I have a housing coordinator looking for houses to place refugees.

Have any of you ever rented out a house this way?

If so, how did it go?

Would you ever do it again?

Although we have never rented to refugees, when we were first starting out, we rented to people whose culture was vastly different than we have ever experienced.

I mention we were new because now they would not have passed our screening. If by some way they did pass screening, we would know how to get them out asap.

We found...

rent was paid like clockwork

they brought many, many, many more people to live in the home than applied and were approved

they shot guns into the air during celebrations (This is when we terminated them asap.)

they left the home in poor condition- kitchen was deplorable and didn't seem to have been cleaned for the entire tenancy

their idea of having a neat and tidy yard and our expectations were different

septic system was full of grease and needed a pumping after their short tenancy.

They left us a large shrine in one of the bedrooms.

If we had been implementing the 2 minute in home visit before their tenancy, they would not have gained entry into our rental.

6x6, I can foresee all sorts of problems in this situation.

Here in sunny California, our older apartment are wood frame with stucco. New building are build on concrete--every floor.

So my first Refugee's grandmother went to clean the kitchen floor. She took a 5 gallon buck of hot soapy water and spilled it all over the floor. Them mopped it up. Causing 3 gallons to seep under the baseboard molding and flood the lower apartment. Causing the ceiling and two walls needing new drywall. A $1000 mess that no one would take responsibility for.

My Second Refugee family did not know how to use the provided upright vacuum. They first vacuumed over stuff thinking it would pick up the kids toys. Then after breaking my Hoover, they used a broom to clean the carpeting.

My Third set of Refugees brought chickens and dogs into the unit. They destroyed the blinds.

My firth Set of Refugees were perfect. Kind and left the place better then when they rented it out.

There is a small older apartment complex just down from one of my SFH's that caters to Somali refugees. It is always trashed, people hanging out around the front doors, squatting on the lawn, cooking over a wood fire in the front yard, piles of trash. Definitely a blight to the neighborhood.

I have (and still do) rent to refugee families. I find it makes a huge difference what country they come from, how long they've been in-country, and what the family composition is.

My worst-ever was a single mom with six kids under the age of 12. I moved her into a house that I'd just bought and hadn't brought up to "my standards" yet. She lasted six months and then one of her kids tested positive for lead. I had to tell her with a sad face that they had to go live with friends for two months while the property was remediated, but offered to let her break her lease instead. She chose to break her lease. Without going into details, I'll just tell you that I was grateful that I'd had the foresight to ask for a double deposit, because I used up every penny of it.

Some of my best-evers have also been refugees. Immaculate houses, rent always paid on time, respectful. One ended up buying the house from me, and another one wanted to (but I said no).

Yes, every refugee single family paid rent like clockwork. No criminal background, and minimal risk of being sued.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I declined.

I have in the past with no or much concern or issues. I have just placed a refugee couple in a small one bedroom apartment. They have been here since February timeframe I believe and they both have jobs (it's a local provider that houses them while they are learning the language, living here in an apartment with the company and having income. They don't pay rent while they are working I believe but they "learn" basically with that company/ source and then need to find a place on their own.

Refugee from what? As a one time LEGAL alien, I am especially disgusted at 46's regime letting every one in as a new constituency.

You can make this work sixer. Many investors do special needs housing. The key to making it work though is having the correct RESPONSIVE non-profit sponsor that you rent directly to to.

Last time I checked, I didn't speak all that well the native tongue of most current refugees. But the non-profit sponsoring them, would have access to those translators. So as long as that non-profit makes the refugees follow the lease that you gave the non-profit, it can work.

I came to the U.S. as a refugee more than 30 years ago.

I was eligible for the same public assistance as U.S. citizens. My English was limited, and I didn’t know many of the rules.

For example, I had difficulty telling the difference between junk mail and important bills. I also didn’t realize that I wasn’t allowed to change the locks or install new tiles in the kitchen. In my defense, the apartment was in very poor condition, and I was trying to treat it like my own by fixing things up. When I moved to New York City, I saw cockroaches for the first time in my life and had no idea how to deal with them, though I learned quickly. I didn’t know there were rules about pets, either (no, I didn’t bring a puppy, but I didn’t know that I couldn’t have one).