Syrian family finds home with a little luck

After arriving just two weeks ago, a Syrian refugee family is overjoyed to be moving in to a new home in Vancouver an apartment they were able to secure with a little bit of luck.

The False Creek South Neighbourhood Association was holding the apartment near Granville Island for a privately sponsored refugee family.

The group, however, had been told it would be up to one year before the paperwork for that family would go through and the apartment which was sitting empty until yesterday was costing them $1,000 a month.

Meanwhile, Salma andRami Shaker and their two-year-old daughter Lilyan were stuck in temporary accommodation while officials struggled to find a home for them in Vancouver's tight rental market.

So the association decided to offer the apartment to the Shakers. Yesterday after three long years without a home in a refugee camp the family moved into their new apartment.

"Now we feel like not when we come new, we feel alone like but now good," said Salma Shaker.

FCSNA spokeswoman Kathleen McKinnon says the family was grateful for the new home, which they will get for a reduced rent while they settle into their new life in Vancouver.

"They just were overwhelmed, they were just like, 'Oh my gosh,' to move into a two bedroom apartment in a nice building in a beautiful community," said McKinnon.

The immigrant services group ISSofBC says there are 64 other government-assisted refugees still looking for permanent housing in Metro Vancouver.

With files from Bal Brach