Delta Regional Authority

 

May 5, 2009

 

  Nearly 2,000 Mississippi households still living in federal travel trailers since Hurricane Katrina could remain there weeks longer although the deadline for assistance ended Friday.

 

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials are notifying residents they must vacate the trailers by May 30 or FEMA will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to help repossess the units. FEMA also is ending payments to hotels that housed victims.

 

It's a reprieve of sorts for Deborah Dean of Gautier, a 54-year-old grandmother, who said she was told about two weeks ago to move out of her trailer."It's scary to know they can put you out of housing. And I know they can," said Dean, who added she has no money for a new home.

 

FEMA officials said they are helping residents find other places to live. Some are staying with family and friends.

But affordable housing is scarce on the Gulf Coast, and advocates worry some people will be homeless.

 

Kathleen Johnson, director of a disaster-relief center in Waveland, said many people still living in trailers are "elderly, disabled, mentally ill and single-parent families." She said they can't afford the cost of renting an apartment, and there are not enough Section 8 vouchers or staff to process vouchers.

 

Section 8 is a federal program that provides housing assistance to low-income renters and homeowners.

"You can have all the May 1 deadlines you want, there's simply nowhere to put these people," Johnson said.

"If FEMA came and yanked the trailers today, we'd have 10 homeless people," she added. "I have nowhere to put them. That's just in Waveland."

 

Michele Seals is one of them. She said she and her five children will "be getting some tents" if they are evicted from their trailer in Waveland.Seals, 37, said her housekeeping job doesn't pay much and that she does not receive child support. She has applied for a Section 8 voucher but has no idea when or if it will be approved.

 

FEMA spokesman Eugene Brezany wrote in an e-mail that the agency "understands that this is a difficult time for families."

FEMA has contacted every household to tell them about available housing resources, he said.

 

"FEMA's focus, at this time, is to continue to work extensively with households to provide additional rental resources to meet the long-term housing needs of households affected by Hurricane Katrina and to provide referrals, as appropriate, to state and local agencies to assist households toward self-sufficiency," Brezany wrote.

 

Residents of larger mobile homes can purchase the units at a reduced cost. Dean said she is interested in buying hers but was told it needed formaldehyde testing first.

 

Stephen Carr, director of the Mississippi Case Management Program, said his group is working with the state to find people who qualify for cottages.He said various factors have made it difficult for residents to move out of the trailers.

"Folks don't necessarily choose to live in a travel trailer ... years after a storm," he said

 

At one point, more than 43,000 trailers were occupied after Katrina leveled south Mississippi, according to FEMA. Now 1,791 units remain occupied.

 

Carr said he considers Friday's deadline as "the beginning of the ending of the process."

"It's a signal that the client needs to be really serious about their recovery planning," he said.