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Experts: Relocation brings major economic, cultural changes

By MICHELLE LOCKE
Associated Press Writer
9 September 2005

Reprinted in:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California knows the lash of nature's fury, from earthquake, fire and flood, so it's no surprise cities from San Francisco to San Diego rushed to offer shelter to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Official relocation plans were put on hold this week after federal officials said many survivors were reluctant to fly all the way to the West Coast. But hundreds of Katrina refugees have arrived anyway, emblematic of the piecemeal planning that has characterized disaster relief.

"The story of Katrina is a new plan every hour, and a new plan every hour equals no plan," said Jorja Leap, who has worked with refugee populations overseas and teaches in UCLA's Department of Social Welfare.

One planning problem is sticker shock as the relocated encounter the Golden State's platinum cost of living.

"We've kind of opened our arms unconditionally to refugees without, I'm sorry to say, thinking through the emotional and the economic impact on both populations," Leap said. "Everybody really does want to help. This is a wonderful response to have. But the question is, Where will we be six months down the line?"

Or in some cases, six days. San Diego businessman David Perez chartered a plane to fly in 79 people, saying the federal response was too slow. The survivors were being put up in the waterfront Hyatt hotel -- one of San Diego's most luxurious -- at the hotel's expense, until they were forced out Friday morning because the rooms were booked. The Red Cross then moved them to a less glamorous hotel nearby.

"We're winging it," said Michael Nacht, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. "Each day, new issues and challenges present themselves."

Despite word from FEMA Wednesday that no refugees would be sent far beyond the Gulf Coast states for now, California, Oregon and Washington were keeping their doors open. In California, 3,855 refugees have registered with FEMA, according to the agency's regional spokesman in Oakland, William L. Rukheyser. Of those, 3,465 are from Louisiana, 381 from Mississippi and nine are from Alabama.

In Southern California alone, an unofficial tally of hurricane evacuees provided by private agencies and centers averaged 2,500 people on Friday.

"It started Friday night as a trickle and by Monday we had an amazing deluge," said H.T. Linke, director of communications for American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles.

In terms of cost of living, bringing Katrina survivors to California seems ill-advised -- it costs about 54 percent more for two parents with one child to live in San Francisco than New Orleans, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think thank. In Los Angeles, it's 26 percent more.

San Francisco residents offering housing to storm refugees caution that one-bedroom apartments run $1,500 a month and gas in the city rose above $3 a gallon well before Katrina. Warned one Web posting offering temporary shelter: "San Francisco is a wonderful city to relocate to, but the cost of living is high and jobs aren't plentiful."

But bringing refugees to a city like San Francisco makes sense in other ways, said Arindrajit Dube, a research economist with Berkeley's Institute of Industrial Relations.

The area has wealthy residents who can be more generous, he said. Wages are higher -- San Francisco has a minimum wage of $8.62, 67 percent higher than the federal minimum of $5.15 -- and there's growth in restaurant and hospitality jobs of the kind worked by many low-income residents of tourist-dependent New Orleans.

In Los Angeles, refugees were being housed at the nonprofit Dream Center. Fund-raising supervisor Matthew Wheeler said the center is fully staffed with church volunteers and employees from federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration and FEMA, and that if its evacuees still need it after six months, the center would look into providing more long term housing.

"We've committed to helping them get back on their feet, whatever it takes," he said. "We're not going to say, 'Here you are, now you have to find an apartment and pay $1,400 a month.'"

But to get settled in sprawling LA, refugees were going to need transportation, which could be problematic.

"For these folks, cars are just essential," said Evelyn Blumenberg, an associate professor of public planning at UCLA who has studied the link between public transport and low-wage workers' job hunts.

Darren Fountain, 33, and fiancee Teaaka Burton, 28, are determined to make their futures in California. They were among the first to arrive at the Dream Center, along with Teakka's children, 6-year-old Terrica and 1-year-old Jarmal.

"We can do this," said Fountain. "We know it costs a lot to live here but that won't stop us from starting over. It's going to be a struggle anywhere we live."

Leap, who worked with refugees in Kosovo and Bosnia, suggested California needs a task force led by someone with red tape-cutting ability, a six- to 18-month plan -- and a budget.

"This is what I think of as the second loss, the second wounding," she said. "First there is this hurricane and this catastrophe and the crisis of being evacuated and then it's like, 'OK, where am I now?'"

 

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