HOUSTON -- About 11, 400 families still getting federal housing help due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will continue getting the aid through June of 2008. Details were announced Monday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Katrina hit the Gulf coast in August of 2005, sending several hundred thousand Louisiana evacuees to Texas. Rita slammed southeast Texas the following month.

The federal aid is part of HUD’s Disaster Voucher Program. The assistance was scheduled to end September 30th.

The help is going to families who were receiving federal public housing aid before the hurricanes.In the Houston area, about 3,500 families are receiving such aid.

HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson visited Katrina evacuees at a senior housing apartment complex in Houston, where about 80 relocated families are living.

Also, Jackson announced the Housing Authority of New Orleans has chosen the University of Texas at Arlington to survey all residents who lived in public housing before Katrina.

They’ll be asked if they want to return to Louisiana, and if so Jackson says he’ll do everything he can to help them to that.