Overcharged for substandard housing: untold story of Haitians in Springfield

New arrivals in the Ohio city have been blamed for rising costs but reports suggest responsibility lies with landlords

For John, living in a room in a shared house without even a door for privacy was what he found himself dealing with when he first arrived in Ohio four years ago.

I was afraid to tell my wife, who was still in Florida at the time," John says. When I spoke to her on the phone, I closed the video so she wouldn't see what it was like." John, who did not want to give his real name out of fear of the consequences, paid $50 a week for a room in a house that was also home to a family of Haitians and others who came and went regularly.