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Friday
November 20, 2009 Since 1922 |
About 1,000 dwellings ruined due to Ike
By Kari Griffin
Baytown Sun Published November 14, 2008 When the dust settled after Hurricane Ike, the city had 1054 fewer homes and apartment units.
Now, nine weeks after the storm, some residents are still wondering what’s become of their newly homeless neighbors.
City officials don’t have a headcount of all displaced citizens, or information on apartment dwellers’ whereabouts since the storm.
Without knowing for sure where displaced residents have gone, it’s hard to assess how dire the housing situation is in Baytown. What is clear is the city and FEMA have no plans for a group mobile home site in Baytown.
“Currently, FEMA has not identified a need for community sites in the City of Baytown,” FEMA’s Ericka Lopez said. “At this time, the City of Baytown has not requested a community site.”
City manager Garry Brumback confirmed that Baytown is not seeking to have a community mobile home site in Baytown.
So what’s happened to residents still unable to return home?
Many of them seem to have found housing elsewhere – at least for the time being.
“We have 871 apartments considered uninhabitable,” planning and development director Kelly Carpenter said.
Those units are all over the city, she said.
A sampling of local apartment complexes showed that in at least some cases, so few units were damaged that the people living in them could be relocated to other apartments on the property. Other apartments in hard-hit areas of town didn’t suffer enough damage for residents to have to leave and representatives from other Baytown apartments said they were actually taking in displaced Baytonians, though they were not sure which complexes new residents were coming from.
At least one complex is closed completely – a situation that’s not expected to change for at least six months. Those representatives are also unsure of where their residents have gone, though they know some have found places to stay and others are still searching.
No complexes or homes have been condemned as a result of Ike.
In addition to the 871 uninhabitable apartment units left behind by Ike, the city also listed 123 single-family homes as uninhabitable and 60, from the Lakewood, Southwest Addition and Roseland, as destroyed.
To assist these citizens while they try to rebuild, Baytown City Council wasted no time in passing an ordinance allowing mobile homes on uninhabitable property until the homeowners can make repairs and move back in.
Those utilizing this program can only do so for six months, with two opportunities for renewal – not to exceed 18 months. However, the city has said they won’t evict citizens making progress.
“We have six people who are living in trailers on their private property for now,” Carpenter said.
Lopez said 12 households on private sites in Baytown have requested manufactured housing from FEMA so far.
“Applicants requesting assistance for temporary housing will be given rental resources prior to utilizing manufactured housing,” Lopez said. “FEMA continues to search for rental properties within a reasonable driving distance and provides these resources.”
More than 700 families displace by Ike have moved into manufactured homes, according to FEMA.
The state requests that FEMA put families into temporary manufactured housing while their homes are being repaired when other housing options are not available.
Manufactured homes have been established in Orange, Jefferson, Chambers, Galveston counties and other affected areas. There are more than 600 mobile homes on private property throughout these counties, 540 in Orange, 43 in Jefferson, 39 in Chambers, and 29 in Galveston, as well as more than 700 on commercial properties.
The number of applicants moving into manufactured homes is climbing, according to FEMA, and adding the number of installed units to that in progress brings the total to of manufactured homes to more than 1,300.
Baytown Sun Published November 14, 2008 When the dust settled after Hurricane Ike, the city had 1054 fewer homes and apartment units.
Now, nine weeks after the storm, some residents are still wondering what’s become of their newly homeless neighbors.
City officials don’t have a headcount of all displaced citizens, or information on apartment dwellers’ whereabouts since the storm.
Without knowing for sure where displaced residents have gone, it’s hard to assess how dire the housing situation is in Baytown. What is clear is the city and FEMA have no plans for a group mobile home site in Baytown.
“Currently, FEMA has not identified a need for community sites in the City of Baytown,” FEMA’s Ericka Lopez said. “At this time, the City of Baytown has not requested a community site.”
City manager Garry Brumback confirmed that Baytown is not seeking to have a community mobile home site in Baytown.
So what’s happened to residents still unable to return home?
Many of them seem to have found housing elsewhere – at least for the time being.
“We have 871 apartments considered uninhabitable,” planning and development director Kelly Carpenter said.
Those units are all over the city, she said.
A sampling of local apartment complexes showed that in at least some cases, so few units were damaged that the people living in them could be relocated to other apartments on the property. Other apartments in hard-hit areas of town didn’t suffer enough damage for residents to have to leave and representatives from other Baytown apartments said they were actually taking in displaced Baytonians, though they were not sure which complexes new residents were coming from.
At least one complex is closed completely – a situation that’s not expected to change for at least six months. Those representatives are also unsure of where their residents have gone, though they know some have found places to stay and others are still searching.
No complexes or homes have been condemned as a result of Ike.
In addition to the 871 uninhabitable apartment units left behind by Ike, the city also listed 123 single-family homes as uninhabitable and 60, from the Lakewood, Southwest Addition and Roseland, as destroyed.
To assist these citizens while they try to rebuild, Baytown City Council wasted no time in passing an ordinance allowing mobile homes on uninhabitable property until the homeowners can make repairs and move back in.
Those utilizing this program can only do so for six months, with two opportunities for renewal – not to exceed 18 months. However, the city has said they won’t evict citizens making progress.
“We have six people who are living in trailers on their private property for now,” Carpenter said.
Lopez said 12 households on private sites in Baytown have requested manufactured housing from FEMA so far.
“Applicants requesting assistance for temporary housing will be given rental resources prior to utilizing manufactured housing,” Lopez said. “FEMA continues to search for rental properties within a reasonable driving distance and provides these resources.”
More than 700 families displace by Ike have moved into manufactured homes, according to FEMA.
The state requests that FEMA put families into temporary manufactured housing while their homes are being repaired when other housing options are not available.
Manufactured homes have been established in Orange, Jefferson, Chambers, Galveston counties and other affected areas. There are more than 600 mobile homes on private property throughout these counties, 540 in Orange, 43 in Jefferson, 39 in Chambers, and 29 in Galveston, as well as more than 700 on commercial properties.
The number of applicants moving into manufactured homes is climbing, according to FEMA, and adding the number of installed units to that in progress brings the total to of manufactured homes to more than 1,300.