The nine members who make up the Kohbandi family — parents Abdul and Shafiqa, along with their four daughters and three sons — all dwell in a four-bedroom Burlington house.
Despite the tight squeeze, 10-year-old Ashia Kohbandi has been enjoying the space.
“It's been fun for me and my parents … playing games, " Ashia said. “My friends come over — but just because of TV. “
Her parents shared a similar sentiment, saying the Green Mountain State has been good to them ever since they had to flee northern Afghanistan’s snowy climes. Their kids are in school; they’ve found community — and jobs.
Still, Shafiqa said their rented home — and its one bathroom — poses challenges.
"All of my children go to school, and in the morning they kind of line outside the bathroom door. They kind of tell each other, ‘Hey, it's my turn,’" she said in Dari, with translation by Sulaiman Srosh Rasooli.
The family hopes to buy a new, bigger house.
“If you have your own home, as a mother, you will be proud. And you will also have a peace of mind that when your children go to school, they can come back to your own house, feed them — and you won't have to worry about rent and all of that stuff.” Shafiqa said.
However, as many Vermonters know, finding housing can feel tedious — if not downright impossible.
Renters and buyers are facing a tight housing market. In 2023, the state’s rental vacancy was 3.5% and its homeowner rate was 0.5%, according to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. And buying a home can be even more daunting for refugees, many of whom face language barriers or don’t have a thorough understanding of how the process works here.
Despite its housing issues, Vermont in recent years has positioned itself as a leader in refugee resettlement. It ranked among the top states per capita in the number of refugees arriving during 2023, according to federal data.
On his first day back in office this week, President Trump signed an executive order suspending the United States’ refugee resettlement program, as of next Monday. Though the country will stop admitting new refugees, there are still a handful of agencies and organizations helping the ones already here access social services and find housing.
For example, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and the Champlain Housing Trust aim to pave a smoother pathway to homeownership for Afghan refugees through a new partnership launched in late November.
“People coming in have a great drive to rebuild their lives,” said Khalil Anwari, a USCRI program manager. “They see that through meaningful work, they have the chance to change their lives and make sure that they have roots within the communities that they're living in. Nothing embodies that value of having roots in a community more than having a home — a house located inside that community.”
Through the partnership, a brainchild of Anwari’s, Afghan refugees attend a series of introductory homebuyer sessions, translated in Dari and Pashto, to better understand various aspects of homeownership: building credit, different mortgage options, the costs associated with owning a home, etc.
The Kohbandis are among the roughly 15 families that have already signed up for these sessions. Anwari said the main goal of this partnership is to expand access to existing housing resources and programs. Champlain Housing Trust’s home ownership equity program, for example, provides buyers from marginalized communities up to $25,000 interest-free, forgivable loans.
The equity program launched two years ago to increase the number of homes owned by people of color, and so far has helped 26 families buy houses, according to Julie Curtin, director of homeownership at Champlain Housing Trust.
Nothing embodies that value of having roots in a community more than having a home — a house located inside that community.Khalil Anwari, program manager, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
As part of their new partnership, the trust and USCRI are also working with different financial instructions to develop a more culturally appropriate loaning process aligned with Islamic law, which bans compounded interest.
“Over the long term, financial health may be determined by whether you own a house or not — the opportunities that are availed to you through owning a home,” Anwari said.
Abdul Kohbandi said financial help is vital for his family to meet those opportunities.
“Because the price of a house for like [$400,000], or like $500,000, is just too much for us. But these programs are able to offer that kind of house … at almost half price,” he said.
The Kohbandis came to Vermont after fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021. Before leaving, the family lived in constant anxiety about the potential for bombings or mass shootings at the homes, schools and workplaces that had characterized their lives in Afghanistan.
The Taliban targeted individuals with jobs associated with the U.S. government — like Abdul, who worked with specialized forces that protected the Kabul International Airport — leading many families to say swift goodbyes to their homeland.
Abdul said he’ll never forget the scene at the airport days after the Taliban took over, with people desperate for a seat out of the country.
“Everyone — the youngest people, the oldest people, everyone — they were just running,” he said. “They fell down, especially the kids. I was just crying because of that.”
Despite all of this, Afghanistan was still home to a lot of good memories. The oldest daughter of the family, Qudsia Kohbandi, said they often went house to house, visiting all of their relatives. At their own home, they had a large kitchen where they cooked bread and pizza, and also a big yard with peach and apple trees. They remember warm meals from their favorite restaurants
In Vermont, the Kohbandis haven’t been able to replace all of the comforts from back home, like hugs from loved ones. But they often fill a basket with tea, Afghan candies, nuts and raisins, and then head down to Burlington’s North Beach to play, swim and have a picnic — one of their favorite family activities from their old life.
The family hopes their new home is a place to continue weaving old memories into new ones.
Around 600 Afghan refugees have resettled in the Green Mountain State since 2022, according to the USCRI, partially due to the myriad of benefits and grants available here.
Economic growth in Vermont is only achievable if we're able to provide safe housing to new members of our community, to new Vermonters coming in.Khalil Anwari, program manager, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
But that doesn’t mean refugee resettlement is purely a humanitarian enterprise. Anwari said it’s a crucial component of the state’s strategy to boost its economy and population.
“Our manufacturing and our agriculture industry, industries that are very central and integral to our Vermont identity, most of the labor force consists of new American workers and laborers, " he said. “Economic growth in Vermont is only achievable if we're able to provide safe housing to new members of our community, to new Vermonters coming in. Otherwise, we will definitely fail to achieve that substantial growth that we are looking for — and that would cause economic stagnation.”
And he believes the inception of the new partnership with the Champlain Housing Trust — alongside USCRI’s workforce development program, which teaches refugees and immigrants skills from specific industries — is a step to help with this growth.
At the moment, the partnership is only for Afghan refugees because of funding restrictions.
Anwari said the committee isn’t commenting on policy changes under the Trump administration right now, including the executive order halting the national resettlement program. But he said his group is funded through the fiscal year.
In the short-term, they’re making videos in Dari and Pashto to get the word out about the partnership, while working to ensure the accessibility of housing resources and programs for years to come.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
