Putting the pieces together: One family’s journey toward stability
The story presented below is a composite of several different cases we have seen, with details altered to protect privacy. While not the story of any one family in particular, it represents the daily reality of many who seek our services at Renew Northwest, and of thousands of other immigrant families around the country today.
Renew Northwest is in the middle of our May Direct Impact Fund Drive: All money donated toward this fund will be used toward directly supporting families like Adela and Francisco’s.
Over 7 million Venezuelans have fled their home country in recent years, with the great majority living in other Latin American countries
The out-of-state plates on the van pulling into the Renew Northwest parking lot were the first indication that we would be processing a new case enrollment that afternoon. The next was the family that emerged: five of them, with a baby, a toddler and an elementary-age daughter. They look tired, the adults carrying the little ones and clutching a folder full to bursting with documents.
Preliminary greetings out of the way, we sit down and begin to piece together the journey which has brought them to Bellingham. Originally from Venezuela, the parents—Adela and Francisco—arrived at the southern border in 2024; along with nearly 8 million other Venezuelans who now live in various countries abroad, they faced an impossible choice between enduring crushing poverty and violence…or risking it all to emigrate.
Migrant shelters in large cities don’t offer much in the way of safety or privacy
After a harrowing journey north with their two eldest children, they were given the opportunity to pursue an asylum claim and were released into the United States with a notice to appear before an immigration court for a preliminary hearing in two years’ time. The monumental backlog of immigration cases nationwide means that rendering a decision on an asylum claim is now drawn out over the course of multiple years, with people like Adela and Francisco living in legal limbo until their fate is determined.
Having spent their last dollar on the journey north and without the ability to even apply for employment authorization until five months after their asylum claim has been filed, they found themselves living in a shelter in Kansas City after an acquaintance urged them to join him there.
It has now been almost two years since Adela and Francisco crossed the border hoping to start a new life. In the meantime, their youngest baby was born, and is a U.S. citizen. The two adults eventually received work authorization and they were able to start jobs in Kansas City but there didn’t seem to be a path to long-term stability for them there, and they felt unsafe living in the shelter. A week earlier, on a tip from a friend living in Whatcom County, they had packed up all of their possessions and piled into their van for a drive across the country.
These are some of the ways Renew Northwest helps with the challenges that newly-arrived families face
This family of five is now sleeping in the living room of an acquaintance’s overcrowded apartment while working to secure a place of their own. They have an immigration court date approaching in another state, the complications of a mixed-citizenship family, employment authorization documents set to expire within the next year, and no money or income to pay for an apartment deposit, let alone ongoing rent.
Faced with a complex situation like this, how can Renew Northwest help? In fact, there are a number of things a knowledgeable resource navigator can do to assist a family like this in taking significant steps toward stability, from making referrals to other agencies for specialized services, to assisting with application submissions and tracking court venue changes, and many other services (see image for further details).
While we unfortunately cannot address each and every need a client might face, by working together with other service providers we can multiply the impact our organizations are able to have. Most importantly, we can show families like Adela and Francisco’s—in big ways and small—that they are not alone, they are welcome here, and that they are valued members of our community.
During the month of May 2026, we are committed to raising at least $10,000 to meet needs such as those faced by Adela and Francisco via our newly-created Direct Impact Fund. Enabling Renew Northwest to draw on a dedicated fund for direct assistance has the potential to be life-changing for families. The ability to pay $100 in apartment application fees, for example, can mean the difference between housing stability and continuing to sleep in a vehicle or on a stranger’s floor. Would you consider making a special gift toward this fund today?
