News and Stories

Center for Community Health Refugee and Immigrant Health Unit (RIH) team member Reem Zubaidi has been selected to serve on the 2025 – 2026 Awardee Council for the national BUILD Health Challenge. The BUILD Health Challenge is a funding collaborative and award program that seeks to support communities in improving access to health and addressing differences in outcomes associated with economic or environmental conditions. Their focus is on supporting and strengthening cross-sector and community-driven partnerships.

The Awardee Council brings together a group of past and current BUILD awardees from across the country to share their firsthand perspectives working with their respective communities and representing residents, community-based organizations, public health departments, and health systems. The council works to guide decisions, inform strategies, and offer insight, feedback and guidance as part of the larger BUILD team’s approach to shared leadership.

Since 2023, RIH has been working in collaboration with the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition (SDRCC), San Diego Wellness Collaborative, the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Health Net of California, and License to Freedom on their BUILD Health Through Housing Project as part of the fourth cohort of the BUILD Health Challenge.

This project focuses on addressing challenges related to fair access to housing within refugee and immigrant communities in El Cajon. The collaborative’s work includes using community-engaged research to understand the needs and opportunities of the community when it comes to housing in El Cajon. To this end, the team conducted a short survey and several focus groups in the primary languages of communities to inform the team’s policy research efforts. Community feedback illustrated that newly arrived community members struggle with housing affordability, stability and low-quality housing, and how these themes affect their overall health, well-being, and ability to thrive.  

Additionally, partner organizations have been able to hire housing navigators through the Neighborhood Networks Housing Navigation Program. Through this program, housing navigators assist unhoused or housing-insecure individuals with obtaining housing, among other services. In 2025, a total of 923 people were served, and $1.8 million in housing assistance was provided.

Our team will continue collaborating with BUILD Health and partners across California to raise awareness about the housing needs of refugee and immigrant communities and opportunities to address them collectively. To learn more about our work, please contact the Refugee and Immigrant Health Unit at refugeehealthunit@health.ucsd.edu.