MSNBC/Newsweek is reporting that the city of Houston, whose schools, healthcare services, law enforcement, and housing have been over-burdened by, at times, up to 150,000 refugees from New Orleans, is nearing the breaking point. The article calls it "compassion fatigue."
These situations only expose the dire circumstances that existed in New Orleans before Katrina struck. Through its acclaim as a party town, New Orleans was able to keep tourists away from is impoverished neighborhoods and was largely able to sweep unemployment, shiftlessness, drug and gang activity, and the hopelessness of its residents under the rug for nearly a century. Katrina blew the lid off these problems, and the refugee situation has exported them en masse to communities that are unable to absorb so many problem citizens on such short notice.
Many people suggested that Katrina was the best thing to ever happen to the poor people of New Orleans, since it forced them out of communities saturated with generational poverty and into situations where their chances of finding work and becoming productive members of society was greatly improved. That sentiment is probably true, but it still doesn't account for the almost insurmountable difficulties involved in a radical lifestyle change. Someone who has spent all their lives in generational poverty would find working and living on their own to be as difficult a task as trying to survive in a foreign country without being able to speak or understand the language.
These people, most of them with good hearts but without the skills or understanding to survive and prosper by themselves, need not only our prayers but our willingness to physically involve ourselves in their lives -- teaching them responsibility and stewardship, serving as role models, and offering to be advocates for them when they need help.
On a related note, Father John Whiteford notes the impending meltdown of Texas' welfare system here and here.
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