impossible. And yet here we are.
This miracle feels important in a time when opportunistic politicians are blaming
migrants to distract from their own failures. Rising xenophobic rhetoric in the US has
emboldened anti-immigrant sentiment here. Members of our community increasingly
tell me they experience discrimination, like being told to speak English by a stranger on
the subway, or calling a landlord about an apartment listing only to be hung up on as
soon as they mention the word “refugee”.
An Unexpected Gift
And yet I feel immense hope. One of my reasons for hope is an unusual donation we received recently. A former neighbour of Romero House received a cheque originally from a fund set up by the Austrian government to support the survivors of Nazism. The cheque was made out to this friend of Romero House because his grandfather was Jewish and they were forced to flee Austria when he was a child. The letter from the Austrian Fund read: “Although we are aware that nothing can be “put right”, we hope that you will accept this gesture payment as a further symbolic expression of recognition.” He immediately passed the cheque on to Romero House. In the Holocaust, we saw the horrific consequences that can come from turning our frustrations unfairly towards minorities. This is not Nazi Germany but there is blatant fascism near and far in the world and we must push back now. We must push back against politicians with simplistic or false explanations for problems with housing or social services before things get worse.
The donor said that signing the cheque over to Romero House just seemed like the right thing to do. “I thought it might serve, even if only symbolic, as a source of hope for other refugees who have not yet enjoyed enough of it.” This gesture and the welcome we have received with the opening of Edna Lane House certainly give me hope. Thank you to everyone who came to our Edna Lane open house; to our neighbours who have been so welcoming; to all the supporters of our inaugural fall fundraiser in High Park; to all of the residents of Edna Lane who are building community each day, with pumpkin carving, communal chores, and sharing food. I am proud to live in a country with a long history of welcoming refugees. We will keep living our lives, keep welcoming the stranger and building webs of care that enrich us all.