From KTRK-13:

Conroe police had been getting complaints from business owners, saying day laborers were swarming their customers and blocking entrances. The city has a designated day labor lot, where laborers are allowed to find work. Anywhere else, they say, is against a city ordinance.

So the city went to where the business owners were complaining and started talking to people. Lo, and behold, some of them were breaking more laws that the one against solicitation.

At least 20 people were arrested Thursday. Most of them were undocumented workers and handed over to immigration officials.

Of course, had that occured in the not-a-sanctuary city of Houston, no one would have been handed over to immigration officials, since HPD cannot ask anyone if they’re in the country legally. As a result, they’d have been back on the street, probably in the same place, the next morning.

Job counselor Ayodele Ogunye of WorkSource, the city’s employment assistance program, said jobless evacuees complain about the overwhelming bus and rail systems that make navigation difficult, or the bureaucratic holdups like professional licenses that are invalid in Texas.

But some of it, Ogunye said, is in their heads. Ogunye said “one does begin to wonder” why so many are still jobless after 10 months. Fellow counselor Melodie Lee was more blunt: “(Katrina) was awful, but let’s move on. It is time you had a Plan B.”

When the bureaucrats whose job it is to help these people start talking like that, instead of trying to find more ways to expand their “empire of entitlement” it’s a clear sign that Houston is tired of its ne’er-do-well “guests”. Considering that my work drive takes me past job-hunting people standing on street corners who were willing to illegally travel across the border (then hundreds of miles on foot) or pay smugglers to bring them here, my sympathy for people willing to walk past help wanted signs to complain that they can’t find any job is somewhat lacking. As is my caring for people who ignore deadlines and are rewarded with more money.

FEMA says thousands of evacuee families received letters informing them about the recertification requirements, but only about 10-percent responded. The agency feared that almost 30,000 evacuees would have to be recertified at the end of August, but because of the extended deadline, that’s no longer the case.

It’s not like no one would take advantage of our generosity if FEMA wants to keep spending the money to keep these useless drones in Houston.

[Houston’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Housing, John] Walsh said the major challenge has been the unexpected number of people who signed up for the program.

“When we started this in September we estimated we would do 10,000 units,” he said. “By the first of October we said it would be 15,000 units. By early November it was more like 30,000 units. We’ve been having to adjust to a much bigger volume than we ever dreamed we would have to do.” — Houston Chronicle, 12/29/05

How much will the city of Houston have to spend in employee salaries to handle Katrina evacuee rent applications and payments? We know that some of our new residents are taking a toll on our (already depleted) police force. And I recall hearing (maybe on a KTRH newsbreak or from Chris Baker) that the vast majority of new applications (in the waning days of the “free” rent and utilities program) were from Katrina evacuees who had been in Houston for three days or less. They hustled down here from wherever they were to get in on the action!

I suppose if they hadn’t extended it, some judge would have forced them to. There’s always some people with more sympathy than sense. As long as it’s our money they’re giving away, anyhow.

Oh well, as long as our new neighbors understand that no one is above the law in Houston, I’m sure they (and our tax money) will get along just fine.

It’s good advice. And it’s all yours for $17.99 from the Houblog Storeblog! Well, ok, it’s not a blog. It’s just a Cafepress store. With t-shirts. And other things too.

We now return you to our irregularly scheduled rants and animé.

Come on guys, can’t you get more than one sentence out without cracking me up?

I’m not going to cross-post the full text here, but readers of my agenda analysis might want to head over to BlogHOUSTON to read up on the whacky hijinks of Boss Hogg Mayor White’s crew in the Housing and Community Development Department. It doesn’t looke like much has changed since Outta Town Brown was in charge.

An excerpt:

17. Review and possible recommendation of an ordinance authorizing the modification of the existing loan in the amount of $1,013,918.33 to APTDF, Ltd. converting $513,918.33 to a grant and extending the maturity date on the remaining $500,000 loan balance for an additional 30 months.

Emphasis added. Well, if first you forgive over half the loan, and then extend the other half, it’s fair to say the recipient was poor risk. APTDF appears to stand for “Apartments–Deerfield,” a complex probably most famous for having had some entrepreneurial guards back in 2005. But this isn’t the first time their name has surfaced, attached to problems in the HCDD.

So drop by and check out the fun parts…