The New New Yorkers

A HALFWAY HOUSE FULL OF HOPE

Bronx Residence Provides Food And Shelter For People Seeking Or Who Have
Been Granted Asylum

Though this past Christmas and New Year's was his first spent in the city,
Joseph Shiloh Zozo skipped the tourist attractions.

Zozo, 31, contemplated seeing the glow of the Rockefeller Center tree and
huddling with revelers watching the ball drop in Times Square. He even
borrowed a MetroCard to make the trip from his residence in the Bronx. But
pressed by an uncertain future in the United States and a bleak financial
situation, Zozo decided against the excursion.

"I don't have a dollar in my pocket," he said.

Zozo lives at Christ House, a halfway house that provides food and shelter
to people seeking political asylum in the United States as well as those
who were granted asylum. Housing up to 10 men at a time, Christ House is
the only place in the city providing such services to this population of
immigrants. More of such shelters are needed to adequately serve asylum
seekers, immigrant advocates say.

"It makes you have a relaxed mind," Zozo said about his temporary home.
"Because you have shelter, you can plan for other things."

A West African who requested asylum when he landed at Kennedy Airport
almost a year ago because he fears persecution from the military in his
home country, Zozo was granted parole from immigration detention in
November. Ever since, he has lived in limbo at Christ House while
immigration officials decide whether to grant him asylum. Until he receives
working papers from them, he cannot obtain a job. And he refuses to take an
illegal job because it might jeopardize his case.

"How should I work?" said Zozo, who bides his time by cooking and fixing
items around the house, like the shelter's troubled computer printer. "If I
work, then I am eligible for deportation."

Many who are granted asylum and released from detention centers find
themselves in similarly dubious situations, said Will Coley of American
Friends Service Committee, a national nonprofit immigrant service group
with a local office in Manhattan.

After spending months, sometimes years, at detention centers, detainees may
leave for the outside without the financial resources or community contacts
to assist them, Coley said.

"There is very little post-release planning," he said.

Halfway homes, like Christ House, can help cushion the transition, Coley said.

A three-story home on 142nd Street in the Mott Haven section, Christ House
began as a homeless shelter 20 years ago. It switched to working
exclusively with asylum seekers and those granted asylum 10 years ago,
after the staff got a call about a stowaway from the Republic of Congo who
needed a place to stay when he was released from immigration detention.

"Then we found out there were a whole bunch of people who were being
detained and given asylum," said Raul David Morales, the director of Christ
House. "We found out there was a need for services."

The home currently operates on a budget of about $50,000, he said. Funding
comes from private donations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Most of the Christ House residents stay for six months, but some remain
longer while they look for jobs or attend school, Morales said.

"The ones who don't have asylum, they are really depressed most of the
time," Morales said. "They can sleep 14 hours at a time. They sleep a lot
because in the detention center, that's all they did. Eat and sleep."

The home helps residents overcome culture shock, offers computer training
and online English courses, Morales said. Admission is coordinated with the
detention center and the asylum seekers' lawyers.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Zozo and Kokou Djangba, 24, another resident
at Christ House, stood in the shelter's living room. On one wall hangs a
map of the world. The two men traced their routes from Africa to their
current home.

Djangba said he fled from Togo to Ghana and later to the United States
after the military sought him for his participation in a protest of his
country's June 2003 presidential election. He came to Christ House in
November after being granted asylum.

In Togo, Djangba said he studied accounting. Here, he earns minimum wage
working at a deli on 79th Street on the Upper East Side.

Djangba said he hopes in four or six months, after saving money and
practicing his English, he'll be able to attend technical school for
accounting. Zozo said he does not know when or if he will receive asylum.

"I pray that one day, God is going to give it to me," he said. "And then
I'll start working."