Katrina evacuees tell Bush, FEMA: ‘No housing, no peace!’

Delegations of Katrina evacuees and their supporters came to Washington, D.C., on June 13 from as far away as Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and Greensboro, N.C., to protest the recent announcement by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. FEMA had said that housing subsidies for tens of thousands of people who lost their homes would be cut off.

Under the Stafford Act, FEMA is obligated to provide 18 months of housing subsidies for those impacted by natural disasters. The one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is Aug. 29.

The evacuees organized a picket line in front of FEMA headquarters. This was followed by a news conference held inside FEMA. FEMA did not send any of its representatives to the media conference to hear the grievances of the evacuees.

Malcolm Suber, a resident of New Orleans and a leader of the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, also addressed a special session on the public housing crisis held at the offices of the U.S.
House of Representatives. He spoke about how FEMA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have failed the Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

—Story & photo by Monica Moorehead