They like it here.
Posted on 09/08/2006 9:10:11 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Life in Houston hasn't been easy, with many lacking health insurance, jobs, survey finds
Houston may be hot, unfriendly and frustratingly difficult to navigate, but more than two-thirds of the poorest New Orleans evacuees who fled to the city after Hurricane Katrina plan to stay, a Rice University survey released today shows.
Almost 69 percent of the 1,081 people queried in the National Science Foundation-funded study conducted in July by political science professors Rick Wilson and Robert Stein said they likely will remain in Houston. That figure is up from about 57 percent in October and 51 percent in September 2005.
Wilson and Stein say their findings reflect the view of 35,000 to 40,000 evacuees, about one-fourth of the displaced New Orleanians thought to be living in the city.
The study found life for poor evacuees in Houston has been difficult.
Almost half have no health insurance. Nearly a third lack a high school diploma. Three-fifths reported they held jobs in New Orleans, but almost half earned less than $15,000 a year. At present, less than 20 percent are employed and about 74 percent earn less than $15,000.
"This means a couple of things," Wilson said. "One: They have little to go back to. Most of the group were renters, and the rental situation in New Orleans is pretty bleak. Second: Many of them had been working in the service industry, and that is still a little rocky there. ... Houston is looking at continuing to shelter a population that didn't want to be here in the first place. The chances of finding something to go back to are pretty slim. That raises questions of how they are going to be integrated into the city."
One of the few bright spots noted by the evacuees was the state of education. Fifty-seven percent of respondents found Houston schools superior to what they left behind. Only 13 percent considered Houston schools worse.
Tensions about crime
The survey results are released today as tension about evacuee-related crime has led to calls for evacuees to be sent packing. In late August, more than 1,700 westside residents attended a session with Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt, who announced formation of a 140-officer unit to combat crime in evacuee-filled neighborhoods there.
Police report that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees as victims or suspects.
White spokesman Frank Michel warned Thursday that it is "unfair to judge the many by the conduct of the few" but reiterated the mayor's assertion that housing for criminals would be provided in jail.
"We've got to point out that we got between 200,000 and 300,000 evacuees," Michel said, "and apparently 130,000 to 150,000 remain. We got a cross-section — everybody from the boardroom to the guy who cleans the boardroom. People with work histories found jobs, transferred jobs and moved businesses. Yes, there are some people who may not match the market here and a number who are retired. ... Our challenge is to lift those in the lower circumstances."
Employment help
To that end, two job fairs — the latest in August — have been conducted by The WorkSource. Sue Cruver, spokeswoman for the agency, said 69 jobs were filled in August, with 725 likely to be filled by the end of October. Cruver noted her agency has offered training in job skills and some trades.
White, Michel said, has emphasized that housing benefits are finite and able-bodied evacuees should seek work.
WorkSource labor market analyst Joel Wagher said Houston's unemployment rate stands at 5.5 percent. He added that a variety of jobs can be obtained with only a high school diploma. In 2002, for instance, there were 76,000 sales clerk jobs, and that number is expected to increase by 12,000 in just six years.
The problem, he said, is that such positions bring small paychecks. "What's declining," he said, "are high-paying manufacturing jobs."
"The problem is more structural," said Nation of Islam Minister Robert Muhammad. "Houston is not primarily a tourist city and New Orleans was." Much of the city's economy, he said, emphasizes health care, space and other high-tech callings.
"Plus," he said, "when you factor in transportation and the cost of living, it makes it extremely difficult to survive on that economic level."
Sense of hopelessness
Wagher noted that some applicants have difficulty reaching job interviews. Evacuees participating in the survey peppered their responses with such observations as, "I've never lived in any place this large," "Things too far off," and "Always getting lost on the highway."
They complained, too, that they felt alienated in the big city, with 76 percent reporting loneliness and 61 confessing a sense of hopelessness about the future. Almost 30 percent said their health has declined since Katrina.
Houstonians, Muhammad said, must be "tolerant and generous" and work to instill a sense of independence and self-sufficiency in evacuees.
"Texas is going to have to urge the rest of the country to recognize the systemic problem with poverty and racism in the country," he said. "We in Texas will have to show the rest of the country how it's done. How to help a person. Instead of giving them a fish, teaching them to fish."
