Posted on 09/16/2005 4:54:05 AM PDT by Lacey
The Marie McGuire Apartments are basic downtown public housing. For New Orleans evacuee Diane Porter, who this week moved out of the KellyUSA shelter and took possession of unit No. 405, it's air-conditioned heaven.
That's because she knows hell.
Among her few possessions, Porter has vivid memories of harrowing post-Hurricane Katrina moments: sleeping on a freeway overpass, walking through putrid, chest-high water to the degraded Superdome and pushing her way onto a bus out of the flooded nightmare city.
"Thank you God for getting me out of that town," Porter said. "I don't see anything to go back to. I'm tired of running from storms."
Evacuee Debbie J. Madison, 45, is resigned to staying in San Antonio indefinitely with her family — four children and two grandchildren. She qualified for a federally subsidized $1,200-a-month Section 8 housing voucher, but admitted she really doesn't want to leave the shelter. She has no income.
"I'm not satisfied with my options," said Madison, who expressed fear about not having a job, not having transportation, no food and about being in an unfamiliar city. "I don't want to be stuck somewhere."
The two women are examples of the myriad possibilities of what could occur as evacuees make decisions about leaving local shelters. After two weeks in San Antonio, evacuees continue to vacate the emergency housing — from the nearly 13,000 people processed on the first weekend to 3,814 on Thursday.
But public officials can't answer exactly where Katrina evacuees are going after they leave area shelters. The answer is complicated, they said.
Some will be in San Antonio for a long time. Others won't. Many will disappear. That's a reality officials are facing.
"The numbers fluctuate but it doesn't mean the people got permanent housing or that we're getting new people in the system," said shelter information officer Gary Lehnhausen, a U.S. Forest Service official with the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team, which is overseeing local shelters.
"Some of them are going out and spending the night in a motel so they can take showers and then coming back with a taxi," he said, adding that many are ending up with family members, in foster homes, assisted housing, going to another shelter or simply on their own.
Lehnhausen said some evacuees likely will evaporate as they receive federal financial assistance, such as the $2,000 FEMA debit card. They're in the minority, but identifying more permanent residents and dealing with their future plans is the real challenge.
Tracking the fluctuating number of displaced folks is proving to be a Herculean task. It's a process that is being developed on site at the shelters.
"It's all on the fly," software application expert Brett Elmendorf said. "We're building this (database) stuff here, now."
He's one of several computer experts working for Rackspace, a private Internet and computer support company aiding in the American Red Cross effort at the Windsor Park and Levi shelters, that's tracking evacuees. However, many of the people who left in the first few days weren't accounted for or tracked.
According to Rackspace, the free will of the shelter populations adds to the complications of knowing what the people are doing.
Some of the African American evacuees have expressed concerns about living among so many Latinos.
New Orleans resident Tywanda Major and her family have been staying with friends since before the hurricane hit and plan to stay in San Antonio.
"I'm really scared," Major said. "I've been in New Orleans all my life and never been outside of New Orleans or around other people that aren't black."
Hurricane Katrina displaced 1.2 million people on housing assistance in the Gulf Coast region, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. More than 40,000 of them are from New Orleans. Many of those are believed to be in San Antonio, but the numbers aren't solid.
At the San Antonio Housing Authority, the tracking issues are mind numbing since HUD housing vouchers are portable and can be used anywhere in the country.
"We track vouchers not places," a SAHA spokesman said about the difficulties in pinpointing where voucher holders ultimately could go.
Of 1,073 evacuee families — many of which are large and extended — that arrived here and had received federal housing assistance prior to Katrina, 256 have been issued a Section 8 housing voucher in San Antonio. Most haven't taken possession of a housing unit.
SAHA spokesman Mark Kinkade said placing residents in Section 8 housing is slow and intensive. SAHA has little public housing inventory available — fewer than 75 units. SAHA personnel have been taking Section 8 residents apartment and house hunting and putting together home starter kits and distributing furniture.
In addition to those families, another 2,100 displaced families that never relied on federal housing assistance are in San Antonio and have been identified by SAHA.
Those 3,200 evacuee families here could translate to 15,000 people or more, experts say.
That's just one issue. Families lucky enough to move from a shelter to permanent housing also need basic necessities.
"They go from sleeping in a cot to sleeping on a floor. It's not a real step up," said David Mann of Community Bible Church, which is assisting SAHA's "adopt-a-family" relief effort that is reaching out through faith-based groups.
Some are falling through the cracks, they acknowledge, but few know where.
The nonprofit Alamo Area Mutual Housing Association, an affordable housing organization, owns nine apartment properties in San Antonio. Its executive director, Sandi Williams, anticipates that about 50 of its 1,300 apartments will be made available for Hurricane Katrina victims.
"They're in a really distressed frame of mind," Williams said, describing the desperate straits of the evacuees, especially the impoverished ones.
Williams, a former housing expert for the city, expects evacuees living in public housing to be here one to three years. Developing new housing units in stricken gulf areas will take that long, she said.
Despite not yet knowing how many people are leaving or staying, officials know they have to make decisions now.
