First, they waited two years to get on a list to receive public housing assistance. Then, they waited to see if they could find a bigger place for their family of eight to live.

"It was hard. After we got Section 8 [housing], me and my mom look for a house every day for three weeks," Ngor said. "We couldn't find anything."

What Ngor experienced isn't unique to refugee families who come to Utah. Many at the World Refugee Day festivities held at Granite High on Saturday said finding housing was their biggest challenge.

"There's a booming economy, but housing [prices are] going up," said Daniel Watt of Catholic Community Services, which helps to relocate refugees in Utah. "We try to put them with their community groups, but housing is needed so bad and there is nowhere to place them."

When a refugee family arrives in Utah, Catholic Community Services and the International Rescue Committee help them get acclimated for the first six months. After that, refugees receive assistance from the Utah Refugee Employment Community Center or the Asian Association of Utah - for up to five years.

Watt and and Carrie Pender, a refugee family support specialist with the Granite school district, say because of a shortage of affordable housing in Salt Lake City and surrounding areas, families are being pushed out into the suburbs.

"It's frustrating," Pender said. "On average, families need five or six bedrooms - families have nine, 10 or 11 people. There are no houses big enough here and the suburbs are unprepared. They don't have the resources and the Jordan school district isn't equipped for this population."

But Ozwald Balfour, a member of the Refugee Working Group that helps refugees transition into their new lives, said housing isn't the only pressing issue. There are concerns like education, employment, health care, learning English as a second language and adjusting to a new culture.

"Utah has always been a welcoming place, but it takes more than that," Balfour said. "This [World Refugee Day] is an indication that people are getting it. We have to be able to make sure basic necessities are being met."

The World Refugee Day festivities - which included a soccer tournament, ethnic music and art - were a way for families to interact with other refugees who have gone through the same things and others who have found a way of life in Utah.

"This brings them back and they can see familiar faces," Pender said. "There are information booths and when they come, they have contact. It's important to stay in touch."

Nyandeng Aleu, who came with her five children from Sudan three years ago, thanked organizers of the event.

"You feel like you not [the] only refugee," said Aleu, who came with her five children from Sudan three years ago. "They let us feel like we are not lost, like we are not refugees, we are people."

mthach@sltrib.com

Refugee facts

There are 10.4 million refugees in the world, and less than 1 percent of them get to start a new life in a new country.

In Utah, there are more than 50,000 refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Somalia.

Source: Utah Refugee Resettlement Program