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Hootad Binky

Just saw this on CNN; this article is from a few months back. Sad.


FEMA to evict Katrina victims

Many say they can't afford housing

NEW ORLEANS - Inside trailer No. 27 here at the A.L. Davis Playground, where the government set up a camp last year for displaced residents of Hurricane Katrina, Tracy Bernard's meager possessions are all packed up, even though she has nowhere to go.About a month ago, workers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency swept through her trailer park, a bleak tableau of housing of the last resort, taping eviction notices on the flimsy aluminum doors. Thousands of other trailer residents across Louisiana were informed by FEMA last week that they too would be evicted in the next six months.

But few of them will be able to return to the city from which they were flooded out 27 months ago.

More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is suffering from an acute shortage of housing that has nearly doubled the cost of rental units in the city, threatening the recovery of the region and the well-being of many residents who decided to return against the odds. Before the storm, more than half of the city's population rented housing. Yet official attention to help revive the shattered rental home and apartment market has been scant.

In some core middle- and lower-income areas, blighted dwellings stretch for blocks on end, and the city has been slow to come up with ideas for what to do with those that have been abandoned. Last week, the city housing authority approved the demolition of 4,000 public housing units at five projects damaged by the storm. In their place, the authority plans to build mixed-income projects, large parts of which will not be affordable to previous residents.

Although repairs are being made and more housing is available now than a year ago, demand is still outpacing supply.


Few homes; high rent

Bernard, a veteran worker for the local public transportation agency who has to move by today, has been scouring the city for a place to rent. Properties in her price range, if they exist at all, routinely come without finished walls or stoves.

"A lot of the city is still boarded up," said Bernard, who rented a one-bedroom house in eastern New Orleans for $300 a month before Hurricane Katrina. "Where are we supposed to go?"

One of the more striking changes to appear lately in New Orleans is the highly visible number of homeless men and women living under bridges and in parks. Social service groups say about 12,000 homeless people are living in the city, about double the number before the storm.

The sense of an impending housing crisis grew stronger last week with FEMA's announcement on Wednesday that it would close all the trailer camps it runs on varying schedules by the end of May. More than 900 families are living in FEMA trailer parks around the city.

The agency said its action was intended to hasten the move of residents to permanent housing from trailers. It said counselors would assist every resident in the transition. "We're with them every step of the way," Diane L.W. Perry, a FEMA spokeswoman, said Wednesday.


Help is hard to find

But in interviews at trailer parks last week, a reporter found that some residents had not spoken with a caseworker in weeks, even though they were scheduled to be evicted within days.

"The caseworker is very hard to get in touch with," said Martin Blossom, a pizza cook who lives in a trailer.

Ramona Jones said her counselor gave her several listings but some of the apartments were not ready for habitation by her eviction date -- or they were, in her words, "rat holes." Landlords are asking $1,100 a month or more. Though Jones and others are eligible for financial assistance to help pay the high rents, many are reluctant, knowing that, like the trailers, the assistance could disappear, leaving them stranded with huge bills.

"I don't know what's going to become of us," said Tiffany Farbe, who lives in a trailer park near the Mississippi River in the Uptown part of New Orleans with her son and mother. "They said get out. I've explained to them over and over again our situation. FEMA just makes you feel like dirt."

The agency objects to that characterization and says it is only trying to help. "It's the next step in the recovery," said Ronnie Simpson, a FEMA spokesman. "It's the individual's responsibility to go out and find what's suitable for them."

While the agency provides listings, Simpson said it did not necessarily endorse the properties or know much about them beyond their locations and the basics.

