A company that does background searchs will provide them at no charge for anyone that is wanting to open their homes to help make this a safe partnership.

We need to get this out to the people and would hope that you could print the press release provided below and distribute it to your friends, company, church, local newspapers.

We are all volunteers and no one is making money off of this so we need your help. I know many of you are sick, but I also know that you guys are GREAT at getting the word out and was hoping that you can at least forward this to everyone you know.

Thank You and God Bless!

Dana

http://www.homesforkatrina.org/releases/homeskatrina.doc




September 2, 2005

Contact: Gabe Roffman, 434-978-1486

Email: [email protected]

NEW WEB SERVICE LINKS KATRINA'S HOMELESS WITH TEMPORARY HOMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Hundreds of households are opening their doors to victims of Hurricane Katrina through a new tool linking the homeless with homes, homesforkatrina.org.

The web site, created in response to the unparalleled disaster and the human misery it has wrought, links people offering temporary shelter to victims of Katrina and the horror it left behind.

As desperate conditions in New Orleans and visions of other devastated Gulf coast cities and towns flicker in millions of living rooms across the country, many television viewers are making their spare bedrooms available to refugees from this national tragedy.

Gabe Roffman, creator of homesforkatrina.org, said the situation cries out for volunteers to take in the huddled masses if they can.

``My family can't sit still while tens of thousands of people who have lost everything look like they're going to suffer indefinitely,'' Roffman said. ``This is just heartbreaking. We're hoping more families with the space and means will step forward to offer some serious comfort at a time of distress for our nation, and our neighbors.''

At homesforkatrina.org, volunteers across the country can register to host survivors. More than 200 individuals and families signed up within days of the site going online, offering temporary shelter for refugees from the Gulf coast disaster. The online service Intelius has offered homesforkatrina.org free background-check services to screen host families and disaster victims to the extent these records are available from the states.

Roffman, a husband and father of two who designs web applications and has offered space in his own home, said homesforkatrina.org is working with local civic and relief organizations in the Gulf and around the country to handle logistics on both ends of this crucial match-making service. He said the criminal screening provides added comfort for participants on both ends.

``Even if you can't take someone into your home, we hope people across the country will give generously to the Red Cross and other relief organizations working so hard to save and preserve lives in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida,'' said Roffman, who added that homesforkatrina.org provides links to help people donate. ``But we ask anyone who can do more -- offer a roof, a bed and a semblance of normal life -- to please join homesforkatrina.org and give some of themselves as well.''