FEMA trailers decrease; seen as sign state is recovering
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
By CHERIE WARD
A decline in FEMA travel trailers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a good indicator the state is recovering from Hurricane Katrina, Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday.
Only 3,690 trailers remain in the three coastal counties,which is below the 9,137 trailers pinpointed in January.
"As we move into this year's hurricane season," Barbour said, "I'm encouraged by these numbers, which show a significant number of Mississippians have moved out of their FEMA trailers and into safer, more livable housing alternatives."
The latest count shows there are 858 FEMA trailers being used in Jackson County, 1,943 in Harrison County and 889 in Hancock County, according to a news release from the governor's office.
"Our housing efforts are now moving from direct assistance with cash or a pre-constructed cottage to more complex and ambitious plans to construct literally tens of thousands of affordable rental homes," Barbour said. "This is going to be a complex and challenging effort, but it is part of the largest housing assistance effort ever undertaken by a single state, and it will leave the Gulf Coast with well more affordable housing stock than existed before Katrina."
Barbour told the Mississippi Press Association last week that all recovery projects should be under way by the end of the year.
"This is a critical year," Barbour said. "We've had a tremendous amount of good things happen. Record employment on the coast in the bottom six counties. The schools were all open within a few weeks. The big employers are back open. Things are starting to get more normal -- not normal, but we're getting there. We've got some big projects that are kind of like pigs in the python that we are trying to push through. ... We're going to keep the foot on the accelerator very hard for the rest of this year."
The Mississippi Development Authority has provided more than $1.6 billion for the Homeowner Assistance Program grants. More than 21,000 homeowners have received the federal funds, the governor's release states.
"When the Homeowners Assistance Program finishes servicing the remaining qualified applications this fall, we will have disbursed almost $2 billion in direct housing assistance to homeowners in our coastal counties," Barbour said. "And that doesn't count our remaining CDBG housing programs that are set to provide about 25,000 affordable housing units along the coast in the coming years."
The state has three other federally funded initiatives to replace or construct affordable housing and rental units in areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has also provided more than 2,720 affordable houses to coastal residents.
FEMA trailers decrease; seen as sign state is recovering