Case managers charged with finding and helping Hurricane Ike victims are stepping up their outreach efforts.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, which has received federal dollars to help hurricane victims find help, has launched a door-to-door campaign to find “those hidden cases,” such as Manuel Chavez Jr., of Kemah, and Mark Holland, of Clear Lake Shores, who risk losing their homes if they don’t repair them soon.
“We know there are people who need help, we just don’t know where they are,” Harold Fattig, of Catholic Charities, said.
Catholic Charities is among a handful of area charitable organizations that received funding from Recovery for Ike Survivors Enterprise, called RISE, to pay case managers to canvass the county and find people who need help.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave RISE, operated by Lutheran Social Services, $24.3 million to hire case managers from local organizations, including 40 in Galveston County. The case management program is a first for FEMA.
However, Galveston County case managers have had trouble finding help for hurricane victims. They’ve also been criticized for taking too long to contact clients who’ve asked for help.
“What we know is there is a terrible need for outreach,” Liz White, executive director of Mainland Communities United Way, said. “There (are) plenty of people falling through the cracks.”
Part of the problem is organizations such as Galveston County Restore and Rebuild, a collaborative of area social service and faith-based agencies, assumed FEMA’s disaster assistance intake lists would be used to find people who needed help, Fattig said. That list was full of phone numbers that were wrong or had been disconnected, proving little help to outreach workers, Fattig said.
“These people have been beating their heads against the wall” because they have been turned down or received little assistance from FEMA, Fattig said.
Some hurricane victims are having trouble finding information about help, he said.
“They went through a tedious FEMA process they didn’t understand and they have resolved to take what they got and just try to survive in the environment they are in when there is help out there,” he said.
The organization hopes to find more hurricane victims, and spread the word about how to find help, through its door-knocking campaign, Fattig said.
Catholic Charities case managers already have contacted Chavez and Holland. Both men said they are grateful for the help.
Fattig also found a brother and sister, ages 89 and 90, living in a wrecked house in Clear Lake Shores.
“They were in squalor,” he said.
Using his personal credit card, Fattig checked the brother and sister into a hotel room until the charitable organization can find them a more permanent place to live, he said.
Case managers from area charitable organizations will meet at noon Oct. 26 with city and county officials, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, code enforcement officers and postmasters to provide them with information about help that is available for hurricane victims.
The case managers will provide these first responders and civil service employees with information about how to contact RISE, Galveston County Restore and Rebuild and other charitable organizations to find help for those who need it.
Billy Graff of University Baptist Church, which has been rebuilding houses for hurricane victims, said the new effort is long overdue.
“The system is broken before it starts,” he said. “I don’t believe some of the stuff we are working with is as complicated as we make it to be. We need to flood the streets with people.”
