FEMA hotel stays end for 1,400 of Harvey’s victims

Renters complain of short notice, wonder where to go as city agency awaits referrals

Nearly 1,400 Texans displaced by Hurricane Harvey were told to check out of their FEMAfunded hotels by Tuesday after the agency concluded the housing market in five counties had enough apartments available for flood victims who had been renting when the storm hit.

In Harris County, 1,178 people were asked to check out Tuesday, as were 56 people in Brazoria County, 35 in Montgomery County, 33 in Nueces County near Corpus Christi, and 16 in Fort Bend County, FEMA spokesman Tobe Nguyen said.

Houston-area homeowners whose houses flooded during the storm are eligible to extend their hotel stays through May 31.

“If you happen to be living in a county that does have the resources for rental, then we would prefer you to stop renting because the hotel assistance is just a short-term, interim assistance,” Nguyen said. “Houston is starting to rebuild, so there are other resources, apartments and rentals that are available, so that’s why they should be moving forward to go back and rent.”

The agency began calling those in the hotel program to inform them of the new deadlines last Thursday, according to a FEMA release.

“This tight deadline for people is a real problem, especially for low-income people,” said Zoe Middleton, spokeswoman for the nonprofit advocacy group Texas Housers. “It’s enormously stressful for people that are already in a stressful situation, and when there’s no affordable housing supply for people to go to. Once their hotel voucher is terminated, people are really up in the air.”

Alisa Anthony was worried when she got a text from FEMA telling her she would have to check out of La Mirage Motel on Homestead — her home since September, after her unit in Houston Gardens flooded — by Tuesday.

The 49-year-old was even more concerned when the motel manager showed up at her door at 10:30 a.m. Friday and told her she had to be out in half an hour. When she called FEMA, Anthony said, a representative confirmed the deadline.

“No reason, no explanation, nothing. I had nowhere to go,” Anthony said, who said the stress wrought by the storm has made her depressed.

“We had to borrow money to stay one more night so that we could pack and get all our stuff together.”

Anthony and her fiance, Malberth Moses, unable to work or cook their meals, burned through the savings they would have needed to make a deposit on a new apartment, and now are staying at Moses’ 94-year-old mother’s home, which also flooded during Harvey.

Moses, a carpenter who lost his car and tools in the storm, is concerned the home has developed structural problems.

“Nobody should get no notice or 30 minutes’ notice,” said FEMA spokesman Kurt Pickering, adding that privacy laws prevent him from discussing any individual’s case. “That’s not how the system is set up to work.”

Houston Housing Director Tom McCasland said he had asked FEMA officials to coordinate with him as the hotel transition deadline approached but had received no communication on the issue.

“We are ready to be good partners on the ground in terms of identifying how people move on to the next phase of their recovery,” he said.

Pickering said late Tuesday he did not know when Houston officials were notified, but noted that the agency issued a press advisory on the hotel program last Thursday.

More broadly, McCasland said, he is concerned FEMA has not qualified enough storm victims for the short-term housing programs that exist partly to help people transition out of hotels or other stopgap housing situations.

FEMA is responsible for determining residents’ eligibility for its programs, and then forwards chosen applicants to state and then city officials.

As of Tuesday, McCasland said, 468 families had been deemed eligible for so-called “direct” housing programs. Of those, he was aware of only 108 who had been in FEMA-funded hotels.

“Our numbers simply don’t reflect what we’re seeing in terms of the need out there,” he said. “We’d like to be serving a lot more people. Right now, we simply are not getting the referrals from FEMA.”

Pickering said direct housing programs — which also are stopgap measures, she noted — are only a small part of the assistance FEMA offers, stressing that tens of thousands of households in the region have gotten other forms of support.

“The intent is to get them back into a long-term housing situation as quickly as possible, whether that’s a different residence or getting back into their existing residence,” Pickering said. “If you’re not making progress toward doing that, that’s one of the things that can make you ineligible. Another one is if you’re in a county that has adequate rental property available you should be getting into a rental property.”

About 2,300 households remain in FEMA-funded rooms at 624 hotels throughout Texas, Nguyen said.

Anthony and Moses are not among them. The couple now is seeking help from local nonprofits.

“If I just get a foot step up, I can take it from there. But I’m still down on my knees,” said Moses, 60. “I’m hoping I can find one of these organizations somewhere that will give us a helping hand.”

mike.morris@chron.com twitter.com/mmorris011