by Kevin Caruso
I have received innumerable e-mails from people who want to share their home with Hurricane Katrina survivors.
The generosity and love expressed by these wonderful people is deeply touching.
So let me give you some important information to keep in mind if you are considering sharing your home with Hurricane Katrina survivors.
First, you must understand that there is an inherent risk to opening your home to ANYONE you do not know. Although the vast majority of hurricane survivors are angels, you do not know who may turn out to be problematic.
So you need to accept 100% of the risk for taking in people you do not know.
Exercise caution.
Also, there will be some people who will PRETEND to be Hurricane Katrina survivors solely to gain
access to your home to either take advantage of your good nature or try to harm you or your family.
Again, exercise caution.
Next, everyone in the household MUST be in 100% agreement that you would like to open your house to survivors.
Next, the CONDITIONS for taking survivors in must be 100% clear and agreed upon by everyone in the household. Where will the survivors stay? How long can they stay? What are all of the things you will do for them?
What will the rules be?
Be thorough with thinking through ALL aspects of sharing your home before you go forward.
Then, THERE MUST BE A BACKGROUND CHECK CONDUCTED ON THE INDIVIDUALS BEFORE YOU ALLOW THEM IN YOUR HOME.
Note that I say MUST.
Katrina Help.com and Project Care.com are currently recommending only ONE organization to people who are considering sharing their home, and that is Share Your Home.org. This organization performs background checks on ALL survivors during placement.
Please visit their site for more information:
Share Your Home.org
Thank you for considering sharing you home with Hurricane Katrina survivors.
God bless you.
You are an angel.
I love you.
Take care,
Kevin Caruso
Suicide.org
Founder, Executive Director, Editor-in-Chief
(Katrina Help.com is a Suicide.org website.)