GALVESTON — Residents booted from hotels as their federal assistance ends will have trouble finding apartments and rental houses on the island.

Stuck in long lines to obtain permits, many Galveston landlords have been unable to repair buildings damaged when Hurricane Ike roared ashore Sept. 13, flooding 75 percent of the island, said Buzz Elton, of the Galveston County Apartment Association. Had the city fast-tracked permits for landlords, more rental units would be ready, Elton said. Instead, most of the island’s 12,000 vacant apartment units aren’t ready to accept tenants, he said.

Some landlords are still fighting with insurance agents and haven’t received the money to repair, said Rusty Legg, association president, and some who didn’t carry insurance won’t rebuild.

Only a few have started leasing again, and rent has skyrocketed.

Two-bedroom places cost, on average, $1,275 a month, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency database. Rent is as high as $3,000 a month for a one-bedroom condominium.

Of the more than 100 units listed on the database, fewer than half were cheap enough for a tenant paying only with the FEMA rental reimbursement, which was recently increased to accommodate rising rent costs.

Only a third were cheap enough to meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s limit for rental reimbursement to landlords. Most of those sustained some flooding.

Landlords say the spiking rent is the only way they can recoup more than six weeks of lost income and pay for repairs they paid for out-of-pocket, at times because they were underinsured.

Elton, who owns the Carlton Courtyard Apartments, said he applied for a $500,000 loan to pay for repairs of the $1 million in flood damage to the complex. He had a flood insurance policy worth only $140,000 on the complex, which was not in a flood zone. He owes a mortgage and taxes on the building, too, he said.

Despite the rising rent, there are long waiting lists for rental homes and apartments, Legg said. When places reopen, they are often snatched up that day.

While the federal government has agreed to continue paying for some residents to stay in hotels and motels until mid-January, the goal is to move them into rental homes and apartments. FEMA plans to review cases every two weeks to move residents into homes, said Barb Sturner, FEMA spokeswoman.

Two different FEMA programs — the rental assistance program and the Disaster Housing Assistance program — help displaced residents pay rent. The agency determines who is eligible.

Under the rental assistance program, FEMA gives residents whose homes can be fixed in a few months money to rent houses or apartments, Sturner said. Bigger families get more money to rent bigger places. A four-member family, for example, would likely get $1,443 a month to rent a three-bedroom home.

Under the Disaster Housing Assistance Program, HUD gives landlords money for renting to people whose homes might not be ready for a year or more. Residents get vouchers that landlords can agree to accept.

Rental property must pass a Galveston Housing Authority health and safety inspection before tenants can move in. Some residents may also move back into the island’s Section 8 homes, of which 85 percent are livable, said Harish Krishnarao, housing authority executive director.

Under the program, HUD will pay full rent until May, when residents will be responsible for $50 a month, increasing by $50 each month, until the program ends in February 2010. Waivers will be available to those who can’t afford to pay their part of the rent, Krishnarao said.

Three years after Katrina, there are still evacuees living on Disaster Housing Assistance Program subsidies.