Most Katrina Evacuees in Houston Plan to Stay
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
More than two-thirds of the Hurricane Katrina evacuees who fled to Houston for shelter a year ago said they plan to remain here, according to a recent survey by researchers at Rice University.
The survey focused on mostly poor, African-American, unemployed and uneducated Katrina evacuees in Houston - a population estimated at 35,000 to 40,000 people - and was conducted in apartment complexes where evacuees live.
"When you compare the results of the first survey with those from the third round, it's clear that uncertainty about remaining in Houston has decreased among the group that we targeted," said principal investigator Rick Wilson, chair of political science at Rice.
Forty-six percent currently have no health insurance; given that 29 percent had no health insurance before Katrina, the researchers attributed the increase in uninsured to the rise in unemployment among the evacuees.
Between 50 and 57 percent of the evacuees said their lives are worse today than before Katrina in regard to finding a job, transportation, getting around Houston and access to friends and relatives.
The evacuees' ratings of the performance of elected officials and government agencies in responding to the hurricane and flooding and later in dealing with relocation and assistance suggest that they blame mostly the federal government for the outcome.
"Expectations may have been much higher for the performance of FEMA and the Red Cross after evacuees arrived in Houston," said Bob Stein, Rice professor of political science, who helped analyze the data.
The first wave focused on people who had recently arrived in shelters across Houston.
The second wave was conducted in hotels and apartment complexes as evacuees were in transit between the two types of housing.
The third wave focused on evacuees in apartment complexes almost a year after the evacuees had settled into Houston.
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