[CHRON] 287 Sex Offenders Fleeing Katrina Move to Houston

Good grief.

Hide the women and children.

 

get em in the burqas and niqaabs

 

Geez! I completely forgot about those scum bags. Poor Houston.

 

How about if we give them a year of free rent, gas, and electricity?

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3441703

Nov. 6, 2005, 2:56AM



HURRICANE AFTERMATH

Sweetest deal for evacuees found here

In addition to a FEMA stipend, city is giving them a year of free rent
By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Ten weeks after Hurricane Katrina touched off the largest U.S. migration since the Dust Bowl, the welcome mat in Houston has proved to be the most plush in the nation.

Because of its proximity to New Orleans, Houston harbored the largest share of evacuees fleeing the Aug. 29 storm and the devastating flood that followed — an estimated 150,000 people. Not quite a month later, Hurricane Rita brought another, though much smaller, round of storm-ravaged people this way. Now, the city's response to the disasters has been so generous that a third wave of evacuees — those who had landed in other Texas cities — may be en route as well.

What's the lure? In addition to a $2,358 stipend from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the city is offering evacuees a voucher good for 12 months of rent in clean, safe apartments, with free electricity and gas heating. The housing program, the most expansive of its kind in the U.S., is expected to cost Houston about $220 million, though it expects reimbursement from FEMA.

The city already has issued about 35,000 vouchers, ranging from one-bedroom apartments for two people to four-bedroom apartments for larger families.

More than 12,000 vouchers have been cashed in, each signifying an evacuee family has signed a lease. The city then pays the landlord directly.

John Walsh, a deputy chief of staff for Mayor Bill White who has spearheaded the program, said he expects at least 60,000 evacuees to find housing here because of the program.

By contrast, Atlanta has made virtually no provisions for long-term housing, and Dallas has sought to house fewer than 1,000 families.

"Very early on," noted Walsh, "the mayor said, 'These are our neighbors, they are in need, and we will help them.' "

Easing the transition

With the voucher system, city officials have sped the transition of thousands of evacuees from shelters and hotels into housing and sought to remove federal red tape. All a family has to do is prove residency in a hurricane-affected area — a process as simple as presenting a driver's license or utility receipts, one that can take just a few hours — and they walk away with a voucher.

Many evacuees would remain in Houston with or without the program, Walsh said. But by guaranteeing their housing for a year, they're more apt to make smooth transitions into the community, find jobs and improve their lives. Not tending to these needs, Walsh said, could lead to increased rates of homelessness, vagrancy and other problems.

Last week, White and others with the Joint Hurricane Housing Task Force announced a major initiative to move the 24,000 evacuees remaining in area hotels and shelters into more stable housing by Dec. 1.

But the voucher program has put Houston on the hook financially until FEMA decides to fund it. On a visit to Washington, last week, White complained that FEMA's reimbursement has been too slow. A local official said Houston can expect to be reimbursed.

"FEMA will be first to step forward and say the accomplishments of the city of Houston in the last two months have been nothing short of incredible," said Dennis Lee, the agency's top official in Houston. "It's a matter of walking through the paperwork, and the money will flow."


Different in Dallas

Concern over reimbursement prompted Dallas officials not to initiate a similar voucher program for the 17,000 registered Katrina evacuees in that city, said Frank Librio, chief of staff for Mayor Laura Miller. Instead, the city has raised about $2.7 million from private sources to provide two months of rent for 745 families and is scrambling to ensure FEMA will continue paying leases.

"The mayor and city manager thought the city of Dallas taxpayers should not sign leases for the evacuees, because it would put taxpayer dollars at risk," Librio said.

Houston and Harris County records show all expenses for Katrina and Rita — including vouchers, employee overtime, shelter operations and lost toll-road revenue — come to about $300 million. FEMA has sent Houston $39 million and has approved another $63 million.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels met with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week to express displeasure with the "dragging" pace. Eckels told Chertoff that FEMA dare not set a bad precedent.

"If a city or county steps up during a disaster and opens its arms at substantial local expense, but federal funding streams don't reward that behavior, it sends a message to everyone in the face of a disaster to not take these folks into their community and to pass them down the road," Eckels said.

"The secretary seemed to understand that message."

