FEMA sets deadline on housing for evacuees

In the latest attack on survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Nov. 15 that just 15 days later—on Dec. 1—the agency would suspend its payments for hotel rooms in which some 50,000 survivors now live.

Due to enormous outrage and pressure from survivors and their supporters, FEMA on Nov. 22 announced that it has extended that deadline to Jan. 7 for the 10 states that have received the most evacuees. All other states now have a deadline of Dec. 15.

Searching for an apartment can be a process that takes weeks, sometimes several months—and that’s if you have an income. Yet without offering either short- or long-term plans for these survivors, FEMA spokesperson Nicol Andrews told the New York Times, are just trying to help people move on.”

FEMA officials say the agency plans to offer the survivors temporary-housing ren tal assistance at an average $786 a month. This amount that will not even cover basic rent for some families that have been scattered to high-rent areas of the country.

FEMA also notified state and local governments that it will end financing of a program that rented apartments on behalf of hurricane survivors. About two dozen cities had taken advantage of this program, according to the New York Times.

As of Nov. 21, new leases signed under this program can be no longer than three months. As of Dec. 1, no new leases will be allowed. On March 1, 2006, FEMA will no longer pay for any leases. As of this writing, FEMA has not extended this deadline.

Some politicians and elected officials openly criticized FEMA’s announcement. They include Rep. Barney Frank of Massa chusetts; Mayor Bill White of Houston, where over 19,000 survivors are still in hotel and motel rooms; and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Thompson also denounced FEMA’s failure to use 1,500 housing units donated Sept. 15 by Fannie Mae to evacuees in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Loui siana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennes see, and Texas. He wrote in a letter to the acting director of FEMA: “Two months after Fannie Mae extended the offer to FEMA, the agency has yet to place a single family in the donated housing units. Indeed, the 18 families that were placed by Fannie Mae all worked through local organizations to secure housing, as FEMA failed them.”

FEMA’s Dec. 1 callous deadline to stop payment on hotel rooms and stop signing leases coincides with the 50th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to yield her bus seat to a white man, an act that sparked the modern civil-rights movement. Organizers of Dec. 1 commemoration events around the country plan to demand justice for Katrina survivors, while they also raise demands to end poverty, war and racism.

Meanwhile, a group of unions has filed a lawsuit against New Orleans landlords who have unfairly evicted tenants. Accord ing to the lawsuit, landlords have in some instances served eviction notices at New Orleans premises knowing that the tenants are currently living elsewhere. In other instances, tenants have received eviction notices for failure to pay rent on uninhabitable property.