[StBernard] La. to get less than one-fifth available funds for modular home construction

[Westley Annis]

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana will receive $75 million in new federal
money to pay for modular quick-assemble homes, known as "Katrina cottages,"
to replace the cramped FEMA trailers where many residents have lived since
Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said Thursday.
 
But that was far less than Louisiana had sought, and state officials said
they were disappointed that Louisiana will get less than one-fifth of the
$400 million pool available for the pilot program funded through the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Mississippi is expected to receive more than
$280 million.
 
The divvying up of alternative housing money restarted complaints that
Mississippi has been treated better than Louisiana in the allocation of
federal hurricane recovery cash. Landrieu said FEMA was being unfair because
the 2005 hurricanes destroyed more than 205,000 homes in Louisiana compared
to 61,000 homes in Mississippi.
 
"Under FEMA's upside down decision-making, Louisiana gets the short end of
the stick for alternative housing programs by almost 4-to-1, despite
suffering more than three times the housing loss," Landrieu said in a
statement. 
 
More than 75,000 Louisiana residents are living in FEMA trailers, and the
federal agency is spending nearly $1 million a day on additional rental
assistance for Louisianians - rental aid that has cost FEMA $3.8 billion so
far, said Natalie Wyeth, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Blanco's Louisiana
Recovery Authority.
 
"These 75,000 people are going to celebrate Christmas in FEMA trailers and
FEMA villages. We are extraordinarily disappointed that more of them aren't
going to benefit from this program," Wyeth said.
 
A FEMA spokesman wouldn't confirm how much each Gulf Coast state will
receive through the pilot program or how proposals were selected, saying
those details would be outlined in a teleconference Friday.
 
But U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., also said Mississippi was slated to
receive more than $280 million for the alternative housing program, 70
percent of the money available. Landrieu said Alabama and Texas each will
receive about $16 million.
 
The nation's five Gulf Coast states competed for the pilot program dollars
to test and build alternative housing that FEMA hopes can become a model for
how to provide housing after another disaster, whether it's a tornado,
earthquake or hurricane. Congress earmarked the money to create the Katrina
cottage program. The states submitted 29 individual plans to spend it.
 
Lott's office said $388 million was being split among the Gulf Coast states,
and the remaining $12 million will cover administrative and other program
costs.
Marie Centanni, press secretary for Blanco, said FEMA Director R. David
Paulison was expected to call Blanco on Friday morning to formally notify
the governor that Louisiana will receive $75 million of the pilot program
funding.
 
"FEMA has a lot of explaining to do," Blanco said in a statement Thursday.
"They have obviously forgotten about the thousands of Louisiana citizens who
will spend another Christmas in cramped trailers in FEMA villages, and the
many more still out of state looking for housing solutions this program
could provide. I have not forgotten them, and I will keep fighting."
 
Hurricane Katrina flooded and devastated most of New Orleans and many of the
nearby coastal communities on Aug. 29, 2005. Hurricane Rita delivered a
follow-up blow to Louisiana a month later.
 
Hurricane victims and local, state and federal officials have complained the
dollars FEMA has spent on cramped, flimsy travel trailers could be more
wisely spent on more adaptable, starter homes that disaster victims could
expand and ultimately own.
 
Louisiana submitted six proposals for spending the alternative housing
dollars. The state will administer the dollars and housing programs for any
grant awards it receives.
Priority for the alternative housing in Louisiana will be given to those
deemed critical to the state's hurricane recovery efforts: emergency
responders, construction workers, teachers and education officials, health
care employees and hotel workers and others in the hospitality industry.