Out of My Mind

Posted on Sun, Jan. 29, 2006

Evacuee relief effort puts strain on Texas

By JACK DOUGLAS JR.
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
HOUSTON -- Warren Jenkins feels the stares and senses the suspicion when a Texan learns he is a Hurricane Katrina evacuee.

That's when he wants to shout that he is not a criminal or a welfare moocher, but simply a Louisiana native who, like hundreds of thousands of others, has lost everything and is now in Texas trying to pick up the pieces of his life.

Since as many as 500,000 Katrina evacuees poured into Texas -- many of them poor, sick and elderly -- calls for police service have increased in host cities, emergency rooms have become busier, public school campuses have become rowdier and welfare resources have been strained, state officials say.

They predict the state will spend more than $121 million this fiscal year, with the federal government kicking in another $646.1 million, to care for the special needs of the young, the old and the ailing among the displaced hurricane victims still in Texas, and likely to stay.

Another $230 million is expected to be spent this fiscal year for the nearly 39,000 Katrina students enrolled in Texas schools, with the hope, officials say, that much of the cost will be reimbursed by the federal government.

But some Houston residents say they are growing uneasy about their "guests," following a trail of hotel rooms left ransacked by evacuees and as Houston experiences a sharp jump in its homicide rate, with at least 33 Katrina refugees being involved in 25 killings in that city.

In Houston, where the greatest influx of evacuees flocked, some residents are blaming evacuees for a dramatic increase in slayings. And officials say they are spending an additional $180,000 each school day for the 6,000 Katrina students enrolled in Houston public schools.

As expenses climb, and tensions mount, elected officials in Texas are choosing their words carefully about the evacuees, wanting to still express sympathy for those left homeless by Katrina's force, while at the same time acknowledging some problems that have arisen.

Once promoting Texas' "vigor of the human spirit" to help the storm victims, Gov. Rick Perry, in a recent statement to the Star-Telegram, sounded more like he was issuing a veiled warning, rather than a welcome, to the people left homeless by Katrina.

"It is up to evacuees and their families to choose where they put down roots.

"If they choose to settle in Texas, I fully expect they will be law-abiding citizens who contribute to our state," Perry said.

Staying at a friend and fellow evacuee's apartment in Houston, Jenkins, 64, who has lived most of his life in New Orleans, said he is offended that anyone -- from the governor of Texas on down -- would suggest that he would be anything but a model citizen if he chose to stay here. He said Katrina victims from Louisiana are being unfairly characterized as being mostly unsavory simply because of the actions of a few who have betrayed Texas' hospitality.

"It makes you feel like you hate to tell people you're from New Orleans and Louisiana," Jenkins said. "You go in a grocery store; they watch you like a hawk. I want to tell them, 'Hey, not me! I've worked all my life. I don't need to steal anything.'"

"There are a lot of good people from Louisiana," he added.

Forced migration

Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana on Aug. 29, shattering communities, unleashing catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and causing a massive displacement of Americans not seen since the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s.

Texans were among the quickest to offer help, welcoming hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees who had no place else to go.

They stayed first in emergency shelters -- such as the ones assembled at Fort Worth's Meacham Airport, Houston's Astrodome and Dallas' Reunion Arena -- then moved to hotels and apartments paid for by the federal government.

While there is no way to know an exact number, social and urban development experts estimate that there are about 250,000 Katrina evacuees still in the state, with 150,00 of them in Houston, making Texas by far the largest host state for hurricane victims.

In the long run, experts predict that many of the evacuees will stay in Texas, believing that the desolation of New Orleans will never be fully repaired.

It will take at least a decade, experts say, before people with an inclination for jazz and Creole food will blend in with Texans whose tastes lean more toward country music and barbecue.

Like the 1906 earthquake and fire that forced thousands to flee San Francisco, massive forced migrations of the past have been followed by lingering periods of unrest in the places where evacuees resettled. And there is nothing to suggest that Katrina's fallout will be any different, said Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

An unexpected convergence of races and cultures can cause "some unrest and discomfort," Bunch said. "As long as there is that sense of uncertainty, you've got these kinds of tensions that seem to be happening in Texas. This is something we're going to grapple with for a long time."

The vast majority of Katrina evacuees continue to express their gratitude for Texas' graciousness in helping them, and many say they plan to stay.

At the Disaster Recovery Center in Houston, in what once was a giant supermarket, Annie Johnson, 61, said she was thankful that her 12-year-old grandson was getting hospital treatment in the city after collapsing from "so much depression."

"I don't want to go back to New Orleans. There's nothing there but sickness and disease," Johnson said of the city where she lived most of her life.

But not far away, 8-year-old LaShonda Muse tagged along behind her grandmother, declaring she wanted to return to her hometown.

The girl did not hesitate: "I miss my state. And I miss New Orleans."

Because of Texas' massive population -- about 22.9 million residents -- and its healthy growth rate -- about 400,000 new residents a year -- the arrival of transplanted Louisianans will not likely change the social or economic landscape of the state, said Steve Murdock, the state's demographer and a professor of management science and statistics at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"Are they likely to change the [overall] crime rate in Texas? Not really. ... Will it change the directions and patterns in Texas? I doubt it," Murdock said.

He added, however, that in certain areas of the state, where the greatest numbers of evacuees are located, there could be "consequences."

Stephanie Goodman, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, agrees, saying the extra costs are putting a strain on the state's welfare resources. She likened it to the way an unexpected need to fix a car transmission can rattle an average household budget.

