Roofs Refugees and Catholic Centre for Immigrants

Tara Matar: The priority is to find housing to accommodate families of five, ideally for no less than a year, the team behind the website told CBC Radio Ottawa Morning on Friday, according to CBC. People with housing to offer are vetted by volunteers who show up to the home for an on-site inspection and to interview the potential hosts at length, said Tara Matar, one of the group co-ordinators. Roofs 4 Refugees launched Friday and is a partnership between the group, Refugee 613 and the Catholic Centre for Immigrants. The group hopes housing will be offered at a rental cost that works out to about $450 per person per month, which is roughly what refugees receive through government assistance. And for Olivia Tran, another of the group co-ordinators, the motivation was also personal. "Growing up I always heard stories from my parents about their journey by boat to Canada and their struggles adapting to Canada, but I also heard tonnes of great stories, too, of Canadians that helped out, what a welcoming country Canada was," said Tran, whose parents immigrated to Canada from Vietnam. "So when this refugee crisis appeared, I knew that I had to do something to give back for myself and for my family," she said. The team were motivated by Ottawa affordable housing shortage, for which there is about a five-year waiting list. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.