Katrina victims - Should I let a total stranger live with me?

I want to help Katrina victims, but I don't even know these people!! I've had roommates in the past, there are some good ones and some bad ones.

Some people who work with disaster and trauma victims believe it's not the best housing solution. They think it's safer and better for the survivors to pool our funds to support them in rented housing, for several reasons:

Homeowners may not have considered what kind of responsibilities they're taking on.

There's been no background screening of either homeowners or those needing housing.

They worry about liability concerns for the temporary hosts.

The victims will likely prefer to be in their own homes.
"We think these people don't want to be in other people's faces," said the Rev. David Hockensmith, director of the Greater Ozarks Council of Churches. "They want their own space. And after being jammed into large facilities with 50,000 other people, who can blame them?"

Bev Tedeja, coordinator of social services for The Kitchen, Inc., works with those who have been suddenly plunged into homelessness. She doesn't think adding them into a household of strangers is a good idea.

"If we put them in with a lot of other people, that just increases their stress," Tedeja explains. "It would be like taking people here and cramming them in a dorm. They don't need to be confined, put in with another family. Coming from those domes, they need to be with their own families."

Jim Rives, vice president of corporate development at The Burrell Center, says he and other mental health professionals have been discussing the subject, also. "Some ... are going to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and will be getting and making phone calls, wondering about family members and friends. If they're already depressed and highly stressed to begin with, it tends to push some people over the edge."

Much more on this here: