Post-Katrina Recovery Still At Stake

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina hit the shores of Louisiana and Mississippi, affecting 90,000 square miles, there are still many people to relocate and solutions to be found. More than 4,000 temporary housing units continue to be in use in Louisiana while the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s housing program formally ended on May 1, 2009.

The Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held an hearing this morning entitled “Still Post-Katrina: How FEMA decides when housing responsibilities end”.

“The situation we now face was both predictable and predicted. It has been clear from the recent FEMA hearings that those left in disaster housing would be the most vulnerable members of society, who may have had prior difficulties that have been exacerbated by the disaster. While these programs have formally ended, we still have families without a long term housing solution,” said Committee Chair Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

Ranking member U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) told the subcommittee that it has been “44 months now that families and individuals have been living in travel trailers and hotel rooms and obviously never intended for long time use. But even after all this time, there seems to be no other solutions that has been developed. There has not been a real viable solution developed and implemented by the state and local governments to address long-time affordable housing needs for low income residents.”

The members of the subcommittee agreed that it is not FEMA’s duty to act indefinitely but that it was common sense to not leave people in the streets without any adequate housing.

Responding to the upcoming role of the FEMA for people still living in temporary housing units, David Garratt, Deputy Administrator of the FEMA, pointed out the activities made by the agency since Katrina. Garratt said that the “FEMA conducted the largest temporary housing operation in the history of the country” by providing temporary housing to more than 143,000 families across the Gulf Coast and more than $7.8 billion in housing and other needs assistance to around 2.4 million individuals.

However, Garratt said that the FEMA has provided long term housing units to individuals affected by Katrina but approximately 1,400 have refused to participate in those relocations and decided to stay in their temporary housing units which are often located near their home or even on their lots. These people still do not know whether or not their trailers will be taken away from them by the FEMA when its housing program ends.

Congresswoman Norton holds GSA to a higher standard

The House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee met to discuss the General Services Administration’s (GSA) capital investment and leasing program. Chairwoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said that the federal building fund is shrinking which makes it hard to construct new buildings and sustain already existing structures. She said that an essential government function is to provide housing for federal establishments, like the federal court system.

She said that the failure by the GSA was due to years of neglect and that repairs must be made a high priority because the eventual prospect is disintegration. She said that if the GSA can make requested repairs and do routine maintenance then the building fund would not be so drained.

She said that the change required by the House subcommittee has already had desirable affects, but the subcommittee intends to retain this provision. She said that it is at best a tiny step towards reform and hardly represents the wholesale change that GSA requires.