F*k FEMA

Posted by Bossip Staff

Thousands of make-shift homes housing hurricane victims will be vacated next month, which means some folks will end up homeless:

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency distributed the one-, two- and three-bedroom structures to temporarily house displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There are still 2,300 occupied cottages in Mississippi, said Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Many of the cottages sit on residents’ lots while they rebuild wrecked homes, he said.

According to agreements between the state agency and cities, the cottages will need to be emptied by the end of January and removed by March, Womack said.

Housing advocates, residents and some local officials worry that forcing out residents, many of whom are trying to rebuild their homes, will aggravate an already dire housing situation. “If these (cottages) are gone, there’s just not going to be enough affordable housing,” said Tim Kellar, county administrator of Hancock County, which includes Waveland. “We don’t have an alternate plan if that happens.”

The cottages were always meant to be temporary, not a permanent housing solution, Womack said. The structures may not withstand another powerful storm and many violate zoning rules, he said.

“We just can’t allow these cottages to stay in place where they’re unsafe or degrading the property values of homes around them,” Womack said.

Rebuilding homes or finding alternative housing has been a slow, arduous process in post-Katrina Mississippi, said Andrew Canter of the Mississippi Center for Justice, a housing advocacy group. For example, none of the public housing units has been rebuilt in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, two of the hardest-hit coastal towns, leaving scores of residents with few options, he said.

Forcing residents from the cottages next month could leave many hurricane victims homeless, he said. “Thousands of people will not be able to find new housing,” Canter said.

How the hell did they allow this sh*t to go down?? FEMA has got to be one of the most ass-backwards retarded agencies up in this mutha and they’re in dire need of new management (once again) We’d like to see our hard earned tax dollars used constructively by folks with some intelligence and a conscience for a change. SMDH.

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