Houston Pastor Knows There’s No Place Like Home

The Rev. Ronald S. Smith Sr., pastor of the New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, had a lot to smile about Wednesday: Through his efforts, a mother and son made homeless by Hurricane Katrina and separated ever since were reunited and no longer homeless.

Mother and son became separated in the panicky evacuation of the Superdome in New Orleans and had been searching for each other without success for two weeks. Carl Coleman, 14, had been living in a downtown Houston shelter. His mother, Deon Coleman, 40, had lived in the Astrodome until she became one of the growing number of evacuees helped by Smith and his congregation.

Smith tracked down the missing teenager, finding him enrolled in high school; his staff helped Coleman find an apartment.

Smith says he shares the goal of Houston officials who want to empty the Astrodome and other temporary shelters by finding permanent housing for all evacuees.

“I won’t rest until we can turn the lights off at the shelters because everybody has been taken care of,” he said.

From a Sept. 4 peak of 27,100 evacuees, the shelters’ population has dropped to 4,100 as housing is found throughout the city and its suburbs.

Officials would like to close the Astrodome and two adjacent shelters by this weekend, but it is unclear whether that will happen.

Like many evacuees, the Colemans qualify for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the aid will enable them to rent an apartment.

The Red Cross is also helping with rent subsidies, and many evacuees are having their eligibility for rent payments under the federal Section 8 housing program transferred to Houston from Louisiana.

Before Katrina, Houston had a glut of apartments; now many are being rented to evacuees. The Houston Apartment Assn. has teamed with the Housing Authority in the effort.

Churches have played a major role in helping evacuees with temporary shelter and more permanent housing. A coalition of ministers has called on members to find housing for evacuees.

The Colemans were the latest of several dozen evacuees that Smith and his church have placed in housing by working through FEMA, the Housing Authority and private contacts.

Staff members, volunteers and Smith’s family members are part of the push to find housing. “He keeps us going; it’s hard to keep up with him,” said Iris Nelson, 50, the pastor’s sister.

Without regard to race or religion, Smith has made it his duty to help as many evacuees as possible.

Dozens have been fed at the church and received new clothing; some have slept at the church.

For people who know Smith, 46, a Houston native and pastor at the 200-member church for five years, there was nothing surprising in his success at helping evacuees.

“Rev. Smith is a dynamo; he gets things done,” Curtis Thompson, a member of the Harris County constable’s office, said as he watched the reunion. “He’s a networker.”

Smith says he doesn’t think that anything happens as an accident.

“Katrina was part of God’s plan,” he said. “But God also had a plan for this church to be a bridge for the people who fled to Houston to a better life.”

Lillie Jackson, 64, a member of the congregation, has been cooking for the evacuees. She couldn’t resist Smith’s call for help. “He loves people and he reaches out,” she said.

Congregants have donated food, clothing and toiletries. Others have helped the sometimes-dazed evacuees deal with the Red Cross, FEMA and the Harris County Housing Authority.

The Coleman family benefited from the church’s commitment to help.

Trapped at the Superdome like thousands of others, Deon Coleman faced a horrible dilemma: get aboard a crowded bus bound for Houston with her 5-year-old son Chris, or stay behind, search for Carl and possibly be stranded.

She chose to board with the younger boy and had been searching for Carl since arriving at the Astrodome in the first wave of evacuees. Unbeknownst to his mother, Carl caught a ride with a New Orleans man who was helping numerous children escape and ended up at the downtown shelter.

His mother caught a break when she was among the dozens of evacuees that Smith scooped up at the Astrodome and took to his tiny church in Houston’s predominantly African American southeast side.

Stymied in trying to find Carl through official channels, Smith tried calling his considerable network of contacts in law enforcement, social services and the school district, everyone he could think of who might know something.

Smith found that Carl had been enrolled in school. Carl was in Spanish class when he got a message Wednesday that his mother was waiting in the principal’s office.

After they were reunited, Carl and his mother were afforded a mini-celebration at the church, where the marquee read: Welcome Home Carl Coleman.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” his mother asked as well-wishers pressed forward on the church lawn.

“I am now,” he replied.

Deon Coleman offered Smith her thanks Wednesday for helping her not be discouraged when she could not find her older son.

“It’s like family here,” she said. “These people gave me hope and faith.”

Word of Smith’s efforts on behalf of evacuees has spread. An Atlanta rap singer, joined by Miss Black Georgia, organized a drive that brought an 18-wheeler loaded with necessities to the church.

Smith unloaded some of the goods, then sent the truck to a Mississippi church that is helping evacuees from Biloxi and Gulfport.

“I couldn’t be one who just stood on the outside and watched,” Smith said. “Once we got involved, somehow, God provided us the resources we needed.”