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Thousands of Katrina Victims Evicted

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 51 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hauling everything he owned in a plastic garbage bag, Darryl Travis walked out of the chandeliered lobby of the Crowne Plaza, joining the exodus of Hurricane Katrina refugees evicted from their hotel rooms across the country Tuesday.

More than 4,500 evacuees were expected to check out of their government-paid hotel rooms Tuesday as the Federal Emergency Management Agency began cutting off money to pay for their stays.

Far more people — a total of more than 20,000 storm victims — were given extensions by FEMA until at least next week and possibly as long as March 1, said FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/hurricane_katrina

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What do you think? Should FEMA have provided more assistance (or did they do all that they could) or was cutting them off the right thing to do? Discuss....

As harsh as it sounds, I think after a certain point you have to cut the cord. Defining that certain point is definitely hard b/c there will always be people who say they should have had more time.

On the news, there were stories of people who were living in the hotels, but had gov't provided apartments but just weren't living in those apts that are paid for because they wanted to use the hotel furniture.

There was also another story of a woman who was a Katrina victim that was on a morning radio show. This station raised several hundred thousand dollars to help the Katrina victims and the station used part of that money to buy this woman a bus ticket to Minnesota or something like that b/c she had family there. They even provided her with spending money for food.

And ya know what? The second she heard the gov't was helping ppl move into apartments, she called the radio station b/c she wanted to come back to DFW to get a free apartment. How messed up is that? Anyway, I know that is just one of several thousand people, but still...

I think about 3 mos is adequate b/c it has given these people time to find jobs, contact their families that they could possibly stay with, or do what they need to do to pick up the pieces and keep on stepping.

As badly as I feel for Katrina victims, there must be a limit to how long these payments can go on. No matter when the limit is set, there could be hardships for some.

There are also some who will take advantage of the situation.

Hard decision, but probably a good one.

Also, I heard a few weeks ago (maybe even a month ago) on the news that this was going to occur and they were giving out the number that people had to call to get an extension. If they gave 20,000 extensions, it must not have been that hard to get one.

Basicly, you get more of what you reward.

If you give more free motel rooms, you get more people who 'need' them.

If you cut off the free stuff, the recipients will find something better, whether they like it or not, such as a job and an apt., or a sucker relative.

Quote:

Originally posted by DeltAlum
As badly as I feel for Katrina victims, there must be a limit to how long these payments can go on. No matter when the limit is set, there could be hardships for some.

There are also some who will take advantage of the situation.

Hard decision, but probably a good one.

Agreed.

I sympathize with their situation, but you also have to look back to Sept/October when cities around the country were offering housing for x number of evacuees and then only maybe 1/2 or 2/4 of the spaces were ever filled. (this was on the Philly news).

It also sounds like some of the people who are still in the apts don't want to go anywhere but home to the gulf coast and that is just not realistic with the current infrastructure.

this whole thing is a cluster f. We are a/the super power. Come on, I know we can do this.

I think this will get better though, it has to.

bumping

Quote:

Morning Edition, January 23, 2008 · Austin Earl is so poor that the only place he could find to sleep at night was a spot of hard grass in a city park.
Earl has few possessions. But even when you have almost nothing, it's still not safe to live on the streets of New Orleans.
"I got robbed about a week ago," Earl says. "Broad daylight, coming from the grocery store. Two youngsters.
"They took the money I had. Took my cigarettes, my lighter. I found my wallet about a block away. You know, to rob the homeless is something I really couldn't understand, but there's guys that does it. "
Earl, 52, has been on the streets for four years — even before Hurricane Katrina. He has a mental illness, but it's been a while since he's taken the medications he needs. He's one of an estimated 12,000 chronically homeless people in New Orleans.
Housing Plan Emphasizes Support
Since Katrina, the city's homeless population has doubled, according to groups that work with the homeless. Almost all the city's affordable housing was destroyed.
So Louisiana came up with a bold plan to house the most desperate and hardest-to-help homeless people like Earl. The state is building thousands of new apartments and houses.
They're for "permanent supportive housing." The idea is to give the most chronically homeless people a permanent place to live.
Unlike in other programs, these people are not required to get off drugs or alcohol, or to get their mental illness under control before they can move in.
Just getting them off the streets is considered therapeutic.
According to the plan, when the homeless have found a permanent place to live, the state will offer them whatever social services they need to succeed in that house, from substance-abuse counseling to simple help in learning how to shop or how to balance a checkbook.
Congress gave the state of Louisiana millions of dollars to provide the social services the people need when they move into the new apartments.
It also gave millions of dollars of tax breaks to developers to build housing for homeless people. In return, the developers agreed to give low rents to the poor and to set aside at least 5 percent of their units to the most chronically homeless.
The first of those new homes and apartments will be available in the next few weeks.
No Money to Move In
But there's one problem: Homeless people are not moving in.
That's because Congress never got around to coming up with the third part of the program.
"What we don't have are the rent subsidies that will help people pay their rent," explains Ann O'Hara of the Technical Assistance Collaborative, a national housing group for people with disabilities.
For the last two and a half years, she's made dozens of trips from Boston to help Louisiana build these homes.
"We're at an incredibly critical point," she says. "Because if we can get the funding for the rent subsidies from Congress, then Louisiana will have a 3,000-unit permanent supportive housing system that will be in place for years and years and years. If we don't get these subsidies, then the whole program could fall apart."

the rest here

So let me get this straight? You'll build me a new place to live and then you'll pay for me to live there, and I don't have to hold a job, get off drugs, or take my medicine if I'm mental ill.

And this in going to decrease the number of people receiving social services? I'm going to need to see that math.

(Now, I don't begrudge the people described in the story the help, but it's hard for me to see how this is going to work long term. It's going to seem like a pretty sweet deal to people who are currently working themselves really hard to provide for themselves.)