HOUSTON -- Almost a year after Hurricane Katrina caused the United States' largest mass migration since the Dust Bowl, as many as 150,000 evacuees still live in this city, and many are indicating that they no longer plan to go home.

To many Houstonians, that's overstaying the welcome.

Houston's homicide rate has shot up 18 percent since the storm, and police statistics show that one in every five murders in the city involves a Katrina evacuee as suspect, victim or both.

More than 30,000 evacuee families in Houston still live in government-subsidized housing, and a Zogby International survey sponsored by the city found that three-fourths of the adults receiving housing help were not working, raising questions about how they will survive when federal aid runs out.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Houston Mayor Bill White opened their doors to neighbors needing shelter in the nightmarish aftermath of the 2005 storm that devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. But privately, Texas leaders began to fret that the bedraggled masses that accepted their invitation were overwhelming the state.

Last December, Mr. White declared that "Houston is full" after more than 250,000 evacuees, including hundreds of families rescued from the fetid Louisiana Superdome, filled the city's housing to the brim.

Mr. White and other civic leaders remain committed to helping hurricane victims rebuild their lives, and become Texans if they choose. But in the crowded, apartment-lined neighborhoods here where most evacuees wound up, the famous Texas hospitality is wearing thin. Many residents are fed up with rising crime, and some are upset that evacuees could end up being a financial drain on the city.

"It's time for them to go home," said Victoria Palacios, the manager of an EZ Loan store in southwest Houston that has been held up four times in the past year, crimes she is convinced evacuees committed because of the distinctive accents of the robbers. "Ever since they came here, we've been getting robbed."

Estimates vary, but as many as half a million people remain scattered far from their former homes in Mississippi and Louisiana. In Atlanta, for example, city officials say there are still as many as 100,000 evacuees.

A Gallup Organization survey sponsored by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, due to be released soon, found that 251,000 evacuees still live in the state. Of adults, 59 percent were unemployed, and 54 percent were still receiving housing subsidies. Eighty-one percent were black, and 61 percent of the households had earned less than $20,000 a year before Katrina.

Texas officials estimated that the state had housed as many as 400,000 evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which lashed the Gulf Coast on Sept. 24. The federal government is reimbursing much of the costs Texas is incurring, and on Aug. 18, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would provide an additional $429 million in emergency funding.

But Texas officials are concerned that the lingering presence of so many needy people will strain services such as mental-health programs, which are in high demand among still-traumatized evacuees.

In Houston, two-thirds of evacuees receiving housing assistance planned to stay, the Zogby Poll found. City leaders are planning for a future that assumes many of them will.

"People were waiting and hoping the situation would change in New Orleans, but many are realizing they may be here for a while," said Cindy Gabriel, a spokeswoman for Houston's Joint Hurricane Housing Task Force. "We're looking at them as Houstonians at this point."

Houston is considering adding two seats to the City Council to better represent the augmented population.

Houston Police Chief Harold L. Hurtt is pushing to hire 400 additional officers to deal with the city's increased crime wave. In the meantime, police officers are routinely working overtime on the city's most dangerous streets.

"We've had some out-and-out criminals coming over here" from New Orleans, said Capt. Dale Brown, who heads the Houston Police Department's homicide division. "Most evacuees are clearly law abiding. But there is no getting around the fact that some of these people were committing violent crimes in Louisiana, and they are committing them here."