Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Low functioning look for home

NY Times:

The first complex Robert Evans saw had no four-bedroom apartments, and the next had a four-week waiting list. Though he had a voucher good for a year's free rent, the Boardwalk Apartment Homes - where "quiet elegance awaits you," according to a sign - would not accept it.

"I don't even know where I go from here," said Mr. Evans, 29, as he pulled out of another "Future Resident Parking" spot in this unfamiliar city that is to become home for him, his fiancée and five children. "I guess I can just ride until I see apartment complexes on the street."

Nearly two months after Hurricane Katrina's mass migration, hundreds of thousands of people seeking long-term housing are learning the hard way that resettlement is not as simple as rental assistance. The Federal Management Emergency Agency provides families $2,358 intended to cover three months' rent, but has done virtually nothing to help them actually find permanent housing amid a dwindling supply of low-rent apartments in adopted hometowns across the South.

As a result, many of those struggling to escape emergency shelters and hotel rooms face a patchwork of disparate local programs. Depending on where they landed after the storm, evacuees may encounter useful city agencies readily handing out vouchers and advice, private aid groups of volunteers scrambling to keep up with demand, or little organized assistance whatsoever.

Houston has the most ambitious and generous program. It has already handed out nearly 30,000 yearlong vouchers and expects the housing tab to top $175 million, which it is counting on FEMA to cover. Atlanta, the second capital of the hurricane diaspora, is at the other end of the spectrum. The city simply gave $400,000 to a local homeless-services group, asking it to find housing for 50 families for six months.

James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman, said the agency had no role in this crucial next step in resettlement, except reviewing local expenses for eventual reimbursement. "We present the cities with emergency declarations and let them manage things their way," he said.

In Jackson, Miss., the city has hired two caseworkers to connect evacuees with housing, and the state has a Web site for landlords to post vacancies, but there is no financial help beyond FEMA's subsidy. In Birmingham, Ala., 150 churches calling themselves the "army of compassion" have acted as real estate agents. In Pensacola, Fla., Hurricane Katrina evacuees have to wait in line behind hundreds of survivors of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 who are still living in trailers.

At some point people have to take responsibility for finding themselves a place to live. While looking for an apartment can be time consuming and frustrating, it is not something that should require hand holding, particulary when you have a voucher covering your first years rent. Those people are way ahead of the typical renter who is trying to come up with a deposit and his first months rent. When you see stories like this, it is easy to understand why many of these people were poor. If you can't find an apartment by your self you lack basic coping skills for ordinary life.