"I've heard everything from I'm staying right here in San Antonio to I have relatives elsewhere," Kinkade said about what evacuees are saying at shelters he's visited. "Some people were talking about going elsewhere, but they didn't know where. Most of them were still in that 'find my family' mode and not into that into the future thing."
I know this isn't the point of this article, but $1,200 a month? That is a nice house in many parts of the country!! That's definitely at least a very very nice apartment in most parts of the country.
That's more than my mortgage and I live in a 2200 square foot house in NC. I'd say that's pretty good living.
Why didn't you think about that when you started popping out kids at 16 instead of getting educated and trained? < /rant >
Good Morning Beth,
This must be the movie trailer for, "Dumber and Dumbest."
The two faces of incompentence and race baiting liberals on preview.
Liberals hate the truth,
NSNR-WNNS
Morning CC,
I know you do not believe that story. This is the liberal self generated pity scam for more donations and hand-outs.
I gave at the IRS,
NSNR-CSAOTL
Moring Jim,
The welfare queen should take her options straight to hell on a one way ticket.
In my area people have donated to Ms and Al, but we all feel this way towards NOLA. We Don't Know You and based on their (anarchists/you owe us mentality) We Sure As Hell Do Not Owe You Anything.
Go get a job like productive citizens, instead of from the womb to the tomb welfare addict hustlers.
Saying What Only Needs To Be Said,
NSNR-WNNS
Good morning back to you...
I think the liberal are to dumb to know the truth..Just look at some of the weirdo's they elect into office..The race card is always played by the liberal..i wonder what their answer is going to be to all the out pouring to what Texas and other states have done for the people of N.O. There didn't seem to be any race as far as my fellow Texans are concerned..And with all the people that has come into this state and don't want to return home that will make for a lot of dem votes..even thought the dems did nothing to help these people but to go with the blame game..It is all Bush's fault..Not!!
And you said it very well..Thanks for saying what most of us are thinking..
You are absolutely right..I am getting pretty tired of all the poor me stuff..And I have had my caffeine this morning but I would say the same without it..The people that work and retire thinking that they will have it made after retirement are fooling themselves..We have to pay for these people that have no clue what birth control is or don't care to know..I know here we are paying for 20,000 more welfare cases besides the one already here..due to the hurricane just imagain how many in the Houston and allas area how much they pay..And I will scream to high heaven if my taxes are raised to take care of them while they sit on their butt's having more kids and laying around..believe me i will be the first to stand up and shout my disagreement..IF THAT IS RACIST THEN SO BE IT..Call it what you want because I do not care..
That's more than most of the military get for their housing allowance!
Which one is the welfare Queen? There were quite a few women mentioned in the article, the writer didn't refer to them as being on public assistance except that they qualified for section 8 vouchers. One woman did express fear that she had no job. You do realize that people who work 40 hour work weeks often qualify for section 8 in cities where housing can be at a premium.
Afternoon Beth,
Some of the evauees will appreciate what the other states have done for them. However the majority think they are owed these things inculcated via the DNC plantation mentality.
Did yo observe the skirmish which occurred in Houston involving both the parents and students(NOLA)vs(Houston parents&students)
I term it entitlement warfare, this occurs when out of state government sugar tit dependers start suckling on the home-town inner city government sugar tit.(Shot Happens)
I do commend the Texans who reached out and helped the deserving evacuees without regard to race, creed or color.
Query this, had the roles been reversed would the citizens of NOLA have shown the kindness and compassion to others regardless of race?? Hell No. They probably would have been looted, raped and robbed during the process.
I like President Bush and voted for him twice. However he needs to understand, you cannot win over the hearts of those who hate him for being President and his race.
Blaming others for one's failures in life is per say training, for liberals, communist, madmen, madwomen and fools.
Fight poverty and crime, get a friggijn J-O-B and become a law abiding citizen in life.
Street Corner Politics On The Low Low,
NSNR-WNNS
Hey Beth,
There is nothing wrong with stating the truth. Prudent/sane/civilized men and women from all races in life respect the truth even it it hurts.
Sixty years of DNC plantation (Johnnie Steppin) and see the catastrophic results.
Maybe one day the good people in La and NOLA will wake up and vote the someone in office who cares for all people.
Why keep being a dummies and letting the democrats take their votes for granted.
The mind is a terrible thing to waste, so do not vote Democrat(Communist)
Under The Red Sun In August,
NSNR-CSAOTL
Afternoon Katya,
Please enlighten me on the definition of the illustrious(Section-8)
If one studies hard in school/college applies for and is the best qualified, the high paying non section 8 jobs are abundant.
I one can only afford to drive a jalopey instead of an Avalanche. One should have set higher goals in life for themselves.
As my Psychology Professor often said and was right on the mark. " The environment controls nothing as to what one makes of himself or herself in life.
Doctors&Lawyers do come from Harlem and also from the backwoods of Kentucky.
Live today what you want to be tomorrow,
NSNR-CSAOTL
I would never vote democrat..Not with the sorry commies we have in office today..The only one I would ever vote for is Zell Miller..Now that is a true American and he loves this country..
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