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 Luci Taylor, left, sat down Sunday evening with Somali refugee Mohamad Ali at his Shelbyville home to talk about his experiences here with a documentary film crew. Catalina Nieto, standing, public awareness coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), also attended. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo] |
Mohamad Ali and Hawo Siyad both told the documentary makers that around 150 Somalis were evicted from Davis Estates last year after one of the units in the complex was found to be infested with bedbugs.
Director/producer Kim Snyder and her crew from Chicago returned to Shelbyville Sunday to shoot footage for a documentary focusing on the impact that immigration and refugees are having on the community.
Snyder works with the BeCause Foundation, which has previously done documentaries on the homeless. Officials with the Foundation feel the topic of immigration and how towns like Shelbyville grapple with it is a big issue.
Also in attendance were local activist Luci Taylor and Catalina Nieto, public awareness coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). The meeting was held at the home of Ali on East Depot Street, where a traditional Somali dinner was served.
Evictions upsetting
Hawo said she lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for 12 years before coming to the United States, first moving to Columbus, Ohio. But within six months of her arrival, the lack of work there led her to the hills of southern Tennessee to work at the local Tyson plant.
Mohamad has been in America for a longer amount of time, about seven years, and he is recognized as an up-and-coming-leader for his community. He also works at Tyson.
However, her experience in Shelbyville, as well as Mohamad's, was marred by the bedbug-related evictions.
Hawo said that an Somali infant was found to have suffered numerous bites from the parasite and the mother did not know the cause. Doctors told the refugee mother to report the cause to the owners of the apartment.
"When she did, they did nothing about it," Taylor said. When the mother returned a second time to alert the property owners, 150 of the refugees were told to pack their things and move out, Taylor said.
"They evicted anybody that spoke out," Taylor claims.
A meeting was called in March of last year, Taylor explained, involving county mayor Eugene Ray, city manager Ed Craig and Emergency Management Agency director Scott Johnson to learn what could be done and where the refugees would go.
All the refugees were given eviction notices and Taylor was shown the notices at the Adult Learning Center, in which the Somalis were given 30 days to find another place to live.
The refugees missed a whole week of school and several days of work at Tyson as they tried to find a new roof over their heads, Taylor said, and the Somalis dispersed all throughout Shelbyville.
Late-night inspections
Both Hawo and Mohamad also claim that men representing the apartment owners would conduct late night inspections of the units, showing up unannounced with flashlights and frightening the refugees.
Taylor explained this action was very upsetting to some of the Somalis, given their experiences in their home country, where there is no government to speak of and roving bands of militants frequently have their way with the people.
It was especially upsetting to the women, Taylor said, who would sleep with little or no clothes and then have to deal with strange men suddenly entering the apartments, shining the flashlights around. Taylor was told that this practice is still going on with the remaining Somali residents and wants to know how to get it stopped.
Taylor said that the Somalis were "never allowed to have contact with the manager, they were always being handled by a security man or somebody that worked at the office. They wanted to talk to the manager, but instead they got evicted."
Nieto said that the matter was investigated by the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, who found no wrongdoing on the part of the apartment owners.
Taylor said she later heard that once the apartment was cleaned out, "within 24 hours, that apartment was rented out to an American."
The 43-year-old Hawo has six children, many of whom are scattered around the country in different Somali communities, such as those in Seattle and parts of Minnesota. The kids visit from time to time and Hawo hopes they will move here some day. One of Hawo's daughters lives with her, as well as one of the woman's sisters.
Hawo learned English from Taylor at Shelbyville's Adult Learning Center and is hoping to get her GED at some point in the future. She was also a nurse and a teacher back in Africa and also hopes to continue that job her once she is ready.
The Somali refugee says she loves Tennessee and calls our state "very beautiful."
"I have a job, I have a school. I like it," Hawo said. "This is my state now. I don't go anywhere. I have many friends who are American in Shelbyville."
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I am sorry, but the Somalis helped drive away other residents from Davis Estates and I was one of them. I live there for a few years and was happy and had no problems but they moved in and started causing problems and made living there unbearable. I don't have much sympathy for many of them and they should have never been allowed to move there to begin with. They would come in and yell and run through the hallways at all hours of the night, the hallways would have a bad odor that would generate from their apartments, they would hit other peoples' cars in the parking lot and they would also argue with other residents. I am open minded and usually have no problem with people but I know first hand how many of them acted there and they should have been evicted long ago but unfortunately I couldn't deal with the problems they created and moved out.
This article is extremely disturbing to me! The take on all of this by the writer of the Times Gazette makes me never want to even read the paper again! Did you contact the owner or manager of the apartment complex to inquire on the multitude of problems the Somalis have caused? You can always hear one side of a story and manage to blow it way out of proportion. I want a just article from the merchants of Shelbyville to describe the problems we have to encounter with the Somalians living here! If it is fair for a writer to bash an apartment complex for getting rid of filth, then it is fair for the rest of the people of Shelbyville to speak out in what they have to encounter with these people. I am all for equality. All races will have a few "bad seeds." But, it is time for these people to clean up their act or get out just like the apartment complex told them!
