Left In Lowell

Mass Group Forming to Help with Housing for Victims

by Lynne at 12:33 pm.

We are meeting tomorrow in ~~South Boston~~ SOUTH END (sorry, not a Boston native, I hope no on was confused) at 3pm to talk about long-term housing solutions for Katrina victims and bringing some of them to the northeast. A lot of people have mentioned to me over the last couple days that no one will want to come up here - it’s too far, people won’t want to leave the area where they’ve lived. I disagree. There’s at least - at least - 500,000 people left homeless. Probably more. Some will not be going back to their homes for months, if even then. New Orleans won’t even be drained, they estimate, for up to 80 days, and that’s not even close to what is needed to rebuild the city for habitation, as the city’s infrastructure is so damaged and the water spread toxins across the flooded areas and will need to be dealt with. Many were living in poverty to begin with, and so own nothing and have no home to be reimbursed for.

Houston, TX has so generously opened so many facilities. Clean and safe and dry they are, but severely crowded. Kids need to find schools, parents need to find work - cuz if you think FEMA’s going to have its act together soon, think again (please prove me wrong!) - and there’s no way Houston and other southern cities will be able to absorb so huge a population alone. Us states further out should take on some of that burden, so it is spread more evenly.

Our preliminary plan is to get donations enough to pay for buses to bring willing survivors, and find housing (offered beds and maybe even hotels and apts) for them up here (in the whole northeast). We plan to contact churches, businesses, and individuals across the state and even New England, and then to continue to support these people and their host families with a continuing stream of donations of food, goods, and money. We think that gathering people together to do this is much more efficient than all of us contributing alone - so if you hear of other groups trying to do something similar, put them in contact with us because I think we should all coordinate on some level.

We do plan on making sure we are a help and not a hindrance, so we’ll be talking to the Red Cross and FEMA and other groups to be sure we are not in the way.

If you want to join us, there’s several ways to help: first, you can get on the mailing list I’ve set up. Click here and put your info into the section for subscription.

Second, if you can make the meeting tomorrow, it will be at the Technology Center at 359 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA (map here) at 3pm tomorrow, Sunday, Sept 4th. [Update: nearest T stop, Back Bay on the Orange line.]

Third, once we have details and are underway, we need as many contacts into businesses and communities we can get, as well as individual donations, to get this off the ground. I’m hoping we can also blogswarm this - I’m calling on my colleagues to help me get the word out.

We have the resources of a prosperous region and many smart people to bring to bear on this problem - let’s do it together.

[Filed under Relief Work] [link]

6 Responses to “Mass Group Forming to Help with Housing for Victims”

Blue Mass. Group Says:
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Left in Lowell: a local response

Link:We are meeting tomorrow in South Boston at 3pm to talk about long-term housing solutions for Katrina victims and bringing some of them to the northeast. …We plan to contact churches, businesses, and individuals across the state and even New
Lis Riba Says:
September 3rd, 2005 at 5:00 pm
A lot of people have mentioned to me over the last couple days that no one will want to come up here - it’s too far

Over on the WWLTV Blog I see reports that Arizona and Minnesota will be housing refugees.
Planted in Medford Says:
September 4th, 2005 at 12:13 am
2000 hurricane refugees may be transported to Boston for short term housing. It makes sense to begin thinking about how to help those who may decide to make a new life here.

See today’s Boston Globe article at http://tinyurl.com/bnbkp
—–
September 3, 2005
BOSTON –The state is making plans to shelter up to 2,000 people from areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in anticipation that refugees will be sent to Massachusetts.
Federal authorities have asked Gov. Mitt Romney to prepare to provide help, including letting them know how many people Massachusetts would be able to take, said Julie Teer, a Romney spokeswoman.
“It seems we can accommodate about 2,000 people,” Teer said. “Once we draw up a plan on how we will do it, then we’ll let the federal government know. We anticipate that we will temporarily provide shelter for these victims.”
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said Saturday that he would provide the convention center in South Boston as temporary housing for the refugees, should the city be asked to help…
Lynne Says:
September 4th, 2005 at 12:17 am
Looks like we should contact the state government once we know more, to offer to take those people into homes where they will be more comfortable (god, imagine living in the convention center for like, a month).
Lynne Says:
September 4th, 2005 at 12:17 am
BTW thanks for the heads up and info, all.
Lori Bonatakis Says:
September 4th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
From a conversation this morning with someone also working on putting together options for those of us in MA to help, the Red Cross does not recommend bringing people into homes. I have already offered my home to a family on three different sites. To some extent, I can understand that housing victims can make tracking more difficult and that it can be difficult for already traumatized people to move in with strangers. I can understand if there are other options, which seem to be lacking on a national scale. I wish I could be at your meeting, but I’m in Western MA. Please keep me up to date on your efforts. I live around the corner from Bay Path College, and I will offer to be an extended dorm for them if they get any displaced students.

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September 3, 2005

Mass Group Forming to Help with Housing for Victims

6 Responses to “Mass Group Forming to Help with Housing for Victims”

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