Fema residents forced to evict - Felix Cheong

An article in the New York Times talks about the trouble that many Hurricane Katrina victims are going through since FEMA is forcing them to evacuate their trailers. Most victims are using the trailers as a stop gap in order to raise enough money to fix the homes that they have lost, or buy new ones, but due to the poor economy and lack of work most are finding it hard to leave the trailer camps. FEMA had promised to build permanent residences or "Katrina Cottages" for the people that can't support themselves or allow them to buy the trailers at around $300, but according to this article the permanent housing plan hasn't been finished yet, and when people inquire about buying off the trailers FEMA says that it is no longer an option. This leaves most of the people stranded. Even though most people were supposed to evict by May of 2009 there were still 3000 people living in trailers at that time.

One of the people that was interviewed is trying to pay off renovations to his damaged home by collecting cans, but if FEMA kicks him out now he's scared that he will not be able to pay off the renovations. “I need the trailer,” said Mr. Hammond, 70. “I ain’t got nowhere to go if they take the trailer.”

This article fits into what we were discussing about how people that most need the camps are the ones that FEMA wants to kick out, since they don't have the money to support themselves. Most people that have the money to leave would have left already due to the poor conditions of the trailers. If FEMA does force the rest of the victims out, they are the ones with nowhere to go. This article emphasizes again how FEMA wants these camps to be temporary.“All I can say is that this is a temporary program, it was always intended as a temporary program, and at a certain point all temporary programs must end,” said Brent Colburn, the agency’s director of external affairs. The idea of temporary and immobile trailers of FEMA versus the airstreams mobile but permanent iconic mindset is interesting.

Information Sources
Dewan, Shaila. "Fema residents forced to evict". New York Times. May 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08trailer.html?_r=2 (Accessed January 10, 2010)