Refugees transported to Astrodome

[krazeeboi 196]

The refugees from the Louisiana Superdome are being transported to the Houston Astrodome in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But the question I have is, what next? Do any of you Houstonians (or others) think that Houston could be left with somewhat of a sizable homeless population for those who really have nowhere to go?

[RiverwoodCLT 660]

Houston is 2 million + in the city limits. They can pull this out.

[Spades 0]

I would not be surprised if many of the evacuees stay with there family for a minute instead of the Astrodome. Alot of people in New Orleans has relatives in Houston so I could see that happening.

[eastsider 776]

Interesting article from the San Antonio Business Journal about the population shifts that could occur in Texas cities as a result of evacuees staying long term.

Texas shelter cities may see long-term population shifts

[Mith242 70]

Now Katrina victims in Texas are being moved again with Rita coming, to Arkansas and Tennessee. I know some of the evacuees sound like they plan on staying in Arkansas. Arkansas' population actually increased by 2.5% because of all the evacuees.

[eastsider 776]

Not sure what the long term implications of this are, but it's pretty interesting:

The North Texas apartment market has absorbed a whopping 18,000 units since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast less than one month ago, according to new statistics from ALN Systems.

The leasing activity has catapulted occupancy more than 3 percent -- from 88.8 percent at the end of August to 92 percent today.

Of those 18,000 units absorbed, 12,000 were in Dallas and 6,000 were in Fort Worth. Texas as a whole absorbed 64,000 apartment units with Houston absorbing 42,000 units, pushing apartment occupancy in the city up 9% since the end of August to 96%.

Dallas Business Journal: Hurricane creates record apartment absorption in Dallas-Fort Worth