HOUSTON SHELTERS
'Reliant City' condensing housing into arena
GRB will still house about 900 waiting for homes
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
AT A GLANCE
• POST OFFICE:The U.S. Post Office will move from the Reliant Astrodome to the Reliant Arena Saturday.
• SCHOOL CHILDREN: School children attending HISD schools will board buses today at their regular bus stops. New school bus stops will be set up on Monday for students who moved to Reliant Arena.
• SOCIAL SECURITY: Social Security has moved its assistance center from the Reliant Astrodome to its Southeast District Office at 8989 Lakes at Loop 610. Shuttle bus service is available.
• VOLUNTEERS: More volunteers are urgently needed today; must be at least 18 years old and able to work a minimum of two hours. Report to Gate 4 off Naomi and Fannin; park in the Maroon 15 parking lot. Enter on the first floor of Hall 'A' at Reliant Arena for short orientation.
Hurricane Katrina evacuees at Reliant Park were moving their belongings Thursday into Reliant Arena as shelter officials continued the plan to get all residents into one building at the complex.
Shelter operators hope to move evacuees in Reliant Astrodome and Reliant Center to the arena by Sunday.
The consolidation plans do not call for moving evacuees from the George R. Brown Convention Center to the arena. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said evacuees will be able to stay in the arena as long as it is necessary.
"There's no deadline," he said Thursday. "At some point, the population will be small enough so that people can be moved to a smaller shelter or into housing."
By midday, the park sheltered 2,672 evacuees, while another 928 were still living at George R. Brown as they wait to be placed in permanent housing.
At its peak, 27,100 evacuees were sheltered at Reliant Park and George R. Brown on Sept. 4, according to the Harris County Joint Information Center. Also, evacuees are living in hotels and with relatives and friends.
Not going home
A poll released Thursday shows that fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters here say they will move back home, while two-thirds of those who want to relocate plan to settle permanently in the Houston area, the Washington Post reported.
Forty-three percent of the evacuees plan to return to New Orleans, according to a survey by the Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. But just as many — 44 percent — say they will settle somewhere else, while the remainder are unsure.
At Reliant Park, Metropolitan Transit Authority buses began transporting Astrodome evacuees at 9 a.m., but many people, including Elaine Allen, skipped long lines by using shopping carts to move their belongings to the arena.
"They told us yesterday we had to move," she said. "It is kind of an inconvenience, but hopefully my housing will come through soon."
About 316 "special needs" evacuees were relocated Wednesday.
Relocation plans
Officials planned to transport by bus all of the 779 remaining Astrodome evacuees by Thursday night and complete transporting Reliant Center evacuees today. Reliant Center evacuees were welcome to transport themselves on Thursday.
There was some initial confusion among evacuees and volunteers outside the arena, but once inside they were able to quickly settle into new cots.
"I can handle living like this," said Leonard Parker, 46, a former resident of the Magnolia housing projects in New Orleans.
As one of the first evacuees to relocate to the arena, he was able to find a spot near a large column where he could set his new portable DVD player.
"I've been on the streets before, and I lived most my life in the projects, so I just put this in God's hands," Parker said.
Coast Guard Lt. Joseph Leonard, incident commander at Reliant Park, said all evacuees, social services and operations will now be housed in the arena.
No preferential treatment
Deneen McKinney hopes the streamlined operation will make it easier for her family to find housing and Red Cross assistance.
"You have to walk for miles (inside Reliant Park), and when you get where you need to be, they tell you that you need to go back where you came from," said McKinney.
Some evacuees think that people who lived in Section 8 or public housing in New Orleans were unfairly placed in housing first.
"I'm not used to government handouts," said Catherine Jackson, 52, a former New Orleans school cafeteria worker. "I worked hard for what I have, so I should be able to get housing like everybody else."
Guy Rankin, director of the Harris County Housing Authority, said evacuees who had lived in Section 8 housing are not receiving preferential treatment.
Patricia Campbell, a regional spokeswoman for U.S. Housing and Urban Development, said some people who lived in Section 8 housing were able to get housing first because their Section 8 vouchers were quickly "portable" to Houston apartments.
Rankin said the housing-placement system is more convenient now.
"We did away with a lot of the paperwork," he said, adding that more than 5,000 people have been placed in housing units while another 8,300 units are available, but inspectors have to sign off on them first.
robert.crowe@chron.com
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