NEW ORLEANS-A Washington, DC-based low income housing advocate had strong words of support for President George Bush and FEMA after they tacked six months onto a housing assistance deadline for Hurricane Katrina victims. The Feb. 28 cutoff of Section 408 aid would have left nearly 128,000 families, currently living in trailers, mobile homes and other cities, without roofs over their heads.
"The 18 months in the statute that had allowed for temporary housing assistance presumed there would be a period of time in which rebuilding would take place and people could resume their normal lives. It didn't apply here so the enforcement of an arbitrary standard to an extraordinarily situation just didn't make sense," says Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Crowley's organization along with other housing advocate groups and members of Congress have long been pressing President Bush and FEMA to extend the deadline on Section 408, more as a reprieve to a difficult situation rather than as a solution. "The likelihood of there being enough housing for those families between now and August is remote, given the place of rebuilding down there," Crowley tells GlobeSt.com. "But it does, I think, provide some room. It takes stress off the families and allows them some more time to build a long-term plan."
Crowley adds that FEMA is discussing a long-term housing plan with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She expresses hope that the aid to families will continue to a point where they can be transitioned into more permanent housing.
The problem as of now, Crowley continues, there doesn't seem to be much of a pipeline for rebuilding of affordable multifamily housing. "For folks living in trailers in Mississippi and Louisiana, they'll probably have to face the fact that the trailers will have to be where they live for a long time unless a serious rebuilding effort takes place," she says. "The pace of rebuilding for affordable rental housing appears to be none or very little."
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