FEMA Tells Katrina Evacuees To Exit Hotels In 15 Days

[basschick]

wow, the poor evacuees are fucked

"Fifteen days to get out. That's the warning the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave 150,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees staying in hotels Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

Federal officials told evacuees that on Dec. 1 the government would stop paying hotel bills for evacuees living in government-subsidized hotels and that they would have to find their own housing.

The Associated Press reported that officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency acknowledged that evacuees living in storm-damaged Mississippi and Louisiana might have trouble finding alternative housing. But about the best FEMA could offer was the possibility of two-week extensions of the deadline for residents of those two states.

There is a sufficient supply of apartments elsewhere in the nation to house the evacuees, officials told AP. But they were unclear how, or whether, the government might help in finding and paying for accommodations.

"There are still too many people living in hotel rooms, and we want to help them get into longer-term homes before the holidays," FEMA acting director R. David Paulison said in a statement. "Across the country, there are readily available, longer-term housing solutions."

In a memo sent Monday to FEMA officials, David Garratt, the agency's acting director of recovery, said that starting Dec. 1 FEMA would no longer reimburse states for new leases to house storm victims. And on March 1, FEMA will stop paying for existing leases that many states cosigned with evacuees, even though many run for a year or more.

The cutoff would hit especially hard in states with the largest numbers of evacuees, such as Texas and Georgia.

In the memo, Garratt said victims might still be eligible for individual assistance, some of which could be used for rent. But it was unclear whether those now in hotels would be provided with individual aid as part of the effort to move them elsewhere.

In a telephone news conference Tuesday, FEMA officials said only that they would work to notify victims of "all available options.''

Under federal law, FEMA can provide disaster-stricken families with up to $26,200 in aid, and the agency recently announced that it would pay out the full sum to about 60,000 households in the worst-hit areas of Mississippi and Louisiana.

But it has approved only about $4,500 in aid payments to an additional 450,000 displaced families. The second of those payments, part of a three-month apartment assistance program, is set to expire Dec. 23.

In all, FEMA said it had doled out $1.2 billion in transitional housing assistance to more than 500,000 households. Included in that figure was $274 million for hotel rooms.

Garratt said in his memo that, in addition to no longer paying for hotel rooms and ending reimbursements to states for housing storm victims, FEMA also would end aid for "cruise ships, travel trailers … and other fixed facilities" by March 1.

Officials were unable to clarify late Tuesday whether that meant the agency would terminate its controversial contract for cruise ships and would no longer deliver trailers after that date. The only exception to the March 1 deadline is for "state and local employee camps."

Housing advocates told The Washington Post that FEMA has not given evacuees enough time to find homes and sign leases, a process that can take months in rental markets already nearing capacity.

So far, FEMA says it has provided $1.2 billion in transitional housing assistance to more than 500,000 households displaced by the hurricanes.

The Red Cross had not seen details of the plan Tuesday, but spokesman Michael Spencer told The Post that "the time has passed for emergency housing."

"Interim housing is the responsibility of the state and federal government, and we have to assume they have a plan in place," he said."


http://www.bet.com/News/katrina_fema...7E4249C5FB7%7D

[jIgG]

yeah im watching it on CNN now. Unreal ........


FEMA has $30 billion sitting unused


And then you have help for the 9/11 rescuers being taken back.


Fucked up people that talk about morals:wacko:

[basschick]

you know what's sort of fucked up? i saw this originally on another board (not gfy) where people are saying that the people in the hotels are all living the good life on fema's dime. they said that walmart is hiring like mad. it pissed me off because walmart pays minimum wage where i am. so figure you clear $700 per month and you have two kids. you'll need to buy work clothes, pay for transpo - it'll take you two months to save up the money to get a single and pay all the deposits - that's IF you didn't need a babysitter. if you're lucky, you're talking $100 per week - and damn, now you're making $300 a month.

it amazes me how many people who don't live on minimum wage feel that people are being lazy because they don't want to end up with a job that will keep them from making enough money for their families to to eat :-/

[Paco]

What amazes me is how much money our countries make, yet there are so many mal-nourished seniors, homeless people starving to death and oh so many other problems.
Yet we allow the fat 'barons' sit at home, living decadently while they decide what to do with the surplus of money that their 'sheriffs' collected from us!

I live in a supposed dept free province, yet there is a lack of well run senior homes, homeless shelters, food banks etc.
Every night there is a line-up outside the 'Hope Mission', which turn away people every night, while right next to it are buildings which has been empty for more than 10-years.

As I have stated many times over many years, we are regressing -- the majority of people like to think we have evolved and are the superior being, yet monkeys (and most other animals) have a better social structure and look after their own better than we.

[Edit] and before any person asks what am I prepared to do about it, aside from simply bitching about it, the only thing to do is make all politicians accountable for the actions and jail any that misappropriate and remove any that fail to produce or follow through, within their first term (or any term).[/Edit]

[Lee]

That really is crazy stuff.

Like they just expect these people to come up with thousands of dollars almost overnight?

I guess government people really dont understand how the 'real world' works

Regards,

Lee

[desslock]

What amazes me is how much money our countries make, yet there are so many mal-nourished seniors, homeless people starving to death and oh so many other problems.
Yet we allow the fat 'barons' sit at home, living decadently while they decide what to do with the surplus of money that their 'sheriffs' collected from us!

The regurees in hotels today were not homeless people. In fact, that poor part of New Orleans that was next to the broken levy was very much a case study in the LBJ welfare state solution. They lived in federally provided housing. They had food stamps and welfare benefits. The kids all had access to public schools in the area. The Great Society was very comprehensive, and a idea which we can look at and examine today... that is if people choose to critically examine it.

In fact, they have the welfare lifesupport that all the numerous Muslim youth in France's suburbs enjoy too.

It created terrible forgotten slums which tied their unfortunate inhabitants into an unending second-class, totally dependent life. The waters of Lake Pontchartrain just washed them out.

Steve

[Paco]

The regurees in hotels today were not homeless people. In fact, that poor part of New Orleans that was next to the broken levy was very much a case study in the LBJ welfare state solution. They lived in federally provided housing. They had food stamps and welfare benefits. The kids all had access to public schools in the area. The Great Society was very comprehensive, and a idea which we can look at and examine today... that is if people choose to critically examine it.
In fact, they have the welfare lifesupport that all the numerous Muslim youth in France's suburbs enjoy too.
It created terrible forgotten slums which tied their unfortunate inhabitants into an unending second-class, totally dependent life. The waters of Lake Pontchartrain just washed them out.
Steve

Steve, I was not saying the persons in the hotels were homeless.. I was goin on about how our countries can do way more to look after them.

[Matt 26z]

Here's a couple interesting articles on all the available work in New Orleans...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/...ss/katrina.php

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...business_x.htm

Most of the FEMA complaints are coming from poverty level people who depend on the government in every aspect. It seems to me like a smart person could figure something out and head back home to all those jobs right now.

[desslock]

Steve, I was not saying the persons in the hotels were homeless.. I was goin on about how our countries can do way more to look after them.

Or think about the specific New Orleans problem this way. As a citizen of Alberta, would you be comfortable if the Alberta government began handling all of its oil and gas revenues EXACTLY the same way the state of Louisiana handles its oil and gas revenue?

Or wouldn't you become real real nervous?

We can fret over the general problem, but I do think it is reasonable to wonder why the people who live in New Orleans and the people who live in Louisiana just refuse to hold their elected officials accountable for anything. Louisiana is much like Alberta - it has natural resources. Unfortunately some states and provinces have their act together, and some just can't get it together.

Steve