Good people, bad people

The friendly image of Texans helping hurricane evacuees turned ugly on Oct. 30 when 71-year-old Betty Blair was killed at her home in Pasadena, near Houston. Police have arrested three people in connection with the crime -- a Katrina evacuee from New Orleans and two Hurricane Rita evacuees from Beaumont -- whom Blair had tried to help.

When she opened up her home to the hurricane refugees, they turned on her so they could steal her car, television and computer, said one investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

"It was unbelievable; really a bad deal," the investigator said.

"They beat her, put a cord around her neck. And she died."

Blair's neighbor and longtime friend, Mary Titus, said people should not blame the state's efforts to shelter those left homeless by a hurricane. "There's just good people and bad people no matter where you go," Titus said.

That didn't stop talk-show hosts in Houston, where an estimated 150,000 Katrina victims remain housed, from blaming the evacuees for the city's escalating violence.

Tensions have increased even more in Houston with recent police disclosures that Katrina evacuees have been involved in an increasing percentage of the city's slayings. During the last four months of 2005, 18 of Houston's 129 slayings -- or 14 percent -- involved an evacuee as a victim, a suspect, or both, officials said. So far this year, up through Monday, evacuees accounted for seven of 26 slayings, or 27 percent, the officials said.

Of all of the Houston homicides involving Katrina evacuees, 10 were victims, seven were suspects and eight involved "murders in which both the victim and suspect were evacuees," said Sgt. David Crain, spokesman for the Houston Police Department.

On Friday, Houston police announced the arrest of eight Katrina evacuees, and a search for three more, in connection with 11 related slayings, nine on Houston's southwest side and two in nearby Pasadena, blamed on a gang rivalry that started in New Orleans. "Investigators have learned these individuals were associated with two different gangs in New Orleans and were relocated here to Houston at various locations where they continued the rivalry," a report said.

Referring to the three evacuees still at large, Police Chief Harold Hurtt was quoted by The Associated Press as saying: "The safety of the city of Houston, its citizens and as well as some of the evacuees, depends on us arresting these individuals as soon as possible."

In another recent case, an evacuee said that, while holding his 1-year-old daughter, he shot and killed one of three men in a "home invasion" robbery. "He recognized two of the suspects who he said had attended middle school with him in New Orleans," according to a police report.

Despite the rising violence in Houston, and the prominence of evacuees in many of the cases, it would be "flawed logic to blame all of this on Katrina," Crain said.

"We certainly have our own home-born criminals," he said. "We don't want to put all of this off on Katrina."

Houston Mayor Bill White, in a statement e-mailed to the Star-Telegram, said the city has asked for federal assistance to pay for more police and to "make sure our schools get appropriate funding to handle the increased student population."

In addition, White said, "We are monitoring closely what additional pressures might be put on our health care system. This exodus [from Louisiana] exposes the problems with a U.S. health care system where so many Americans do not have group health insurance."

Like the governor, the Houston mayor neither invited, nor uninvited, the evacuees to stay in the city, saying simply: "We've tried to help our neighbors get back on their feet, and we are neither pushing them away nor pulling them in."

A new home

In Tarrant County, where about 4,900 Katrina evacuees remain in either rented homes, apartments or hotels, there have been fewer reports of problems.

But for cousins Ray Price, 16, and Brian Adams, 17, now living with their families in Bedford, the experience has not been pleasant.

Both boys said they have been made to feel like outcasts and have gotten into schoolyard fights with Texas students, making them even more homesick for their old friends and neighborhood in New Orleans.

"People got to get use to us. We do things they're not use to, they do things we don't do," Adams said.

Price said, "I never thought I'd be in Texas. ... Everywhere we go, people are always pointing and looking."

"It's cool from our point of view," Price added, "but Texas people don't have any love for us."

Walter Moreau said he is trying to change that type of sentiment.

As executive director of Foundation Communities, an Austin-based nonprofit group that works to find affordable housing for evacuees, Moreau said he will continue to help needy Louisianans, some of whom have infants born as native Texans.

So far, the organization has found better places to stay for 650 evacuees, including the 103-year-old man who initially did not want to leave an Austin hotel lobby because it was where he could best reminisce with others about his century of living in New Orleans.

"Some of the effects of this experience [Katrina] take a while to surface," said Moreau, predicting that there will be evacuees who will experience emotional setbacks with the upcoming six-month anniversary of the hurricane.

"It's crucial for the rest of this year that we help families settle," he said, adding, "Clearly, some evacuees have landed on their feet and are adjusting and things are going well, while others still need ongoing help."

ABOUT THE EVACUEES

500,000 Estimated number of Katrina evacuees who came to Texas

250,000 Estimated number of Katrina evacuees remaining in Texas

150,000 Estimated number of evacuees still in Houston

39,000 Evacuees in Texas public schools

6,000 Evacuees attending Houston schools

4,900 Evacuees still in Tarrant County

755 Evacuees attending Fort Worth schools

700 Evacuees living in Tarrant County hotels

SOURCES: Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Education Agency

EFFECTS ON TEXAS

The forced migration of hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents into Texas won't dramatically change the social landscape of the state, but it will have profound effects in some areas:

EDUCATION

More teachers, school supplies, transportation and an enhanced police presence have been ordered for nearly 39,000 Louisiana students enrolled in Texas schools. Estimated annual cost to the state: $230 million.

SOCIAL SERVICES

With many of them sick, old and poor, New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina will need an estimated $767.2 million in health care this year in Texas, with the federal government picking up most of the tab.

CRIME

Reports of serious evacuee-related crimes have been limited to a few parts of Texas. But in Houston, officials say the murder rate has soared, partly because of the arrival of displaced New Orleans residents.

# posted by The Seditionist @ 2/01/2006 04:49:00 AM