LEAGUE CITY — In between sobs, Darla Ford tells a story about falling between the cracks.
She lost her island rental house and all of her possessions in a fire during Hurricane Ike. She lived in her car when the Federal Emergency Management Agency initially denied her application for assistance because someone else had applied using her address.
She finally settled into a rental house in League City, only to find out she might soon be on the streets again because of a glitch in her paperwork.
“It’s so hard to go to bed at night wondering what’s going to happen to you in the morning,” she said. “It just feels like nobody cares about us.”
Ford, who has been living in a rental house on the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, is worried she soon will be evicted because the Galveston Housing Authority, which is administering the program, has not paid her rent in three months.
Some Galveston County residents who are enrolled in the program have received eviction notices from their landlords, who say they haven’t been paid the promised rent from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The agency is contracting with the Galveston Housing Authority to administer the program.
Of the 7,000 Galveston County families who qualify for federal housing assistance, 1,800 or 26 percent, have found houses and 74 percent have not.
Housing Assistance
It’s not clear how many residents have been evicted. When asked, Harish Krishnarao, executive director, did not provide a number.
Instead, he said all families who turned in their paperwork on time have, and will continue to have, their rent paid by the housing authority or FEMA.
But some paperwork has not been turned in on time and, therefore, some landlords haven’t been paid, said Christina Allen, who recently was hired by the housing authority to straighten out the mess.
The housing authority has hired more than 65 new staff members in recent weeks to help administer the federal program.
The Disaster Housing Assistance Program — called DHAP (pronounced DEE-hap) in the jargon of the bureaucracy — works this way: The Department of Housing and Urban Development provides to Galveston Housing Authority names of Galveston County residents who qualify for rental assistance until their homes are repaired.
The housing authority gives those residents vouchers to find apartments or rental houses. The landlord who accepts the voucher signs an arrangement.
The tenant is responsible for turning that agreement in to the housing authority, which in turn, uses its $81.7 million budget from HUD to pay landlords monthly rent.
Jacqueline Vallery, whose La Marque home was wrecked by a falling tree, said she never received the correct paperwork, and the housing authority has not paid her rent in three months.
“There were four papers missing out of the pack, and now my rent cannot get paid,” she said.
Her Houston landlord told her he planned to evict her, she said.
1,653 In Hotels
Landlords who haven’t received rent in two and three months are now evicting tenants or refusing to accept new tenants, making it difficult for those who qualify to find places to live.
Five months after the hurricane, at least 1,653 Galveston County families are still living in hotels, according to FEMA’s records. Some residents’ hotel assistance ended Saturday; others have been extended to March 13.
“Don’t nobody want to be stuck in these hotels anymore,” said Cynthia Boone, as she watched her grandchildren play at the edge of the concrete parking lot of Beachcomber Inn in Galveston.
But she said she had been turned away by at least 15 landlords who refuse to accept her voucher.
Many families have been unable to find landlords willing to accept the voucher because landlords have heard the housing authority is not paying rent on time, Allen said. Her job is to meet with landlords and fix that perception.
Buzz Elton, a landlord who has been a big proponent of the program, said the housing authority has missed rental payments for disaster housing assistance residents and for Section 8 residents living in his properties. Housing authority staff have not returned his property manager’s calls or e-mails seeking information on the missed payments, he said.
“It’s been a challenge and I’m not sure yet what’s going on,” he said.
Landlords Say ‘No’
Other landlords have turned residents away because they don’t have the income or the credit to be able to pay rent if, and when, federal assistance ends, Allen said.
That requirement has placed a hardship on the displaced tenants of Galveston’s four condemned public housing residents, many of whom have low incomes or are disabled.
“Once you say ‘DHAP,’ landlords say ‘no,’” said Deborah Wilson, who has been living in the EconoLodge for five months. Wilson, a former public housing tenant on disability, said she has been unable to meet landlords’ income requirements.
To combat the problem of missed rental payments because of paperwork problems, FEMA has been sending residents “bridge payments,” money to supplement rent until the Galveston Housing Authority resumes rental payments to landlords, Allen said.
“A lot of tenants have received bridge payments, but they’re not using them for rent,” she said.
‘You Have To Eat’
But some say they were unaware money was to be used for rent.
Ford said she used her $2,800 from FEMA to buy food and clothes to replace the wardrobe she lost in the fire.
“We were all told we didn’t have to pay the rent,” Ford said. “They give you money and tell you not to spend it, but what are you supposed to do? You have to eat.”
She couldn’t afford the rent anyway. When she lived in her rental house on Avenue N1/2, she paid $450 a month. The rental house where she stays in League City charges $1,200 a month.
Still, Ford said she wants to stay in League City where she has found a good education for her autistic son.
“He’s adjusted, and I don’t want to lose that,” she said. “There’s finally been a good moment in his life.”
