Doors open for the displaced

Area schools and the housing authority are ready to accept hurricane victims.
By HAROLD GWIN
and NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning Valley is opening its front door and putting out a welcome mat to displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.
As Mahoning Valley residents continue to donate cash, food and other needed items for victims in shelters, officials of church and social service agencies are preparing to help victims relocate to the area.
Area metropolitan housing authority officials said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a nationwide order on how relocation of public housing residents is to be handled.
Preferential status
Board members of both the Youngstown and Trumbull metropolitan housing authorities already had given approval to alter policies and give any public housing residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina preferential status, said Eugenia Atkinson, executive director, Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority.
Atkinson said anyone in metropolitan housing or part of the housing authority's Section 8 programs will be at the top of the priority list for similar housing elsewhere.
Section 8 programs allow public housing residents to live in rental property approved by the local housing authority, and the housing authority pays the rent to the landlord, she said.
Local ties
Donald W. Emerson Jr., executive director, Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority, believes HUD officials will use information provided by local housing authorities to create a database of available housing.
Then victims will be able to decide where they would like to live and apply for housing in those areas.
Emerson has family members in many areas of the South and said no one knew where one cousin was for several days. They finally learned she and 11 family members had escaped Katrina's wrath.
"We found out because she was interviewed on CNN," he said. "All the cousins were going to pool money to help her pay her motel bill. Then we found out that an anonymous donor who saw her on CNN covered her motel bill for 10 days."
Emerson said he doesn't know how many people might come to the Mahoning Valley but expects there will be many.
"We know many local people are from the Mississippi Delta, so there are people who will want to come to the area," Emerson said. "We provide the options, and if some people move here, they will receive the same services as our Warren residents do."
Ready to assist
Emerson said officials realize some people may stay for an extended period and return to their homes, while others may decide to stay in the Mahoning Valley. They will need immediate assistance but also help with job training, employment and education, he said.
Area public schools said they've had no influx of pupils fleeing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A check with school officials in Youngstown, Warren, Boardman, Austintown and elsewhere Tuesday showed no new enrollments as a result of people forced to relocate from southern states as a result of the storm.
That could change as local housing authorities have indicated they will be making rental units available to storm victims.
A spokeswoman for the Warren City Schools said they have been advised the district may see some new pupils arrive as a result.
College enrollments
Meanwhile, area colleges have been getting calls from students or parents of students who planned to be attending schools in Louisiana this semester.
Katrina shut down Loyola University, Tulane University and the University of New Orleans, all located in New Orleans, and none of them has reopened. Tulane and Loyola have indicated they hope to be ready to hold classes again in January.
Kent State University has had two students enrolled in schools in New Orleans register for fall classes at its campuses.
One is a Russian student studying in the United States on an exchange program, said Ron Kirksey, a Kent State spokesman.
The U.S. State Department contacted Kent State about finding a place for the woman who was enrolled at the University of New Orleans and was there only one week before Katrina hit, Kirksey said.
Kent was able to enroll the student and find a host family to house her rather than put her in a dorm, he said.
A young woman from this area who would have been in her second year at Tulane enrolled at Kent State instead last week. She registered at the Stark Campus, Kirksey said.
Kent will accept others, he said, noting that the university is working with the Ohio Board of Regents and the American Council on Education to help displaced students.
A spokesman for Youngstown State University said YSU had received a call from a parent asking about a late enrollment for a student enrolled at a college in Louisiana or Mississippi that was closed by Katrina.
That student hadn't enrolled here as of Tuesday, however.
A spokesman for the University of Akron said his school enrolled five students from schools in the battered region, including one from Cleveland, last week who were displaced by the storm.
Most had intended to attend Loyola or Tulane, he said.
Akron had a number of inquiries from other displaced students as well and could see additional enrollments, he added.
gwin@vindy.com
tullis@vindy.com