The Katrina-Displaced Come Up Hard Against Housing Deadline

Karen Miller and her husband, left homeless when Hurricane Katrina ravaged their Louisiana home, are not looking forward to Mardi Gras on Feb. 28.

It’s the day their FEMA emergency rent money runs out and their continued stay in Orange County -- 1,900 miles from home -- becomes a big question mark.

“Come March 1, who knows where my husband and I will be,” Miller, 46, said in the lobby of Extended Stay America in Anaheim.

The answer may be at the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, in barracks being renovated as a $25-million social service center and homeless shelter for the Orange County Rescue Mission. Although the complex is not expected to be fully operational until summer, the rescue mission is rushing to find space for Katrina evacuees.

“We’ve had delays because of construction and red tape, but we’re hoping to open one portion of the barracks that can house about 50 families by mid-March,” said mission President Jim Palmer. Once finished, the Village of Hope complex will have about 200 beds for the homeless.

After Katrina evacuees trickled into Southern California last September, the rescue mission, Red Cross and other agencies formed OperationOC, a nonprofit umbrella group for Katrina aid.

About $500,000 in donations helped feed and clothe about 1,000 evacuees who came to Orange County. Nearly half remain; many have returned home or moved out of the county, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman said.

Meanwhile, help in the form of entertainment is on the way, with a Mardi Gras-style fundraiser for evacuees; next Monday a blues band will play at Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa. On the weekend, a portion of sales at Crescent City restaurant in Tustin will be donated to the Red Cross.

Of the estimated 1.5 million people displaced by Katrina, about three-fourths stayed within 250 miles of New Orleans.

At its peak, about 17,000 evacuees came to California, said the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

The number of evacuees in Southern California has dwindled, but scheduling will be tight for those remaining because of the two-week gap in housing availability. According to FEMA, 10,792 had registered as Katrina evacuees in Southern California, including 436 in Orange County. Eighty-four still receive hotel assistance in Southern California, including nine in Orange County, said James Shebl, a FEMA spokesman in Oakland.

Once hotel assistance ends, evacuees will be eligible for long-term temporary housing, in the form of trailers, condominiums or manufactured housing in Louisiana, he said.

OperationOC is assisting about 300 evacuees, including 25 who will receive job training and subsidized housing for a year, said Jessica Mitchell, OperationOC coordinator.

At one point, Orange County led the state in the number of evacuees enrolled in public schools. But updated figures show Orange County with 35 schoolchildren; 306 are in Los Angeles County schools.

Evacuees in Orange County say they are grateful for help but that they are losing patience with FEMA.

Lynn Claverie, 50, from New Orleans, fled to Orange County a day before the storm and is living with a sister in Villa Park. During a return trip to Louisiana, she was contacted by FEMA and was offered a trailer, she said.

“I said, ‘Where am I going to put it? There’s still no electricity in my old neighborhood.’ I think I’m going to get a place of my own and stay in California,” she said.

The Millers say they’ll continue to take life day by day and try to stay positive.

With no car, they have relied on friends for transportation and financial help since they arrived in Southern California in September. They left Slidell, a city of 30,000 about 18 miles north of New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, by bus several days before the storm.

“We’ve become experts in FEMA 101,” said George Miller, 59, a former fundraiser for law enforcement in Louisiana. “After being on the phone with FEMA for hours at a time, the thing you learn is their favorite phrase: ‘It’s under review. Be patient.’ ”

The couple have qualified to get a trailer and have made arrangements to put it on the property of a family friend in Mississippi, where they eventually plan to live.

But working through FEMA to make it happen has been a nightmare and a waste of federal money to house them all this time, says George Miller. From his hotel room, he said, he has had to find a site for the trailer, get a sewer hookup and have the site inspected by local officials. In addition, he had to send proof of all that to FEMA.

“It would have been cheaper to just get us bus tickets and a trailer and let us go back home,” he said. “This is crazy.”

Shebl, the FEMA spokesman, said he had compassion for them. Complying with paperwork requirements is essential to make sure the federal government is not cheated, he said. “It makes it difficult for evacuees, and I know it’s heartbreaking.”