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."
I'll be interested to see more detailed breakdowns on the makeup of the evacuees to each area.
I had friends air-lifted to Houston -- disclosure, I lived in NO for 18 years. They were reunited with their families and friends because those of us outside the vicinity kept a phone tree and email tree going, passing on contact information, and I also posted information on a blog.
But these people were all white, college-educated, money in the bank, computer literate.
At one point, my uncle had 15 or 16 evacuees in his house, but he's a retired dentist, he could afford it (bless his heart).
I don't blame Houstonians for having "compassion fatigue" -- but the way to solve a problem is to be proactive. Just complaining about them is no more helpful to these people than their own complaints.
Please, please. No inflamatory language.
Those are going to be 'resettlement centers', and they should be located where the weather is much cooler.
I should clarify that I don't expect government to be the solution, either.
I was just reading that Catholic Charities hasn't had any volunteers to help rehab New Orleans houses in weeks.
Why "where the weather is much cooler"?
1. There are more liberals up there.
2. I get tired of yankees on FR telling folks in Texas, Baton Rouge and Jackson that they need to be more compassionate towards the New Orleans refugees.
3)There are a lot of former military bases which can be converted.
4. Wasn't there someone in the story complaining about the Houston heat.
"The Houston Chronic is more liberal than even the Austin paper"
Last week the Houston paper actually used editorial space to blast Republicans for calling the opposing party the democrat party rather than the democratic party!
NOI?
Same here. I know a few folks from NO that plan on staying. They're good folks, they don't have much to go back to so they're going to make their home here. We got some rotten eggs, that's for sure. But we had plenty of our own before the storm.
That's a good one.
We seem to be in agreement. Our money is better spent giving those who are able to take advantage of it a hand up.
NO has a lot of rebuilding to do, if they can somehow abandon the "prevailing wage" laws they might be able to take these unskilled and inexperienced workers and make a force out of them -
Rebuild the City AND it's Citizens.
Perhaps even instill in them a sense of pride in rebuilding their hometown.
If the government comes in and puts up rows of low-income housing and just packs them back in, we have lost them for generations.
The main problem is lazy, nipple people that can't find the government tit fast enough to slide into the lazy shiftless "Big Easy" lifestyle.... gawd why can't we ship them to Baton Rouge or every town in Louisiana taking 5-6 "victims".
Nation of Islam..... bwahahahahahaha... wait till this country gets a couple of more "Islamic" terror attacks... you make up less than 10% of the population and are a "cute" little bow tied novelty.
Alabama did a background check on evacuees to this state. We eventually took 23,000 and have had few problems. Now, keep in mind that the population of metro Houston is larger than the whole state of Alabama.
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