Half a million hurricane refugees still lack permanent homes
Despite federal efforts, more than a half million victims of Hurricane Katrina still live in makeshift housing or hotel rooms, according to news reports.
The cost of housing is $100 per person a day.
“Housing options promised by the federal government…have largely failed to materialize,” wrote the Washington Post.
“Cruise ships and trailer parks have so far proved in large part to be unworkable,” the report said. And an American Red cross program paid for by the federal government is set to expire 15 October.
Said Red Cross spokeswoman Carrie Martin:
“We’re administering the hotel program with the expectation that it ends on October 15. After that we’ll still have shelters open, but we definitely don’t want to move backwards.”
As some shelters have closed, the evacuees have tended to move into hotels.
The Red Cross says it will keep the shelters open as long as possible but many include churches and other private buildings that eventually will have to go back to their original purpose.
FEMA officials spent $1.5 billion on mobile homes and recreational vehicles for temporary housing for the hurricane victims. One contract was reportedly for more than $500 million with a single manufacturer of mobile homes.
Government officials are trying to launch an interim housing program giving families a lump sum of $2358 in rental assistance, with the possibility of more money later.
Meanwhile, the number of evacuees in hotels is not going down but up. Last week, the numbers increased from 220,000 to more than 400,000, said news reports.
“And many have no idea what they will do when the program ends in two weeks.”
Democratic Party officials warn that warehousing of evacuees in trailer parks could create what they call “Bushville,” just as the Depression-era shantytowns were called “Hoovervilles” after then-president Herbert Hoover.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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