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Critics Fear Trailer 'Ghettos'
Washington Post ^ | September 16, 2005 | By Jonathan Weisman

Posted on 09/16/2005 11:00:33 PM PDT by BigFinn

On the dusty grounds of Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant in Texarkana, Tex., the recreational vehicles and mobile homes are arriving at a rate of 100 a day before being shipped out to the fringes of Hurricane Katrina's disaster zone.

Those trailers, among 300,000 to be purchased with nearly $5 billion of federal money, have become a focal point of criticism of the Bush administration's early rebuilding efforts. Some conservatives blanch at the cost. And many critics fret that mobile homes will hardly protect their residents from the next storm.

But most of all, housing experts -- conservatives and liberals alike -- worry that Federal Emergency Management Agency encampments will quickly become what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called "ghettos of despair." Rental vouchers in a market with plenty of available housing would be cheaper and faster and provide better accommodations, they say.

"Three hundred thousand manufactured homes? People are screaming about that," fumed Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). "I tell you, FEMA is a disaster."

When Katrina struck, FEMA did what it has always done in the wake of a major hurricane: turned to its standing list of contractors, including several mobile home manufacturers. Within days, the agency began discussions with the Manufactured Housing Institute, and then purchased 20,000 fully furnished mobile homes and began shipping them to staging areas in Texarkana; Purvis, Miss.; Selma, Ala.; and Baton Rouge, La.

State government then began scouring parks, government land and private sites to establish communities of evacuees. Just as quickly, housing experts of all political stripes began to howl in protest.

"If they simply put poor people in mobile homes, they would be re-creating the same troubled neighborhoods that were destroyed," said Susan J. Popkin, a housing expert at the Urban Institute. "And we know how to do this better."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: evacueetrailors; helpless; hookedonhandouts; katrina; relief; urbanbarbarians
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To: BigFinn

61 posted on 09/17/2005 10:15:14 AM PDT by Spruce
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To: BigFinn
People themselves create "the ghetto" in any temporary housing; they can maintain civilization or cast it away.

We don't have middle-class instant housing for hundreds of thousands, especially the ungrateful.

When we're nuked by Islamists or ChiComs, with millions of casualties and the terrified, in every corner racing out of the radioactive regions, shall we then worry about the kind or concentrations of shelter?. Should government "transport" them in rail wagons to D.C., NYC, Boston, North Dakota, Canada as in "Arbeit Macht Frei"? Reports would certainly pronounce it so.

Where does government put 250,000 to 25,000,000 refugees?

Remember, every single time that refugees are staged, transported, and housed, they shall be stripped of the very means of self-defense, in direct conflict with our ratified Constitution - but because of "compelling State's interest".

What do we citizens do with the invading gangs murdering, raping, and pilaging while our cops quit and are overwhelmed? Remember that The Mayor Sir Admiral Nagin ordered disarming and expulsion of lawful citizens by LEO and the Nat'l Guardsmen, who were under command by the now famous Gov. Blanc-hole/Landrieu dynasty.

Prepare yourself with a month of water, food, survival/rescue tools, and shelter, a tarp if nothing else, a shovel for burying the dead. GET A GUN TODAY.

62 posted on 09/17/2005 10:34:31 AM PDT by SevenDaysInMay (Federal judges and justices serve for periods of good behavior, not life. Article III sec. 1)
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To: Born in a Rage
I will do you one better. Send their lazy asses back to New Orleans and let them take care of themselves. I lived in a trailer when I was first married because it was all we had until our home was built. They are definitely no better than my family is and if thats not good enough for them, send them back to the hellhole they came from and tell see ya!
63 posted on 09/17/2005 11:13:04 AM PDT by WasDougsLamb (just my opinion. Go easy on me.)
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To: BigSkyFreeper
Today,I saw part of an interview from a family who was not rich,but not poor enough(the man worked all his life )to get the hurricane assistance.That is sooooooooo wrong.So punish the working man and his family and reward the nonworking.
64 posted on 09/17/2005 8:33:30 PM PDT by patriciamary
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To: Archidamus

What's the saying,"there goes the neighborhood!"


65 posted on 09/17/2005 8:35:21 PM PDT by patriciamary
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