GALVESTON, Texas -- More than three months after it opened, the mobile home park at Schreiber Field in Galveston is still only half full.

And now that more apartments and rental houses are available on the island, the park’s occupancy rate is unlikely to rise, officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

On Monday, only 27 of the park’s 54 furnished mobile homes were occupied by people displaced by Hurricane Ike, Erica Lopez, a spokeswoman for the agency, said.

After the storm, island officials begged the agency for months to open the park as hundreds of Galvestonians remained in hotels, unable to find any other place to stay.

But when it opened on March 13, only 20 families had agreed to move in.

Federal officials expected that number to rise as people were able to observe conditions at the site at 83rd Street and Stewart Road.

A few did, but most people eventually found somewhere else to live, which is the agency’s ultimate goal anyway, Lopez said. Manufactured homes are a last resort, she said.

“They are used following a hurricane when there aren’t available rental resources in the area,” she said. “As the recovery has progressed, rental units have become more abundant.”

As more apartments and houses are available to rent, federal officials are directing families to them, Lopez said.

Under the federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, which is administered by the Galveston Housing Authority, families get vouchers to help pay their rent.

The government paid the full amount of rent until May, when families were required to start paying $50 toward the total. Participants’ contribution increases by $50 each month until they are paying the full amount or the program ends.

About 6,600 families were referred to the assistance program after FEMA’s direct rental assistance ended.

As of June 9, only 3,022 had signed leases and 2,083 were considered inactive, leaving about 1,500 still looking for a place to live.

Federal officials initially planned to open four mobile home parks throughout the county, which would have provided temporary housing to about 400 families. But the agency dropped plans for two of the sites as fewer families than expected said they were willing to live in the trailers.

The second park, at High Island, also opened in March with 50 mobile homes. Only 37 families moved in then, and just six more have taken up residence since then.

As in Galveston, families eligible for the mobile homes were able to find other places to live, Lopez said.

She could not say on Monday how much the agency had spent installing and operating the two parks.

“We are still in the recovery process, and the costs for the sites are still to be determined,” she said.

Under agreements the agency signed with the city and the county, both mobile home parks must be removed by April.