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Below's an article about central Texas folks helping out the hurricane folks; including the group I visited yesterday (Katrina Help). As an aside, regarding the camp that is putting people up and taking them on fun local field trips too- it's a nice thought and all, but if it were me and I'd just been through all of that, the last place I'd want to visit would be a water park.
Central Texans offer their homes to victims
Austin group matches families and rooms.
By Melissa Ludwig
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 03, 2005
With the news that it may be months before victims of Hurricane Katrina can return to their homes, thousands of Central Texas families are offering spare rooms and other free housing to strangers displaced by the natural disaster.
Many of those families contacted the Red Cross, which set up a shelter for refugees in the Burger Center, and hit a brick wall. Relief workers say they are giving some referrals, but not coordinating efforts to match willing families with those in need of housing.
"Honestly, we don't even recommend that," Marty McKellips, a volunteer with the Red Cross, said of private housing arrangements. "There's plenty of shelter places in Austin. If people take people in, it's a wonderful, warm thing to do, but it's at their own risk, both for hosts and guests."
In response to the outpouring of offers, a large political activist organization and a tiny group in South Austin have stepped in to fill the niche and help homes and the homeless find each other.
In one day, families living within 500 miles of New Orleans have posted 63,000 free beds on hurricanehousing.org, a portal set up by MoveOn.org Civic Action, a nonprofit group.
More than a thousand families have also phoned Austin Katrina Help at (512) 440-7965, an informal operation launched by Austin Access TV producer Nick Papatonis to compile a database of free housing.
Working out of Papatonis' South Austin apartment as a volunteer call-taker, Mark Lyne said Katrina Help needs a organization such as the Red Cross to put their list to use.
"People are not going to be able to live in a shelter for three to six months," Lyne said. "The Red Cross has the list of people who need places to stay. We have this other list. We shouldn't be a society that for some bureaucratic reason or out of fear of some unknowable risk, prevents those two lists from coming together."
Lyne said he is working with Austin lawyer Charles Brown to formalize the process and possibly do background checks, but said arrangements are basically at the risk of both parties.
"Some people calling in have questions like 'How do we know that these people are safe?' " he said. "If you are very concerned about people not being safe, I recommend that you don't call."
Lyne said potential hosts are defining their own comfort zones. Many families with young daughters do not want teen boys, others won't take pets and one family only wanted Muslim refugees, he said.
Fear of the unknown didn't bother 34-year-old Leslie West, who took New Orleans taxi driver Barbara Brown into her Bastrop home along with Brown's two adult daughters and a niece.
"I did not hesitate one second," West said. "That's what neighbors are supposed to do."
Lyne said other callers to Katrina Help are offering rent-free apartments or retreats.
Rev. Charles Stark of the United Church of Christ opened the Slumber Falls Camp and Retreat Center in New Braunfels to accommodate nearly 30 members of a New Orleans family who had been staying with a family in Round Rock. The camp has a basketball court and commercial kitchen, and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort has provided passes for the evacuees, Stark said.
Monica James, 36, who is traveling with a group of 25 family members, called the Katrina Help number from the Extended Stay America on Interstate 35. The family had evacuated Sunday and was quickly running out of money, she said.
She got Lyne on the phone, and he got her in touch with an Austin business that wanted to adopt a family. The business offered to pay seven months rent and utilities for six units at the Willow Brook apartments in South Austin.
"I was in tears," James said. "It's a blessing just to get up on our feet."
On Friday afternoon, the James clan packed into the hotel lobby to meet with the complex's owner. Their sponsor, an Austin businessman who did not wish to be identified, showed up and quietly paid their hotel tabs while the family filled out apartment applications.
When James found out the rooms were paid, she burst into tears.
"Y'all, he paid for all our rooms," she announced. To her 12-year-old son she said, "This is the man who is taking care of us. This is your new Daddy."
mludwig@statesman.com; 246-0043
Central Texans offer their homes to victims
Austin group matches families and rooms.
By Melissa Ludwig
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 03, 2005
With the news that it may be months before victims of Hurricane Katrina can return to their homes, thousands of Central Texas families are offering spare rooms and other free housing to strangers displaced by the natural disaster.
Many of those families contacted the Red Cross, which set up a shelter for refugees in the Burger Center, and hit a brick wall. Relief workers say they are giving some referrals, but not coordinating efforts to match willing families with those in need of housing.
"Honestly, we don't even recommend that," Marty McKellips, a volunteer with the Red Cross, said of private housing arrangements. "There's plenty of shelter places in Austin. If people take people in, it's a wonderful, warm thing to do, but it's at their own risk, both for hosts and guests."
In response to the outpouring of offers, a large political activist organization and a tiny group in South Austin have stepped in to fill the niche and help homes and the homeless find each other.
In one day, families living within 500 miles of New Orleans have posted 63,000 free beds on hurricanehousing.org, a portal set up by MoveOn.org Civic Action, a nonprofit group.
More than a thousand families have also phoned Austin Katrina Help at (512) 440-7965, an informal operation launched by Austin Access TV producer Nick Papatonis to compile a database of free housing.
Working out of Papatonis' South Austin apartment as a volunteer call-taker, Mark Lyne said Katrina Help needs a organization such as the Red Cross to put their list to use.
"People are not going to be able to live in a shelter for three to six months," Lyne said. "The Red Cross has the list of people who need places to stay. We have this other list. We shouldn't be a society that for some bureaucratic reason or out of fear of some unknowable risk, prevents those two lists from coming together."
Lyne said he is working with Austin lawyer Charles Brown to formalize the process and possibly do background checks, but said arrangements are basically at the risk of both parties.
"Some people calling in have questions like 'How do we know that these people are safe?' " he said. "If you are very concerned about people not being safe, I recommend that you don't call."
Lyne said potential hosts are defining their own comfort zones. Many families with young daughters do not want teen boys, others won't take pets and one family only wanted Muslim refugees, he said.
Fear of the unknown didn't bother 34-year-old Leslie West, who took New Orleans taxi driver Barbara Brown into her Bastrop home along with Brown's two adult daughters and a niece.
"I did not hesitate one second," West said. "That's what neighbors are supposed to do."
Lyne said other callers to Katrina Help are offering rent-free apartments or retreats.
Rev. Charles Stark of the United Church of Christ opened the Slumber Falls Camp and Retreat Center in New Braunfels to accommodate nearly 30 members of a New Orleans family who had been staying with a family in Round Rock. The camp has a basketball court and commercial kitchen, and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort has provided passes for the evacuees, Stark said.
Monica James, 36, who is traveling with a group of 25 family members, called the Katrina Help number from the Extended Stay America on Interstate 35. The family had evacuated Sunday and was quickly running out of money, she said.
She got Lyne on the phone, and he got her in touch with an Austin business that wanted to adopt a family. The business offered to pay seven months rent and utilities for six units at the Willow Brook apartments in South Austin.
"I was in tears," James said. "It's a blessing just to get up on our feet."
On Friday afternoon, the James clan packed into the hotel lobby to meet with the complex's owner. Their sponsor, an Austin businessman who did not wish to be identified, showed up and quietly paid their hotel tabs while the family filled out apartment applications.
When James found out the rooms were paid, she burst into tears.
"Y'all, he paid for all our rooms," she announced. To her 12-year-old son she said, "This is the man who is taking care of us. This is your new Daddy."
mludwig@statesman.com; 246-0043
