c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Right now in the Gulf Coast region, hundreds of thousands of Americans are feeling the effects of trauma from being driven from home by the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina. At best, they feel a strong sense of displacement, as the familiarity and comfort of home are just a memory. Their experience will be tragically compounded if we do not assist their relocation as soon as possible. If they continue to live in shelters and sport stadiums alongside thousands of other people, their feeling of insecurity and abandonment will only increase.

We could not prevent the trauma of the hurricane. We must prevent the worsening of its aftermath.

Until their homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama can be restored, evacuees should be given the option to relocate to other areas of the country, where they can begin life anew with housing, basic needs support and a job. The United States has the infrastructure to provide this option through a large network of nonprofit organizations that offer resettlement services to refugees from abroad. We’ve done this for strangers coming to our shores. We should do no less for our fellow citizens.

The displaced from Katrina are not “refugees,” as commonly understood and defined in international law, of course. However, the resettlement model used for refugees to this country can be easily adapted to them. Since 1975, more than 2 million persons have been assisted using this model, with great success.

Under the process, evacuees would be screened to assess their short- and long-term needs and placed in welcoming communities around the country consisting of host families, churches and municipalities. The first task would be to start them on the road to self-sufficiency by assisting them in job placement and finding them housing. During the first few months, cash assistance would be provided to meet basic needs until participants attained independence. Special needs, such as mental health and other health-care services, would be noted in the evaluation process and provided at the new location.

The key to the success of such a relocation program is the use of local communities, including volunteers, to assist in the integration of evacuees into their new communities. Given the outpouring of support for the hurricane victims across the nation, such community assistance would not be in short supply. Participants in the program would retain the option of staying in their new location or returning to their homes along the Gulf Coast at the appropriate time.

Ten nonprofit groups who resettle refugees from abroad, including faith-based groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the large network of Catholic Charities USA, are expert in implementing relocation programs and should be used to assist Katrina evacuees. They have the capacity to begin the work immediately and to tap into a large network of resources and volunteers to meet the short- and long-term needs of the population. We do not have to invent a process. We already have both the expertise and experience available “in house.”

An immediately implemented relocation program would help restore dignity to the thousands of Katrina evacuees who desire to return to a normal life after the most horrific event of their lives. It would not signal an abandonment of the Gulf Coast or its way of life, but would provide evacuees a temporary home and restore to them a sense of permanence and independence.

Leaving them in their current situation only reinforce feelings of dislocation and, in some cases, despair. Some evacuees may opt to live with family or seek some other long-term solution, but others would welcome the opportunity to start a new life, even for a temporary time.

Millions of Americans are providing victims of this national disaster assistance to meet their immediate physical needs. It is making a difference. The next step to their recovery, and to our own national healing, is to provide them with a place to call home.

(OPTIONAL TRIM ENDS)

President Bush can bring much-needed comfort to this country if he acts to facilitate resettlement by the people who have shown the will and the ability to assist their neighbor. With emotional, if not physical, lives at stake, the time to act is now.

MO/PH END RNS

(Gerald Barnes is the bishop of San Bernardino, Calif., and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of Bishop Barnes, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.