The suggestions are coming in:

I just emailed my chancery office and suggested that the empty rectories in our diocese be offered to displaced families in the South.

We have one here in our town and it is furnished, sitting empty.  Four bedrooms, three stories.  Empty.

How many other empty rectories are there around the country that could be spruced up in the next couple weeks and opened up to those in need? 

I don’t know the best way to get the word out but my first thought was Catholic Charities. 

Is this worth contacting the USCCB about?

TIME FOR CATHOLIC CHURCH TO STEP UP … EVEN MORE [Jack
Fowler]
Catholic Charities, the Catholic Relief Service, and
other RC organizations have all cylinders clicking in
the massive Katrina relief effort. Bishop William
Skylstad, president of the United States Catholic
Conference, is calling for a national collection for
aid (bravo Your Excellency). Much is being done. But
there’s much more the Church can do, and I expect will
do, as the relief effort plays out. Two suggestions
along those lines. The first is that the Bishop’s
Conference should formally direct every Catholic
parish in America to adopt a dislocated/homeless
family and relocate them, house them, pay for the
housing for a year, clothe them, furnish and outfit
their new home (from pots to clothespins) and even
give them a car. It can be done and it should be done
(and heck, by every parish or congregation, regardless
of creed). The second is to open up the many Church

facilities across the country that are deserted/empty.
Closed colleges, seminaries, convents, mother houses,
parochial schools, etc. – these facilities simply
cannot remain unused or underused when millions will
need long-term housing (of course, since most dioceses
are strapped for funds because of lawsuits, the feds
should help pick up the tab). The moment is here for
the Church to do something extraordinary, for the sake
of doing good, which may help the Church redeem itself
after this past terrible decade. This is the moment
for renewal."