WASHINGTON, DC-During a conference call, Federal Emergency Management Agency's emergency management officer Jack Schuback offered an assessment of FEMA's activities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He noted that, to date, 1.2 million households have received financial assistance totaling $2.3 billion, in the form of checks for transitional housing assistance. He added that 150,000 hotel rooms are housing fewer than 465,000 individuals, 2,000 cruise-ship cabins are housing families of one-to four individuals and 5,000 individuals are living in trailers.
While Schuback offered no specifics on the number apartments being rented through the government program that calls for the distribution of $2,358 to the displaced for three months of rent, he did concede that the aforementioned amount--which is based on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's determined fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment--"will not be sufficient in many areas." Those falling in this category can contact FEMA again before the end of the three-month period for recertification and reassessment of the fair-market value in the area in which they are residing.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition--along with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, and the Enterprise Foundation--hosted the conference call regarding FEMA's policy for assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. According to the NLIHC, of the 302,000 homes were destroyed in by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast area; 70% of those properties were occupied by low-income residents.
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