Many readers were moved by a story in Sunday’s paper about some families in Kemah and Clear Lake Shores who face eviction. Their homes were wrecked by Hurricane Ike. They can’t afford to repair the damage and, in some cases, to elevate the houses, as required by code.
Some of these families are living inside their wrecked houses. Others are living in sheds on their property.
The conditions are deplorable, and the authorities of both Kemah and Clear Lake Shores said they must enforce their codes. The residents say they’d gladly make the required repairs — if they had the money.
People all across Galveston County should know a version of that story is coming soon to other communities.
In Galveston, for example, some people who would have been living in wrecked houses are living instead in mobile homes put up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Officials have made it clear those mobile homes must be gone by March.
The presumption was the federal money to repair and rebuild those houses would have arrived long before then. But people in those mobile homes haven’t seen that money. Officials said people in Galveston probably won’t be able to start repairs until January or February.
The county is not expecting to see its share of the housing funds until spring. That means people in unincorporated areas, such as Bolivar Peninsula, San Leon and Bacliff, probably will be able to start repairs in April, 19 months after the storm hit.
One of the most remarkable things about the federal and state response to Hurricane Ike has been the dual standard. The state and federal response has been far kinder to local governments than to homeowners. Some cities and school districts received federal money to repair infrastructure quickly. With home-owners, it’s been a different story.