"We're very sensitive to the fact that this isn't an easy move. But it's a necessary move," he said.

newsobserver.com | FEMA to evict Katrina victims

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Hootad Binky

blackgang

Why not kick em out.
They have had time to do something, even the Thai here if got no roof will grab some boards and do something, might not be much but it is a place to get in the shade, them people have had a couple years to at least do something.
They would not leave when they were told to go, sat and want somebody to carry their ass on a bus, but most wouldn't even go for that and got guns and shot at people trying to get em out, shot at not only Helo's and machines but at people.
They let hundreds of bus's go under water and sat on roof tops to only come down th loot and look for booze.
Fuck em,, give em welfare delivered to their door, which is free to them and paid for by someone else and they happy,, I say again If they will do not a fucking thing for themselves,, Fuck Em.

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Panda

They could go live under a bridge and rob people or sell drugs to get money for food. That would save the hard working decent folk having to support them with their taxes. Arrr.. land of the free. Ain't it wonderful.

Hootad Binky

Perhaps we should grind them up and serve them up in a school lunch program that would save a few tax dollars, too

Texpat

Why do katrina "victims" believe the government owes them anything?

They chose to live in a dangerous area -- they took a gamble.
If they didn't have home insurance -- they took a gamble.

I'm tired of bailing out stupid people. What year was that hurricane -- '05? Fuck 'em.

Milkman

Agree with Tex.

I don't know the details of the insurance, what insurance applies. And many of the poorer residents were renters. New Orleans is like a deep bowl, that is below sea level, in a hurricane area. Katrina was inevitable and had been predicted years before. Another hurricane will hit N.O. in the future.

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Panda

Yep! Its their own dam fault they were born there and want to live in their homes with their family. They should all pack up, move to New York and get a job like the decent people.

Or perhaps they could all move to Netherlands where the government takes reasonable precautions to protect its residents in low lying areas.

They are just worthless trash anyway. Most of them vote democrat. So turn the buggers out onto the street to fend for themselves. Just lock your door at night.

Texpat

Maintaining their birthright to live in a flood-prone area is the responsibility of the federal government? Don't think so.

If they chose to live there, and many did, buy insurance and place the responsibility on the individual. The US is not a complete nanny state, like too many other countries ... yet.

Panda

Survival of the fittest?
One would think the richest nation on earth could at least take reasonable steps to ensure its citizens live in relative safety. Prudent urban planning comes to mind. Its been well established that New Orleans was ill prepared for this anticipated disaster both in preparation and the aftermath. Now all we are seeing is the blame game of whose fault it all was. Blaming the poor people who just happen to live there and have suffered as a result of government neglect is pretty low.

blackgang

^They were told to get the fuck going, their Blood Bro, Mayor Noggin left enough bus's go under water to have moved them out, but they would not go, do you understand that,, they would not go.
Also the cvnt gov of the state told the US FEMA to fuck off and they would take care of it them selves, do you understand that also, and now it is USgov that is the bad guy,, bullshit.

Just because you want to live someplace do you think it is the gov business to come and do everything to protect you from a natural mishap.
Maybe clean the snow off the mountain where you built your house so avalanche will not bother you, or make the Santa Ana winds quit blowing and burning Malibu and other places in S. Cal away?
Bullshit if you want to live somewhere thats cool, but god damn at least have enough fucking brains to keep your self out of trouble..
FFS.

bkkstoneman

Panda..

You are way off base with your post...Yes, initially the reaction of the govt to the problem was not good, but then it kicked in and went overboard in the other direction...Now they feel the govt owes them...Thr hurricane was over 2 years ago and thousands have done nothing except live in their govt supplied housing...house trailer, hotel rooms or paid apts...It is time to get off the public dole..Enough...If nothing is done, the welfare state called New Orleans will go on forever...

Also another fact..the population of NO is now about 50% of the pre hurricane population but they still want morew and more..Get od\ff the dole and get a life..

Stonemaan

Panda

So whats the solution?
If all those people just "GO AWAY" someplace else there will be no problem ?
A nice easy solution for everybody, especially the government bureaucrats who failed in urban planning and follow up contingencies to deal with the disaster.

2 years on the garbage has been cleaned away but a lot of residents with no where to go are left. Where are they going to go?

