- POCALLIK
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- Exalted Mythic Member
this topic might be locked because its in the wrong forum but this is something the community needs to be aware of before donating anymore money to the Katrina project. i live in austin texas and work as a front desk agent at a local hotel. since the katrina accident we have taken in 30 familys whose rooms are being paid for by red cross. i see these people everyday. i donated about $600 dollers to red cross putting myself and my family behind on bills for one month. money i work hard for but felt this was a situation were i needed to help my fellow americans. as part of my job i call around to other hotels in my area to check their rates and occupacy levels after talking to other hotels ive found that the same things are happening everywhere. these people have $2,000 debit cards given to them by red cross. you would think that they would spend this money to get an apartment or a down payment on a house but thats not the case. Every family ive checked in to my hotel has had over 15 bags of items puchased at name brand locations. are these items food or clothes no mostly not. what are they then?? lets see ive seen PSP's, cd players, t.v.'s, necklaces, air jordans, beer, and the clothes i have seen are top of the line name brand like hilfiger, polo, to name a few. we've also gone into several of these rooms for routine cleaning and found marijuana and CRACK pipes.
Now i dont know about you but i find this very disturbing. like i said these are not isolated incidents its happening everywhere. when we found out we would be taking in refugees i made calls to local apartment complexes to find resonable rates and vacancy for these refugees. how many have asked me where these places are? NONE nobody not even one. Instead the've been asking where the nearest mall is, or the nearest liquor store is, or the nearest strip joint is. My point to all of this is our money is not being spent wisely these people are looking no further down the road than the 14 day stay red cross is paying for.
I feel like i wasted my money and my time for these people. i do beleive that some people have actually used this money to actually get back on their feet i just have'nt seen any of them. another thing is vandalization, and burglaries that have happened at every hotel since the refugees have arrived in austin. its just disgusting for me to watch this continue.
if you still feel like donating go ahead but dont put yourself in jepardy for these people because most of them dont deserve it in my opinion. like i said in the beginning this is just some information i thought you should know before donating anymore money.