More People in NO Facing Homelessness for the Holidays

Starting last month, FEMA has begun evicting hurricane survivors in New Orleans from the temporary trailers that were provided after the storm. FEMA states that the evictions are a part of the process of moving residents to permanent housing and that they are working to assist all residents with the move.

The residents themselves, however, have a different story to tell. Many said that they had not been able to contact a FEMA caseworker in weeks, even though their evictions are scheduled for the next few days. Those who have spoken with caseworkers often report that the information they gained was useless. The apartments FEMA has found for residents are either far above any conceivable price range, or they are not in suitable living condition. As for the 4,000 public housing units in which many of these people used to live, they are being demolished to make way for mixed-income projects which will not be affordable to previous residents, and will not be finished until 2010. To make matters worse, jobs are scant, and many residents now are facing the possiblity of becoming homeless.

There are already twice as many homeless people in the city than before the storm. Today the number of people living under bridges and in parks is at around 12,000.

“'FEMA and the federal bureaucracy seem oblivious to the fact that virtually no new affordable rental housing has yet appeared in New Orleans to replace what was lost,' said Martha J. Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans, a group of 60 agencies that house and feed the homeless. 'It will take a long time for enough replacement affordable housing to be built. To withdraw housing assistance to the neediest people is a shirking of federal responsibility for the design failure of the federal levees in New Orleans, which was the cause of most of the destruction of affordable housing here.'
In the past several months, a homeless encampment has sprung up on the steps of City Hall — partly because it is a safe open space and partly because it is a political statement. Tents and sleeping bags are aligned in rows. The crowd of hundreds is a mix of young and old, white and black."

Via The New York Times