Posted on 01/23/2007 9:12:12 AM PST by weegee
Katrina evacuees say they need more than extension
They welcome more time with housing help but say the problem is more long-term
A six-month extension of emergency housing assistance will stave off an immediate catastrophe but will not solve the underlying problems preventing hurricane victims from rebuilding their lives, evacuees and their advocates said Monday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed that assistance would continue through Aug. 31 for about 128,000 households living in trailers, mobile homes or apartments, including about 14,000 in the Houston area. The assistance was scheduled to expire in February for victims of Hurricane Katrina and in March for those displaced by Hurricane Rita, which hit a month later.
Evacuees and leaders of groups helping them said they welcomed the extension. But it provided little comfort to Linda Edwards, 54, who said she and her nephew had been living in her van since FEMA stopped paying her rent four months ago. Hurricane Katrina forced Edwards from her home in New Orleans.
"We can't find anybody to give us any help," said Edwards, who said she is bipolar and gets by on about $460 a month in disability payments. "It's cold in the van."
The extension applies only to evacuees now receiving FEMA assistance, spokesman James McIntyre said Monday, and to any who successfully appeal earlier denials of benefits.
Thanks, and a plea About 25 evacuees gathered Monday at a Stafford apartment development for senior citizens to thank FEMA for the extension while arguing that they need an additional 18 months rather than just six months.
Leaders of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which organized the event, also called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide permanent rental assistance vouchers to elderly and disabled evacuees.
Evacuee advocates have argued for months that HUD would be a more appropriate agency to help evacuees than FEMA, whose mission is focused on short-term disaster assistance. The unprecedented destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina and the poverty and limited job skills of many of its victims demand longer-term solutions, they say.
Constant anxiety about maintaining a roof over their heads has compounded the struggle for thousands of evacuees, said Kristin Carlisle, a policy analyst for the Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service in Austin.
'Barely getting by' Cases such as Edwards', she said, illustrate the broader problems of poverty and a shortage of housing affordable to low-income people.
Genevieve Brown, 71, a Katrina evacuee from New Orleans, said she lost her FEMA assistance four months ago. A son paid her rent for two months, Brown said, but she received an eviction notice when he no longer could help her.
Brown said her landlord has been patient while she tries to borrow money to pay her rent, but she's unsure how much longer she can hang on. She has applied for reconstruction funds through the Road Home program intended to help families replace homes lost in the hurricanes, but hasn't received an answer.
"I want to go back, but I lost everything," Brown said.
...and get it!
As I noted elsewhere, in this same amount of time naked, starving, homeless, Vietnamese boat people had learned English, opened a nail salon, and were driving BMWs.
Gimme, gimme, gimme.
go back to Loseriana and latch on to Blanco's nipple.... get the f##k out of Texas....
""I want to go back, but I lost everything," Brown said."
Ms. Brown. You are eligible for Social Security. Have you looked into that?
"
A six-month extension of emergency housing assistance will stave off an immediate catastrophe but will not solve the underlying problems preventing hurricane victims from rebuilding their lives, evacuees and their advocates said Monday."
I agree with much of this sentiment. A six month or even a six year extension won't solve the underlying problems. The underlying problem is that these people are dependent on government aid and aren't able to provide for themselves. Should there be some type of temporary assistance after a storm this bad? Sure but for no more than a couple of months. Its been a year and a half. People have had plenty of time to get back on their feet if they tried. Allowing them to continue to suck on the government teat won't do a thing to encourage them to get their own acts straight.
First rule of real-world economics: The demand for other people's money is infinite.
Welfare is a killer far worse than Katrina. Laid to waste years ago, these people were destined to poverty and servitude by welfare…..now they want more. Apparently those who are able find jobs available to them, find the same are beneath them. OMG!
Uh, why are these folks still on FEMA assistance? A 71 year old with no income should be on Section 8... as should the bipolar guy most likely.
Maybe I'm missing something, but FEMA is not meant to be a new long term social welfare program.
To qualify for SS, one much have verifiable employment.
Folks that have sucked the government teat all their lives won't qualify.
They can't afford propane either.
Trailer residents complain of cold (LA Katrina victims)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1772217/posts
Does this twit realize that the very same government programs have caused the situation?
I say pull the plug on all of this beginning 05/01/2007. That way these people will have help through the winter - and that' it. When it's warmer they'll be forced to look for jobs.
Buy a tent, slackers.
"We can't find anybody to give us any help," said Edwards
Goodness gracious, I couldn't either!!! That's why I went out and got a job and have held it down or replaced it since out of school. I found out no one was paying my way anymore and I had to do the "work" thing to make a living. You can get housing and food and transportation when you have money, which is what a job is for.
Try it!
New Orleans Saints fans Derek Lawson, left, and Tiffany Poche watch the Saints play the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship football game in Arabi, La., Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007. The Saints lost 39-14. They were watching the game in the FEMA trailer of David Watson, whose home was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Pat Semansk
Well if you handn't lived off the government all of your life you'd have investments and Social Security to put a roof over your head.
How 'bout THIS unusual idea, Mr. Brown .... get a job and try to be a self-sustaining man.
Stop this corrosive attitude that you are owed every creature comfort possible, from cradle to grave.
"Limited job skills" really doesn't describe it. I'm sure many employers would bend over backwards to help refugees willing to work, and there is work.
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