Housing help extended for families displaced by Katrina, Rita

Monday, July 23, 2007

(7/23/07 - HOUSTON) -- Families that received federal housing assistance before getting displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will get extensions of up to nine months on their disaster benefits, government officials said Monday.

About 11,400 families have been part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Voucher Program, which was scheduled to end Sept. 30. About 3,500 of the families are in the Houston area.

"What happened two years ago had a devastating affect on people's lives," HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson told a group of Katrina evacuees at an apartment complex for seniors that still has 80 relocated families. "We can't change what God does, but we can make the best of it."

Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005, devastating a large swath of the Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coasts and flooding 80 percent of New Orleans. Rita hit southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas less than a month later.

At its peak, 30,700 families were using the Disaster Voucher Program to cover their housing costs.

On Jan. 1, 7,600 of the remaining families will go back to HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, which they were on before the storm. Under this program, participants get help paying their rent to a private landlord.

The remaining 3,800 families will stay in the Disaster Voucher Program, which helps pay rent to a private landlord or to a HUD run housing facility, until June 30.

Jackson said eligible families who haven't registered for the Disaster Voucher Program can do so until Sept. 1.

Sylvia Carriere Barrois, a 72-year-old New Orleans resident who relocated to Houston shortly after Katrina hit, said she welcomed HUD's extension of housing benefits.

"I am grateful for that because I would not be able to afford to stay where I'm living without the housing assistance," said Barrois, who lives in a senior housing apartment complex similar to the one where Jackson made his announcement Monday.

But Barrois said while she is grateful for all the help Houston has given her since Katrina hit, she still wishes to return to New Orleans, her home for 43 years.

Jackson also announced Monday that the Housing Authority of New Orleans has chosen the University of Texas at Arlington to survey all residents who lived in public housing before Katrina to determine if they want to return to Louisiana.

"I want you to know if you want to return, I will do everything I can to have you return," Jackson told the Katrina evacuees.

William Crosby, 78, a Katrina evacuee, said he doesn't want to return to New Orleans.

"This is my home now. There's nothing to go back to. I'm happy here," said Crosby, who is receiving HUD assistance that allows him to pay only $25 per month in rent.

Get more News »