Hundreds of Washington residents have expressed interest in offering their homes to evacuees from the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast.

The FEMA evacuees to Washington state will eventually be placed in temporary housing that could include private homes. The Red Cross has been charged with coordinating that housing.

However, the agency will recommend only housing coordinated through religious organizations that it regularly works with, said Larry Petry, CEO of the Red Cross of King and Kitsap counties.

Information

For more information, visit www.redcross.org/

Private groups coordinating home-shares include:

www.shareyourhome.org/

www.hurricanehousing.org

www.katrinahousingnw.org

Other residents who want to offer their homes are welcome to give the Red Cross their contact information and the agency will offer some type of forum for evacuees to contact them directly.

"There's no way of knowing the situation [the evacuee] would be going into, or what that person will bring to a home," Petry said. "The Red Cross won't be in a position to recommend those housing partnerships."