Homes FEMA deemed habitable called unfit by Houston officials FEMA deemed these homes habitable

Labeling Katrina homes as livable makes owners ineligible for more aid, but officials here call structures unfit

A New Orleans house flattened but for a concrete staircase on a crumbling facade was among many storm-ravaged structures that federal officials deemed fit for occupancy by Katrina victims now living in Houston, Mayor Bill White said Friday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified about 8,900 heads of households in Houston, representing more than 20,000 Katrina evacuees, that they will be ineligible for the cash assistance intended to replace a massive city voucher program that has paid their rent.

A common reason was that the evacuees' former homes were now habitable.

A team from Houston's Hurricane Housing Task Force, however, conducted a spot check of 43 New Orleans homes deemed "habitable" by FEMA and found 70 percent unfit for occupancy, White said Friday after a briefing by the team.

"Some of our worst fears were realized," White said. "Many of these notices were simply in error. The vast majority of the structures we inspected were not habitable by any standard."

The Houston team found 13 homes habitable and 30 uninhabitable, White said.

The city released photographs showing apartments and houses, including the one with little standing but the stairway, in severe disrepair. One apartment building, surrounded by a chain link fence, had been condemned, White said.

The city did not release information linking individual evacuees to the houses pictured. But those individuals had been notified by FEMA that they would be ineligible for further aid, and the city confirmed that the aid was denied because structures were deemed habitable, officials said.

FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell said the agency could not immediately respond to White's comments because its senior officials were still discussing the issues he raised. On Thursday, Mancell had said the agency was reviewing the list of evacuees denied further aid to ensure that it was accurate.

White said that FEMA reversed a small number of ineligibility determinations after learning about the city team's New Orleans visit. FEMA could not confirm that on Friday.

White said a "reasonable deadline" for evacuees to be self-sufficient would be a year to 18 months from now, or about two years after the hurricane. "It shouldn't be forever," the mayor said.

FEMA's eligibility decisions illustrate a general problem with the federal government's response to Katrina, White said.

Letters informing evacuees that they had been deemed ineligible for further aid were confusing, White said, and city officials had to do considerable research to determine the reasons why evacuees had been denied.

"We think there ought to be an orderly process," White said. "(Evacuees) shouldn't be treated as code numbers on a spreadsheet."

FEMA is transitioning evacuees from the city's voucher program, which has provided free apartments for almost 35,000 evacuees, to its individual assistance program, which provides cash payments good for three months of rent.

Houston's voucher program and assistance by nonprofits has prompted expressions of gratitude from federal officials.

"All of us are keenly aware that Houston assumed a large share of responsibility for housing evacuees following Hurricane Katrina, a demonstration of civic initiative that will not soon be forgotten," FEMA's acting director, R. David Paulison, said in a letter to White on Monday. White said he had had a "productive conversation" with Paulison Thursday and was confident the latest problems could be resolved.

mike.snyder@chron.com