RE/MAX Helps Find Homes for Displaced Wal-Mart Workers

Jim Finch knows the ins and outs of relocation.

But even the veteran PMP Relocation Services executive is a bit stymied at the scope of his current job: Help find housing for many of the 34,000 Wal-Mart workers displaced across three states by Hurricane Katrina.

Even before the full extent of Katrina's damage was felt, Wal-Mart executives contacted Finch. They wanted help with the daunting task of relocating their employees from 126 stores and two distribution centers.

In the hours before the hurricane made landfall, Wal-Mart began sending trucks full of generators, bottled water and other emergency supplies to the Gulf Coast. But lining up housing was another story.

Sharon Orlopp, Senior Vice President of Sam's Club, laid out some of the short- and long-term housing issues and asked PMP Relocation Services to lends its expertise.

"They gave us 58 cities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama where they wanted us to find rental properties," Finch says. "They were very concerned about their employees and trying their best to get their hands around this thing."

The PMP Relocation Services staff tapped its massive nationwide database of property contacts in search of apartment complexes, hotels and other facilities. The goal was to find places - including "big box" commercial type buildings - large enough to house the hundreds of workers needed to staff each Wal-Mart, Sam's Club or distribution center for a 90-day to six-month period.

With communications down in many cities, the task was tedious. An initial sweep using phones, the Internet and word of mouth uncovered only 44 properties, many of them too small to have much of an impact.

And because the scope of the natural disaster is unprecedented, Finch says the job has meant thinking outside the box. It has meant considering everything from college dorm rooms to buildings that have been shuttered.

"We just started looking on all those fronts; we haven't ruled anything out," Finch says.

By Sept. 9, Wal-Mart reopened 111 of the 126 stores, but 89 still need considerable repairs. The hunt for adequate housing continues.

Source: RE/MAX International Inc. 9/23/05

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