Perhaps Eugene Ray and Ed Craig will let them come live in their homes. The sooner they leave town the better off we all are.
What was Davis Estates suppose to do? Just allow them to stay in their apartments with bed bugs? Bed bugs will infest every unit around them if they are not taken care of. . they can not live in the unit while the apartment is being exterminated. Eviction is the only recourse Davis Estates had.. problem is anywhere the Somalis moved to took Bedbugs with them.. I see that as the real problem.
Bed bugs live in places other than beds. It is a very costly procedure to remove bed bugs from a home.
You can read the Bed Bug Facts for yourself Here:
http://www.tallmanscientific.com/Facts.p...
Also I want to point out some misleading statements made in this article. First off, the reason why Davis Estates would come and do a check at night was because the Somalis had a bad habit of housing more than four people to an apartment which is against the rules and policy of the apartment complex (plus it is a safety hazard). When I lived there, the people above me sounded like a herd of elephants all the time and come to find out there was ten Somalis living in that one apartment. It became a huge problem and Davis Estates had to resort to doing unannounced checks to make sure the Somalis were not housing more than four people to an apartment. In regards to talking to management at the complex, all they would have needed to do was walk down to the leasing office and the manager is there and accessible at all times. I never had a problem going down there and finding the manager to file a complaint.
It sounds like there is a lot of smoke and mirrors that the Somali community is trying to put up to justify their cause but in reality Davis Estates bent over backwards and then some for these people at the expense of other renters and now that there is a bed bug problem, Davis Estates had to stop the problem in its tracks.
This is an example of uncleanliness. Nasty!
Actually you do not have to be unclean to have Bed Bugs. I know someone who went and stayed at a very upscale hotel and brought Bed bugs back into her home from this hotel.
Bed Bugs use to be a common thing here in the United States (or so I am told) but DDT wiped them out. Then the environmentalist started screaming about DDT making the eagle's eggs have thin shells and DDT was banned. Now all these bugs that DDT had wiped out are beginning to return without fear of death. Somali has a bed bug problem so when the refugees come into the states they are bringing their little friends with them.
If you visit someone who has Bed Bugs in their home you can take them to your house on your shoes or clothing and never know they are there until your house is infested.
(makes me itch just thinking about it though)
Awesome.. Gotta love the hospitality we all offer. Jesus would be so proud.
"150 of the refugees were told to pack their things and move out," Taylor said.
How many apartments in Davis estates? I counted 9 buildings.
When you have 5 or 6 people per apartment it doesn't take to many to make 150.
jesuslovesevery1
I am sure nobody would mind if you made Jesus proud and offered them a place to stay in your home.
Champ08 you are absolutely right! The T-G really does need to get professionally trained journalist. Shelbyville is fortunate to have a daily newpaper considering its size; however the poor writing is disturbing. My daughter is a professional journalist and has a lot of fun when she visits getting out her red pen when she opens the T-G. The sad part is a lot of the "red marks" are due to grammar, incomplete sentences etc. not to mention lack of research like you mentioned. I've read the T-G for years and it has gotten significantly worse after it was bought a few years back.
According to our friends in Kansas there is a good likelyhood bedbugs are not the only thing the Somali's have brought to our community.
Can you say .... T U B E R C U L O S I S ??
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2007/...
If you take the time to speak with the staff at the Health Dept of Lyons county, Kansas, home of Emporia, what they have to say about our new neighbors will sicken you !
This shortens the hunt for anyone else interested enough to call or write to them :
Lyon County Health Department
420 West 15th Avenue
Emporia, KS 66801
620) 342-4864
No State of Tennessee official I could find had any interest in it at all. I guess they want to wait for a TB outbreak here before they act.
Must be more funding if it becomes an epidemic.
I love my job but cringe everytime a somalian comes to my work, they stink, they are nasty and there teeth are black, they are rude and just plain hateful!!! There have been times that I have not been able to provide them service simply because some refuse to let a woman help them, we have to pull a man off his position to attend to them. And the smell....OH GOOD GOD the smell...makes me vomit a little in my mouth. I couldn't even begin to imagine having to live in the same complex with them, I feel Jaxspike's pain immensely!! I have NEVER had a judgemental bone in my body until I ran across these people. I see many many many of them in a week's time and I have never met a nice one, not one single decent one at all.
This documentary is extremely one-sided and if I was a Mexican I would be truly offended to have it be said that I have a common ground with these people.
Shoooo weeee. Thats nassy
I do not like to judge people nor generalize them, however, I worked in retail for 2 years in Shelbyville. I never had a pleasant experience with Somalians. The always treated me with disrespect, if they would let me talk to them at all. They do not like to deal with women. They treated us very hateful. Not one EVER treated us like human beings.
When is the last time you saw one smile? Think about it.
I have seen a few smile, mostly the women. They do not make eye contact, and greet with a smile like most African-Americans do with each other. But so far I have not had any to be rude to me. Just a few men scared me as they approached me for information on apartments, but that was only because of fear I have created from listening to others claim how mean they are. Hopefully things will change for the better for all. God Bless.
Everybody take a chill pill. Somebody's got to chop up Tyson's chicken.
You know what I say... the don't like it? pack em up and send em home!!!!