Immigrant restaurateurs hit by July floods face continued hurdles to recovery

BARRE — First, a devastating flood damaged their home and business. Then they faced barriers to accessing recovery funds because of their immigration status. Now they’ve been dealing with a disruptive tenant for whom they haven’t been receiving rent payments and a housing entity that didn’t help until a state senator intervened.

Eight months after the flood, Kamal Sherpa, a Nepali immigrant who owns the popular KSherpa Dinner House on Montpelier’s Main Street, and his business adviser Jatinder Singh (who goes by Sunny) are exhausted from the ongoing hurdles.

“This is so horrible,” Singh said partly in Hindi, as he outlined the latest challenges. 

Sherpa bought his first house in March 2023 — a two-story, four-unit house on Second Street in Barre. His family, Singh and all the restaurant workers lived in the top two units and he rented out the bottom two.

When statewide flooding devastated Vermont four months later, both the Montpelier restaurant and the Barre home sustained heavy damages to the tune of $400,000. What’s more, Sherpa and Singh’s non-citizen status prevented them from receiving federal disaster assistance. 

The first-floor tenants relocated as Sherpa and Singh worked for months to repair extensive damage to the house and restaurant, with the help of a $25,000 fundraiser, some local funds and their own sweat and labor. 

In November they rented out the first unit, and in December they found a tenant for the second. 

The second tenant, a man who had previously been unhoused and was referred to Sherpa by a friend, moved in mid-December. He said then he would pay them in January, Singh told VTDigger. Sherpa and Singh later learned that he had a Section 8 voucher administered by the Vermont State Housing Agency — a quasi-governmental agency funded by the federal Housing and Urban Development program. 

But, according to Singh, they have not received any rent for the unit since the tenant moved in, and Singh’s attempts to seek assistance from the housing authority this year has been mired in miscommunication and delays. 

Singh alleges the tenant brings stones into the apartment, bangs on the walls, urinates in the unit and drinks heavily. Disturbed and a little scared, Singh said they asked him to leave but he called the police on them. When they appealed to the police, they were told to look into eviction proceedings. When they first reached out earlier this year, the housing authority suggested the same. But eviction is an expensive and long-drawn-out process they cannot afford, Singh said. 

For immigrants who depend on a small business for their livelihood, the barriers — to access, to recovery, to making plans for the future — have felt endless and insurmountable.

An intervention 

Stuck with a disruptive, non-paying tenant, Singh’s initial communications with the Vermont State Housing Agency led him to believe an immigration status issue was again preventing them from accessing the funds, he said.

The housing agency, meanwhile, claims it never asks landlords about immigration status, and said it’s had a hard time getting in touch with Singh and Sherpa who work long hours at the restaurant.

Three months after the tenant moved in, with help from Melissa Bounty, executive director of the Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation, who has worked with Sherpa and Singh since the July flooding, the men reached out to Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D/P-Chittenden Southeast.

Ram Hinsdale, who chairs the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, said she reached out to the housing agency late last month on their behalf. 

Ram Hinsdale told VTDigger that she conveyed to Kathleen Berk, executive director of the Vermont State Housing Agency, that the agency needs to fix two major missteps in this saga: first, by providing interpretation services and second, by paying the three months of rental reimbursements owed by the tenant.

Berk agreed and recently confirmed to VTDigger that three month’s worth of rent and utilities — totaling $1,100 per month for the one-bedroom apartment — has been put into escrow. She also said the agency expected the tenant to vacate the premises soon.

While he hasn’t seen the tenant in days, Singh said the apartment is still occupied and locked as of Friday. The tenant did not respond to a note left seeking comment last week.

A daughter of immigrant parents and the first woman of color to serve in the Vermont Senate, Ram Hinsdale said she is deeply sympathetic to Sherpa and Singh’s plight. Even well-educated, fluent English-speaking immigrants, like her father for example, are often not understood because of their heavy accents. And that makes tasks like accessing programs, filing forms, dealing with multiple agencies, and taking time to attend a legislative hearing challenging. 

In the case of Sherpa and Singh, it would be egregious for any social services organization to not provide them with translation services at the get-go, Ram Hinsdale told VTDigger.

Berk acknowledged that even though the organization routinely provides translation services, none were offered to Sherpa and Singh proactively. And until recently, Berk was under the impression that Sherpa did not have a Social Security number or tax ID, information the organization requires to release the rental payments. 

An asylum seeker from Nepal, Sherpa does, in fact, have both. Singh, who is waiting for his green card or permanent residency, said he sent copies to the housing authority last week. Whether due to miscommunication or a lack of information earlier, Singh said he did not realize that’s what was holding up the payments. 

Berk said that a staff member will follow up, with translation services, to make sure Sherpa and Singh understand the situation. She said they still need Sherpa to sign a temporary lease agreement. Furthermore, they have alerted Singh to a landlord relief program which offers up to $5,000 per tenant for a number of tenancy-related reimbursement costs, including eviction and fixing up damages, that a homeowner may qualify for.

For an organization that often works with immigrants in Central Vermont, the encounter has been a learning experience. Berk said that staff have been alerted to the mishap and have been educated about providing language support. The requirement for landlords to have a valid Social Security number or tax ID will also be discussed with landlords early in the process, she said.

“I think the BIPOC community in Vermont continues to grow and expand and we need to be certain that our programs are accessible to all who participate in them,” Berk said. 

A long road to recovery 

Ram Hinsdale also invited Singh and Sherpa to outline their situation to the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs in late March.

“It’s something I wanted the whole committee to hear because it helps illustrate, you know, that immigrants and people who didn’t grow up in this first-come first-serve culture of ours are really left behind in continued economic recovery from the flood,” she said.

“After the flood, everything has slowed down,” Singh told the committee on March 28. He explained that, while the restaurant reopened on Dec. 18, they are nowhere near full recovery eight months later. 

Before the flood, the restaurant made about $1,600 to $1,800 on a good day. Despite working 12-hour days or longer, they are drawing about half that currently. “It’s not good business right now,” he said.

And the situation at the house in Barre, he told lawmakers, is not helping.

“I’m scared to go inside, you know. I don’t know what he (is) doing and we don’t want to knock on the door,” Singh said at the hearing.

On Friday, he said they have submitted all the paperwork needed for the housing group to release the funds but has been told that may not happen until May or June. 

Bounty, who has worked with several BIPOC-owned businesses since the flood, said her heart goes out to the two men for “the many deep disappointments, losses and setbacks” they continue to face.

This includes requiring translation in Nepali and Punjabi, federal funding options being closed to them, and resources being too complicated for them to access or understand.

“While always upbeat and kind, it quickly became clear that Sunny and Kamal were experiencing a great level of devastation and need. The circumstances were unfortunately so deeply difficult for them to overcome,” Bounty said. 

The months-long struggle has taken a toll on the usually upbeat Singh. Reluctant to share its effect on his personal life, Singh grudgingly admitted that he went to the hospital twice this year because he thought he had a problem with his heart. He is now being treated for a gallbladder issue — which he attributes to the stress he’s experiencing. 

The financial losses have also meant not being able to send money home to his aging parents and family in Punjab, India, whom he has not visited for a decade. 

Immigrant businesses “add so much to our economy and our communities,” Ram Hinsdale said. “The layers of setbacks they’re facing are deeper and more complex. And I am grateful to a very small group of nonprofits that are trying to hold that complexity with them to not let them fall through the cracks.”