The article overlooks the reason for the trailers..... availability. Cost considerations are irrelevant when considering availability.
Reconstruction is going to take a long time and the folks can't live outside for t he duration. They need housing now.
But...as the people of Louisiana have already clearly stated, "NOT IN MY BACKYARD"!
Because there is a strong possiblity that many won't use the money for what it was intended for
The trailers you now see all over New Orleans are small, very small nothing like you would see in a trailer park.
In many cases, on the Gulf Coast of MS, people would LOVE to clear out debris and start rebuilding, but cannot do so because of disputes with insurance companies. Thus, they're stuck in trailers until the time comes when they CAN clear out and start over. As for finding a nicer place; the question is WHERE? They want to be near their property, but everyone else is in the same boat, and there are no rental units to be had because THEY were destroyed as well!
Good grief. I tried to read the article as carefully as possible, but are these trailers actually camping trailers? I thought they were at least single wides. However, I can't go along with just handing people cash. Some people can be totally irresponsible. There's got to be a better way of providing decent housing without wasting money like that.