Hurricane evacuees who are still struggling more than a year later will get the help they need to rebuild their lives through a Tarrant County United Way grant awarded to Catholic Charities.

The final $224,228 of the $986,000 Hurricane Relief Fund established by United Way in fall 2005 has been awarded to Catholic Charities to provide case managers devoted to helping Tarrant County residents who fled Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Disaster response professionals say it often requires up to two years for survivors of crisis to get back on their feet again. “Long-term recovery,” as social workers call it, takes expertise to help survivors help themselves in getting employment, housing, health care and other resources needed for lasting stability in their lives.

According to an August report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), most hurricane evacuees are poor women with children. HHSC estimated that, as of last June, about 66,000 individuals directly affected by the hurricanes were still in North Texas. At the end of August, Catholic Charities had 330 open cases in its long-term case management program that serves people directly affected by the hurricanes. Catholic Charities continues to receive requests for assistance, partly because other disaster response programs are scaling back their services.

United Way Senior Vice President Ann Rice said the decision to use the remainder of the United Way Hurricane Relief Fund for long-term case management was made in consultation with agencies and institutions that have been most closely involved with hurricane relief and recovery.

Previous grants from the local United Way hurricane fund helped local nonprofits provide food, child care, cancer medicine and other necessities. That kind of direct aid will continue to be provided by the city/county-coordinated Tarrant County Hurricane Relief Fund, to which United Way has committed $150,000 received from United Way of America. One hundred percent of the hurricane donations contributed to Tarrant County United Way and United Way of America are being used for relief efforts.