Its OK now to say they should all just piss of to some place else and stop being a burden on the taxpayer, but if all you guys are so smart now, why didn't you (and the bureaucrats who now blame the people) do something about it BEFORE this disaster happened? Durr.... well we were just hoping it wouldn't happen, -- same as the people who lived there.

There has been a lot written and spoken about what could have been done to prevent this disaster. Certainly, the degree of damage could have been drastically reduced with more prudent urban planning.

You cant blame people for wanting to go back to their homes where they grew up and their family have roots. No government department told them they had to leave in the years before the floods. Now the victims are being held out as the cause of the problem. It stinks in my mind.

blackgang

If they owned the land, then they still own the land, so get some nails and a rock and go pound some nails in some wood and thats the way a house gets built, it don;t get down by looking for a TV camera to look at sadly and cry because no body build you a fucking shack, what ya think they do in Brazil, India, Thailand,,fuck down the street a block some guy had a shack, he tore it down and the next day built a fair house, why can't those darkies do the same thing, they used to when i was a kid in Calif. they get some old boards and some brick looking asphalt shingles and they had a nice "Brick house ober dere on da conar"

Every one screams and crys about to much govt and you want them to house, feed, cloth, buy beer and wine and furnish child care and pay checks for the lay abouts,, bullshit, if you want it done, do it yourself and quit counting on someone to wipe your ass for you.

Milkman

Over 200 years ago, people in the area, moved to the higher areas and out of the deep bowl, below sea level. It's common sense.

Live with their families? They can move to the higher areas to north with their families. I personally, would not want to family living in a hurricane area, that is below sea level. They don't have to move to NYC. They can move a few miles north. The Netherlands is a small country with less geographical variety than the USA, also.

Do they mostly vote Democrat? I haven't seen the statistics on voter records, let alone participation in elections. Maybe they do; maybe they don't.

They took a chance by living there. It was their choice.

blackgang

I still do not really understand what the fuck is going on here.
Can anyone tell me why people should have had homes, then a big wind and some water tear em down, and then they have no where to live for 2 years but some small travel trailers.
They had those homes on land, the land is still there with no houses,why can't they build some shelter, or does it have to be a highrise with room service and air cons with cable TV porn movies piped in??

When I was a kid my dad had an old STAR automobile, with most of the body removed and a buzz saw built on the back and to power the buzz saw one rear wheel was jacked off the ground and on the hub had a flat belt that ran the saw from that wheel, he went into someones jard, fired up his saw and cut limbs into stove wood for $3.00 a day, this was during the depression and that was good money and my mom, dad and sister 2 years my junior lived in a rental house.

My dad bought 1/2 acre out on the edge of town, drove a pipe in the ground 25 feet and mounted a pump on top, still supplys domestic water today, but he had went out there when he wasn't running the saw and built a house, then in 1937 he ran a hand thru the saw and was out of the buzz saw business, no welfare then but we made do, in 1938 mom left him, so he gave her the 1/4 acre with the house and built on the other half a 2 room cabin where I lived with him and was raised,

Now if that was possible,, why in the hell can't those bastards down in NOLA do something on that order, why must the USA government supply every fucking thing it takes for them worthless bastards to live on??

Texpat

Because that's how nanny states do it.

A Panda-style pledge to his country:

I am your problem.
You must feed, shelter and educate me.
When I am sick you must make me better.
When I am bored you must entertain me.
I will pay taxes only if I have a job -- and then begrudgingly.

Don't work like that where I'm from. Get a job, earn some money, buy a car, buy a house, buy a yacht, retire. If you're too dumb or lazy to do it, move to a country that will change your diapers and spoon feed you.

That's not what's wrong with the US, it's what right.

Hootad Binky

Well then all these residents should join the "nanny state" known as the American Military.

The number of homeless has doubled in NO, looks like it will double again. If they don't like living under bridges then "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

NO also has the highest murder rate; guess that'll double as well.

of course this is the American model of social development; the right one

Texpat