Reasons to return Meanwhile, he said, New Orleans needs to immediately reopen minimally damaged public housing units. The Housing Authority of New Orleans could not be reached for comment Thursday, but its Web site contended 1,000 families have been allowed to return to public housing.
"Based on an extremely slow rebuilding process in New Orleans and the shortage of affordable housing, it's clear that people don't have the alternative to return," said Ginny Goldman, spokeswoman for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "People do want to go home ... but they're starting to lose hope."
Jacqueline Jones, an organizer for the Jeremiah Project, a New Orleans advocacy organization, said rents in the city have tripled.
"Before Katrina," she said, "a house might rent for $700 or $800. Now you couldn't get into it for less than $1,500. It's not just lower income people who are affected. Their problem is there just isn't any housing stock."
The 290 problems were because at least one small community many miles west of the Houston area refused to commit the officers they had previously agreed to in the disaster plan, who were needed to close off access to the eastbound lanes so contraflow could be implemented.
I understand EXCEPTIONS however their way of life, in general is the "exception". They weren't always old. They made choices along the way in life ... I see those same choices being routinely made and entitlement as the weekly paycheck. That's NOT RIGHT. If that's so right then, maybe we should ALL throw our hands up in the air and step down. Good grief - this country was founded on hard work, and self determination.
Maybe you or someone else on this thread can explain to me why Houston is having so many problems with their Katrina evacuees while other cities, e.g., Baton Rouge, Atlanta, are not?
Congratulations, Houston, you inherited LOSERS!!!!
/sarc
The leeches-on-society have discovered that you can be "poor" and "get your gree money" anywhere..........and the weather's nicer..............
Hah! This must be like inviting the wife's unemployed brother to come visit, and he never leaves!
We are very friendly, but we do expect you to work and pay your own freight.
***And now WE'RE stuck with them***
Yep: For as long as the welfare checks keep coming.
We have a lot more of them. 150000 at last count.
I believe some will take advantage of the opportunity and ideally "pass it on" however you don't HEAR ABOUT SUCCESS STORIES. I's the drum beat of woe is me and help me and pay for me ... . It's the WRONG MESSAGE.
More SUCCESS STORIES need to be told so others who are on the fence get busy to have the life they'd like. Perhaps a "before" and "after" look at the person and their life. People need encouragement but of course the LIBERAL media WANTS victims ... .
Exactly, one of the few places in the US with a worse heat/humidity combo than Houston are New Orleans and Orlando. Nor is it unfriendly, and the road system is much more sensible than in many large cities. Apparently the writer simply plug-n-played a portion of the Chronicle's template response on why Houston needs:
1) Oodles of spending for light-rail
2) Oodles of spending for arts/sports/entertainment venues
3) Oodles of spending for the midnight basketball equivalent de jour
4) Oodles of spending on inner city patronage programs
5) Oodles of spending for inflated city pensions
6) Freeway towing
7) Oodles of spending to make us a 'WORLD CLASS CITY'(tm)
Every city that took in a sizeable number of refugees has encountered the same problems, just on a smaller scale since none took in anywhere near the numbers that Houston did.
I have no respect for either paper, but I almost fell off my chair when I read the following in an Austin American-Statesman editorial (September 2, 2006) about Democrats criticizing Wal-Mart:
The efforts of Democratic Senate leaders Harry Reid, Joseph Biden and Hillary Clinton and others are cowardly, hypocritical, and ignorant of larger economic truths.
Could it be that there are no jobs for them to take? They aren't exactly collage graduates, and Mexicans take every low paying job. It's not a good situation for anyone.
This is what happens when the liberal social system collapses, you end up with millions of uneducated people who come from generations raised by the welfare system. What can be done with them? Perhaps spreading them out to other cities is the only thing that can be done to lighten the burden. Good luck trying to move them to colder states.
Er, "two of the few places"...
They like it here.
The AAS has moments of non-hypocrisy.
They are few, and far between, but exist.
The Houston Chronic, not so. It aspires to be the Jayson Blair levels of the NYT.
My daughter is sweeping the floor and wants me to mop it when she gets done; if she decides she wants the couches and beds moved, Im going to leave home.
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