SAN LEON — Gary Browning’s house always has been a work in progress. For more than 30 years, the Vietnam War veteran had been remodeling and expanding the two-story structure.
Even after Hurricane Ike pushed 6 feet of water through the lower floor where he was living as he was remodeling the top floor, Browning thought repairing the house was something he could tackle on his own.
Not any more.
Sheets of drywall are stacked in the corner, as are bundles of insulation. Browning was able to replace the roof on his own, using ropes and bungee cords and a system he devised that he admits had neighbors worried he was going to fall two stories and kill himself.
Sixteen months after the hurricane wrecked his 12th Street house and almost as many months living in a mobile home provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Browning and his sheep dog, Romeo, are feeling the pressure to find somewhere else to live.
His federal caseworkers suggest he is not making enough progress on his “permanent home solution,” which has become a common refrain from the agency to mobile home dwellers.
Browning wants to return home, but with no insurance and little money saved up, he can’t afford to pay someone to either make the necessary repairs or rebuild.
“Believe me, I want this to be over,” he said. “I really do.”
FEMA Pushes DHAP
Browning said when he asked his FEMA caseworkers where he can go to find help to rebuild, he only hears silence and is handed a list of rental properties that are part of the Disaster Housing Assistance Program that is managed by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency.
What he wasn’t told is that the county is operating a $99 million housing assistance program that is using federal dollars to rebuild or repair Ike-damaged homes.
He wasn’t told either about Galveston County Restore and Rebuild, a collaboration of social service and charitable organizations that already has rebuilt or repaired 154 homes damaged by the hurricane with plans to rebuild more than 200 this year.
It wasn’t until The Daily News told him about those organizations that Browning knew about the long-term help beyond the temporary assistance FEMA is offering.
“There is all this misdirection,” Browning said. “It’s not like you get all the information from FEMA.”
Browning isn’t alone.
Kathryn Williams and her family have been living in FEMA mobile homes on their property in Santa Fe since the storm, too. Williams said she has tried to get the agency to help pay for repairs to the two mobile homes where she, her daughter, Debra, and mother, Ethel, lived.
“All they tell us is move if we can’t repair the homes ourselves,” Williams said. “We don’t have the money, and I have called people asking for help, and no one can.”
Like Browning, Williams said the FEMA caseworkers only offer the list of rental properties. She, too, was unaware of the housing assistance programs and insisted FEMA never directed her or her family to other assistance.
Bureaucracy Gets In The Way
Agency spokesman Ray Perez said FEMA caseworkers do what they can to direct those residents of the mobile homes to other resources for help. However, sending people to outside organizations appears to be an option, rather than a requirement of the case workers.
“Besides the list of rental apartments, caseworkers can refer occupants to DHAP, Texas RISE for counseling services, volunteer community agencies for possible other needs assistance through Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and other organizations,” Perez said. “Occupants that have not reached the $28,800 cap on FEMA direct assistance also may receive two months of rental assistance.”
The problem in connecting people like Browning and the Williams family with assistance, though, may be more a symptom of a federal bureaucracy, Catholic Charities’ Harold Fattig, said. His organization is a key case management component of the Galveston County Restore and Rebuild organization and has taken a leadership role in recent months in helping prod better case management for Ike victims.
“We have been working and meeting with FEMA these past few weeks because we still have problems reaching these folks,” Fattig said. “The problem is working within the restraints (of the federal bureaucracy).
“It’s not a fast process, at least not as fast as we would like.”
Case Management Strike Teams
Much like the efforts of sending volunteer case workers out door-to-door in October and organizing a community meeting with officials from the county’s cities, social service agencies and even the postal service, Catholic Charities and others from within Galveston County Restore and Rebuild are forming strike teams to get to the residents of FEMA mobile homes.
They also are coordinating with the contractors managing the Ike housing assistance programs for the county and city of Galveston to make a better effort in reaching people who may not be aware that there is help out there.
Part of that effort is requesting the contact information for the county’s 435 FEMA mobile home residents. So far, FEMA has not delivered that information, Fattig said, but he was confident that as the agency works through its own red tape, help eventually will get to those who need it.
Until then, Browning — under Romeo’s supervision — will do what he can to make his home livable again.
“To FEMA this may not be progress, but to me it is,” he said. “It’s all I can do right now by myself. I’m at the point now where I have to throw up my hands and say, ‘I need help.’
“Until then, I just have to do what I can and hope that is enough.”
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Ike Housing Assistance Programs
County
CALL: 409-770-5441
Intake Centers
• Galveston County Courthouse, 722 Moody, in Galveston
• Bacliff Community Center, 4503 11th St., in Bacliff
• Galveston County Annex, 946 Noble Carl Road, in Crystal Beach
ONLINE: co.galveston.tx.us/housingdept/index.htm
City of Galveston
CALL: 409-797-3773
• Housing Assistance Center in Room 100 at City Hall, 823 25th St., in Galveston
ONLINE: galvestoncityrecovers.org
Galveston County Restore and Rebuild
CALL: 409-643-8260
