Hotels into housing; 1,145 households still in FEMA hotel sheltering program areawide

Published 9:17 am Thursday, February 22, 2018

The Southeast Texas area is recovering six months after Tropical Storm Harvey but there are still displaced residents living in hotels.

As of Tuesday there were 1,415 households in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program from Jefferson, Hardin and Orange counties, according to information from FEMA.

Jefferson County had, by far, the highest amount of the three counties with 986 households. Orange County had 372 households in the program and Hardin County had 57.

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Tens of thousands of households have already transitioned out of FEMA’s TSA program and recovery officials are working to assist those still remaining as they move forward toward more permanent housing before the program eventually ends, according to a press release from FEMA.

The TSA program has provided interim lodging to more than 54,000 households statewide. As of Tuesday, 8,661 households remain in the program with “hundreds of families checking out of hotels every week.”

“The program is working as it should,” Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin Hannes said. “It is temporary in nature. We know the end goal for survivors is to move back into their repaired or rebuilt homes and for renters to find new rental accommodations.”

The TSA program has been extended four times; the latest extension was through March 12.

Six-month statewide figures show $549 million has been spent in the disaster supplemental nutritional assistance program, $13.9 million spent on disaster crisis counseling, 1,165 requests for public assistance and a total of 11.9 million cubic yards of storm debris picked up.