The Hurricane Recovery Office for Catholic Charities of Arkansas is continuing to assist hurricane evacuees with settling in Arkansas, but money and time are running out.
The office announced it will remain open until March 31, 2008, six months longer than expected thanks to a grant extension from the federal government.
The Hurricane Recovery Office opened in September 2005 following Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast two years ago this week and Hurricane Rita, which hit the Texas and Louisiana coasts Sept. 24, 2005.
Initial funding for the Arkansas program came from a $750,000 statewide collection at Catholic parishes as well as grants and donations. The three-woman office was assisted by volunteer parish teams in 42 parishes. Each team could request a $10,000 block grant to assist evacuees in their cities.
The program was expanded in March 2006 with a $428,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
With the grant, Catholic Charities of Arkansas was able to hire five regional case managers and pay them through Sept. 30, 2007. Because some federal money remained, Catholic Charities USA, which managed the subgrants given to 27 dioceses that staffed offices similar to the one in Little Rock, gave the Arkansas offices more federal funding Aug. 15 to stay open an additional six months.
Also staying open until March 31 are dioceses or archdioceses in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., Springfield, Mo., and Austin, Tyler and Houston, Texas, according to Catholic Charities USA.
At least 10 other dioceses or archdioceses in eight states will be closing their programs between October and December.
Director Sister Joan Pytlik, DC, said her office has helped at least 900 households in the past two years. Immediately following the hurricane at least 60,000 people moved into the state. A year later, the number dropped to 35,000.
When the Hurricane Recovery Office opened, it was focused on helping people with immediate needs, such as housing, utilities and food. In July 2006, the office stopped being a “relief” program and transitioned into helping people with creating long-term recovery plans for how they would settle in Arkansas or elsewhere.
Sister Joan said her office will be sending letters to each family they assisted and let them know of the office closing.
“We are going to have to start planning to close cases and see that people get what they need,” she said.
Jamie Deere, case management coordinator, said case managers today want to help families with recovery plans, not providing only financial assistance. She said money is still available from Catholic Charities to help with relocation costs, such as renting a U-Haul, but she said case managers can no longer pay for basic needs, such as food or rent, because only limited funds are available.
“Our purpose is supposed to be case management, helping people with their recovery plans of how they are going to make it after the office is closed,” Sister Joan said. “It should not always entail a lot of money. It should be helping people finding other resources that are available in Arkansas. When we don’t exist, that is where they are going to have to go.”
Unfortunately, Deere said, some clients are not interested in coming up with a plan to find a permanent house, job and transportation.
“They cannot seem to move forward,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time and may never go away … You have two distinct groups of people — those who feel it (the hurricane) was done to them and those who feel it just happened to them.
“They don’t want case management. They are just saying, ’I want my voucher.’… We are not here just for handouts.”
Sister Joan said the Arkansas program has been held up as an example of good stewardship because early on it formed volunteer teams to help evacuees with their resettlement. Catholic Charities of Arkansas trained 199 volunteers in the state over the past two years to work with evacuees. After the office closes, Sister Joan said she hopes some of these volunteers will be able to continue to minister in case another natural or manmade disaster impacts in the state.
“Most programs (in different dioceses) ended up with no volunteers or only one or two,” Sister Joan said.
Currently 71 volunteers are active in 19 teams. In the central Arkansas region, the teams are the Hurricane Umbrella Team, Little Rock; Immaculate Conception, North Little Rock; and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Marche.
In southwest Arkansas, the teams are at St. Louis, Camden; Our Lady of Good Hope, Hope; St. John, Malvern, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Magnolia; St. Edward, Texarkana; and St. Mary, Arkadelphia.
In southeast Arkansas, the teams are at St. Mark, Monticello, St. Peter, Pine Bluff and St. Michael, West Memphis.
In northwest Arkansas, Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith operates the only team.
In northeast Arkansas, teams are in St. Mary, Batesville; St. Michael, Cherokee Village; Blessed Sacrament, Jonesboro; St. Peter the Fisherman, Mountain Home; St. James, Searcy; and St. Albert, Heber Springs.
Sister Joan said she is especially proud of the volunteers who have given two years of their lives to the program.
“There is no way we could have served all of those people with six case managers all over the state,” she said. “We are viewed by so many evacuees really as the face of God to them. People received gentle care, helpful care. I can’t say enough about the volunteers. They didn’t have to do it.”
One of the evacuees who is giving back to Little Rock and her parish is Danette Vincent. She evacuated Aug. 28, 2005, from New Orleans with her parents, Deacon Daniel and Leatha Vincent, and extended family.
A member of St. Bartholomew Church in Little Rock, Danette reached out to 20 evacuee children in Arkansas and four other states and created an exhibit in Little Rock of their black-and-white photography on Katrina’s first anniversary.
Through a grant from the Arkansas Department of Heritage, Vincent also created the “Catch the Spirit” photography exhibit in May at her parish to raise funds for its 100th anniversary in 2009. Seven young parishioners took photograph of church members and activities and contrasted them with images taken by well-known photographer and parishioner Ralph Armstrong over the decades. Armstrong died in 2006.
Of her love of photography, Vincent said, “It’s my therapy.”
She lost all of her photography equipment, beloved jazz funeral photos and family albums when her parents’ home flooded.
Vincent is looking for a permanent location for her photography program called Youth Stop and hopes to interest other children in the art.
“Photography is an excellent tool for self-expression and self-esteem,” she said.
Deacon Daniel and Leatha Vincent left Little Rock for northwest Arkansas a year ago. He is now assigned to St. Bernard Church in Bella Vista and assists in the parish with outreach to the elderly and poor.
Before the hurricane, the deacon was active in the Office of Black Catholic Ministries in the Archdiocese of New Orleans as well as a deacon at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New Orleans.
The deacon said he likes northwest Arkansas, but he is not sure he will remain there.
“I am not going to move back to New Orleans. That is out,” the New Orleans native said. “I really like Bella Vista. I like the church I attend and I like the people who attend church…. I like the continued courtesies that people have extended to Katrina evacuees. You always want to be where people want you.”
The 68-year-old is still monitored by doctors since a diagnosis of lung cancer several years ago.
“I don’t want to give my life to rebuilding,” he said.
Danette Vincent and her father said two years is not enough time for evacuees to resettle somewhere. While most material possessions can be replaced, they said it will be difficult to get their immediate family to live in one city again and rebuild their parish and community connections.
“The whole Katrina effort is not something that ended. Katrina is not over and it won’t be over,” Daniel Vincent said. “I considered New Orleans my permanent residence. You can’t readjust in two years. It’s not a question of looking back. It’s about recovering … it’s an ongoing process.
“I worked for 13 years to minister to 100,000 African-American Catholics and then one day they are out of my life,” he said.
His daughter said she feels the same way.
“We are so far from recovery. I don’t think we are even close,” Danette said. “How do you get over your life being totally turned upside down?”
Deacon Vincent said he doesn’t like to reflect on what he lost in the hurricane. Of the second anniversary, he said, “It’s just another day.”
“I live in the moment. I feel in my heart that if I am looking back I will miss the blessings that I have in my life today.”
