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Berkeley Plans to Provide Aid To Hurricane Katrina Evacuees By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday September 13, 2005

As families from the Gulf Coast continue arriving in the Bay Area, Berkeley began mobilizing Friday to provide hurricane victims with homes and services. 

As of Thursday 122 families rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina have arrived at the Red Cross’ Oakland center, said Helen Knudson, a Red Cross worker at Berkeley’s relocation summit, on Friday. In total, 513 families have arrived in the six Bay Area counties as of Monday, said Joyce Perry, a Red Cross spokesperson.  

“Many have come to be with family members, but several of them don’t have support systems here,” she said. 

On Friday, Berkeley officials, affordable housing providers, local nonprofits and churches gathered to coordinate Berkeley’s response to additional evacuees coming to the East Bay. 

Whether Berkeley becomes a major base in the relocation effort remains uncertain. Last week, federal officials, citing that many hurricane victims saw California as too far from home, rejected California’s offer to host up to 1,000 of them. Over the next month, Bay Area officials are anticipating accepting pets hundreds of pets made homeless by Katrina. 

To help evacuees that come to Berkeley, the Rotary Club announced Friday that it is setting up a charitable trust for hurricane victims living in Berkeley. The group has raised $15,000 for the fund, said Rotary Club president Pate Thomson. 

Mayor Tom Bates said the fund would give the city the opportunity to take in hurricane victims without seeking aid from the major relief organizations. A $100-a-plate fundraiser to contribute to the Rotary fund and other hurricane relief efforts will be held at HS Lordship restaurant Sept. 25. 

So far the city has offered food and services only to the family of Shirley Thompson, who last week welcomed 13 family members into her North Berkeley home. But other hurricane victims are trickling into the city. Ursula Morris, 52, who grew up in Berkeley, returned on Thursday to stay with an aunt. “The bottom line is I need money and vouchers for clothes and food,” she said. 

Elsewhere, the school district enrolled three hurricane victims into Berkeley High last week, said District Spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

UC Berkeley has enrolled 138 students from the Gulf Coast, said Irene Hegarty, UC’s community relations director. She added that the university is searching for available studio or in-law apartments near campus to house the students for the semester. 

Steve Barton, Berkeley’s housing director, said that Berkeley has 40 Section 8 housing vouchers that could be used to shelter hurricane victims who intended to remain in Berkeley. Also, Susan Friedland, executive director of Affordable Housing Associates, said AHA had 10 units that could be made available to hurricane victims. 

Amy Dawson, executive director of Rebuilding Together, said the organization, which upgrades homes and community centers in low-income neighborhoods, was open to working with homeowners or affordable housing agencies to fix up rooms and apartment units to house hurricane victims. 

The city is still working out details on a team of city workers and nonprofit agencies to intake evacuees and set them up with services while they wait for federal relief funds. The YMCA is seen as a possible candidate to serve as an intake center. “Since we’re right downtown, we’re a natural location for that process to take place,” said Fran Galatti, who cautioned that plans for the intake center remained incomplete. 

Local church leaders said their parishioners would be open to housing evacuees, but that they were focusing charitable efforts toward victims still in the Gulf Coast. Rev. Marvis Peoples, pastor of Liberty Hill Baptist Church, said his congregation had raised money to help victims taking refuge in Lake Charles, LA. 

“We’re taking supplies to where the people are,” he said.