Tell me if this idea is stupid:
Right now there are tons of offers for housing pouring into websites such as hurricanehousing.org , craigslist.com, and nola.com. But many of the million or so people holed up in hotels through-out the south have no way to get on line, and aren't likely to have heard of such resources. But there's phone service.
My idea is simply this: to adopt a hotel. To use the internet to find a hotel in the south -- Baton Rouge seems like a good bet -- and call them, and offer to act as a via-phone intermediary between any of their guests and these on-line offers.
This would require a protocol whereby the volunteer brokers call in -- I presume one doesn't want hundreds of desperate panicked people calling your home or office number round the clock. The protocol I have in mind is coordinating with the staff there, to set up appointments for anyone interested in long-distance accomodations. At the appointed time, the volunteer calles into the hotel room of the person whose's appointment it is, or if an "office" has been set up, they're let in. There's a basic questionaire as to how many people in the family/group, whether there's pets, any medical restrictions (pet allergies), and then they're told what choices of geographical area they have to search in. They pick, the agent searches, and reads offers aloud. The refugee picks & priorizes three. The broker makes note of all this; concludes the call, and contacts the first of the offers on behalf of the refugee. If not still available, work down the list until a "yes" or end of list reached. If accomodations are found, the hotel phone # is given to the accomodation provider. The broker calls the refugee and tells them the outcome, and either iterates, or tells the refugee to make an appointment if they haven't been contacted in 24hrs by the accomodation provider.
What holes does this idea have in it?
Anybody else want to do this with me? I'm willing to set up a system where volunteers can download a standard questionaire and can indicate which hotel they've adopted so there isn't overlap.