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City Working To Catch Up On Evacuees' Rent


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Dec. 28, 2005, 10:28PM

City working to catch up on evacuees' rent

Backlog delays $7.2 million for property owners

By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Overwhelming participation in Houston's housing voucher program for hurricane evacuees has left the city late paying millions of dollars in rent to property owners.

As of last Friday, the city still had not paid nearly 2,000 invoices, amounting to $7.2 million.

But city officials, who issued a letter to property owners last week apologizing for the backlog, say they are working overtime to get the bills paid and plan to be caught up by Monday.

"The way I would describe it is brute force," said John Walsh, deputy chief of staff for neighborhoods and housing for Mayor Bill White. "We just threw more people at the process."

Walsh said the city expanded its invoice payment staff and extended the hours of its service center to catch up. He said the city is now processing 400 to 500 invoices a day.

Acknowledging that the program had "start-up problems and had trouble paying invoices in a timely manner," Walsh said officials have made "major progress" and should be fully automated within a couple of weeks.

"By mid-January we should have all of this online and at that point I will be in a position to tell you we are in good shape," Walsh said.

The city has paid $14.8 million for invoices received through Nov. 22, and is now processing invoices received Nov. 23 through Dec. 12.

Many property owners are pleased that, at least, the system now seems to be working efficiently, said Larry Hill, president of the Houston Apartment Association.

"It was horrible at first," Hill said, but "to the best of my knowledge most people are up to date."

According to the letter addressed to property owners, which appears on the city's Joint Hurricane Housing Task Force Web site, "Our staff made sure that each contract was valid and had all of the required documentation by FEMA, which will not reimburse the City otherwise."

The city also is still trying to determine at least 25 property owners' whereabouts or addresses and has asked other property owners to help locate them.

Sharon Livingston has rented a home to a New Orleans woman for the past three months and has not received a single payment from the city, although she signed up for the program in October. After weeks of calling the Housing Invoice Help Line and getting no solid answers on why there was a holdup, she called the mayor's office.

"Bottom line is they didn't know where my information was," said Livingston, who was asked to re-fax all of her invoices to the city.

She said she doesn't blame her tenant for the problems and is not planning to evict her.

"Would I put the young lady and her child out? I would never do that," said Livingston.

"I blame the city and their disorganization and for them not explaining upfront that this is what you could possibly go through. If I had been told it would take two or three months to get in the system to get paid I wouldn't have gone through it."

Although she feels more confident about the process now, Livingston said she isn't sure she would go through it again.

"That was money I had been waiting on. I had spent $6,000 repairing (the house) and was hoping to rent and start getting my money back," she said. "I definitely think that by the end of January I should have some money. I am giving them that long."

Hill said that if the city is "a couple of weeks or so behind, that's not awful." There is a problem, though, if landlords have not been paid from September or October, he said.

In defense of the city, getting the payment process up and running was a "massive undertaking," Hill said.

"It's possible that there were some paperwork errors because there were changes in the contracts," he said.

Walsh said the major challenge has been the unexpected number of people who signed up for the program.

"When we started this in September we estimated we would do 10,000 units," he said. "By the first of October we said it would be 15,000 units. By early November it was more like 30,000 units. We've been having to adjust to a much bigger volume than we ever dreamed we would have to do."

cynthia.garza@chron.com

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From my examination of this article I have come to the conclusion that we really shouldn't be the one's doing this. I believe the most effecient organization of government possible would see FEMA paying for the evacuees rents, not the city. Local city governments are designed for localized government issues and this does not fall within our function as a city especially as many evacuees are in areas outside the city. FEMA's responsibilities were designed for handling evacuees and their situations as they rebuild their lives, not localized city governments.

Right now FEMA is scheduled to begin handling the overtime pay for our police officers who are forced to take on more duties due to the higher police to person ratio in Houston. It seems to me that in most situations that a population influx comes to a city there is more tax base which comes with them so that extra city services can be provided. However that is not the case in Houston as these evacuees are living on welfare and still trying to get their jobs.

The entire situation needs to reverse, FEMA needs to pay their rent and Houston needs to pay for police overtime. I think that's a fair trade.

Also, we need a local FEMA branch, I don't care if it's southeast Texas or Houston (preferably Houston) because right now FEMA in Texas is split between dealing with Houston's population influx/evacuee shelter problems and the fires in north Texas.

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  • 1 year later...
From my examination of this article I have come to the conclusion that we really shouldn't be the one's doing this. I believe the most effecient organization of government possible would see FEMA paying for the evacuees rents, not the city. Local city governments are designed for localized government issues and this does not fall within our function as a city especially as many evacuees are in areas outside the city. FEMA's responsibilities were designed for handling evacuees and their situations as they rebuild their lives, not localized city governments.

Right now FEMA is scheduled to begin handling the overtime pay for our police officers who are forced to take on more duties due to the higher police to person ratio in Houston. It seems to me that in most situations that a population influx comes to a city there is more tax base which comes with them so that extra city services can be provided. However that is not the case in Houston as these evacuees are living on welfare and still trying to get their jobs.

The entire situation needs to reverse, FEMA needs to pay their rent and Houston needs to pay for police overtime. I think that's a fair trade.

Also, we need a local FEMA branch, I don't care if it's southeast Texas or Houston (preferably Houston) because right now FEMA in Texas is split between dealing with Houston's population influx/evacuee shelter problems and the fires in north Texas.

All true,

Not to stray from the subject but I have been told by just about every person that has the same concern say that the reason we are seeing so many apartments and motels burn down is because of disgruntled tenants getting the boot. Being kicked out not just for back rent but because of how the apts have been wrecked and the crime that has resulted. No matter how desperate I get I will never step into any Motel 6 or Dayds Inn in Houston for years. Unless the whole place has been gutted and replaced new sheetrock/beds, etc. So for now it's burn, baby burn! "Won't Leave the light on"

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The sense of entitlement exhibited by some evacuees is shocking. Why are taxpayers still having to foot the bill for Katrina nearly 1 1/2 after the storm? It's over, get on with life. The only further expenditures by Houston taxpayers should be to purchase 1 way bus tickets (presumably back to N.O.) for evacuees who aren't gainfully employed and continue to be a burden.

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