Lacking a harbor view, graceful curves and carrying no torch, Houston's beacon of hope for Katrina and Rita victims bears little resemblance to the Statue of Liberty.

But the abandoned Auchan supermarket in south Houston could just as credibly bear the plaque that rests at the base of Lady Liberty, welcoming the tired, homeless and tempest-tossed.

The building, at Wayside and the South Loop, has been transformed into the largest — by far — Disaster Recovery Center that FEMA has ever opened. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people visit the center every day, six days a week, to receive assistance with not only housing but also dozens of other services.

"Everything they need is under one roof," said Tom Kennedy, a city of Houston official working on-site. "It's one-stop shopping."

The interior looks like a convention floor, with placards above tables advertising myriad services. Evacuees can meet with employment counselors, receive food stamps or get a new Social Security card. Private groups, many of them faith-based, offer food, clothing or relocation services. At one booth any evacuee can receive a one-way ticket to his or her U.S. destination of choice. Another booth offers crisis counseling.

Housing still biggest need

Housing remains the most popular option, however. Demand for vouchers has remained steady since the center opened in late September. With the effort to move the remaining evacuees from hotel rooms, officials expect to issue more in the coming weeks. Officials say the center will remain in operation until at least early January.

The voucher program hasn't been without hitches. Initially the city contracted with apartments to provide housing, and evacuees were moved into housing sight-unseen. Some didn't like the location, others didn't approve of the accommodations.

Now evacuees receive a voucher and have seven days to find an apartment, with just two conditions: The apartment must pass a city inspection for safety and cleanliness, and the landlord must agree to accept a voucher.

The vouchers will pay a market rate for low- to mid-quality apartments, up to about $1,150 for a four-bedroom apartment.

That's roughly equivalent to low class-B, or class-C apartments, said Richard Zigler, director of research for O'Connor & Associates, a Houston real estate firm. It's above class-D apartments, which are often poorly managed or rundown.

Because of a spike in corporate rentals after Katrina struck, and more recently the broader voucher program, Houston's apartment occupancy has exceeded 90 percent for the first time in two years.

For the most part, apartment managers have welcomed the voucher program, Zigler said. There have been some issues with receiving payments from the city, and landlords are a little concerned about not being able to do full background checks because of poor access to Louisiana records.

Still, Zigler praised Houston for acting decisively on the housing problem.

"The mayor's just done a tremendous job," he said. "I know Dallas got nervous about getting money from FEMA, so they cut off vouchers. But I think Houston has received pretty good assurances that they're going to get help."

The program has been so successful that voucher holders are having trouble finding apartments. At the recovery center last week, workers said places inside the Loop and those close to bus lines were pretty much snapped up.

And although the vouchers are valid for apartments in an eight-county area, many complexes outside Harris County have refused to participate.

The program is voluntary for apartment managers, and some newer apartment buildings may be too expensive to qualify.

Dianne Reese, who with her daughter and a friend have spent the past two months in a hotel, felt the pinch after obtaining a voucher last Tuesday.

"It's been nerve-wracking, that's for sure," said Reese, who added that many apartments near her hotel aren't accepting vouchers. (Her group found an apartment late in the week.)

Reese, a food-service manager at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, joined her family in Houston a week after Katrina struck. She and hundreds of other employees were stranded in the hospital as waters rose. Her home, near the 17th Street Canal levee, was lost. She recently returned and said it looked as if a bomb had exploded inside the dwelling.

Although the mortgage company has offered a reprieve, Reese said, she must return to making payments on the home in December. Not having to worry about a housing payment here is a blessing, she said.


Too costly to move back

Most people who accept vouchers to live here will stay after the year is up, said Katharine Donato, a sociologist at Rice University. A move back to their home states would be expensive, and many may find more opportunity here.

"It could be that the move to Houston really turns some people's lives around," Donato said.

Many evacuees don't have health insurance. Without jobs, they will fall into the area's social services web in six months or a year, after they no longer qualify for federal disaster reimbursement for such services as health care.

Eckels said he has had discussions with Harris County Hospital District officials about meeting this demand.

That's why another major function of the center has been on finding jobs for evacuees. "We want people to help themselves, to become productive members of their new community," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to get them there."

eric.berger@chron.com