dec 1rst -- eviction day

[RepublicanElephant]

FEMA will stop paying for hotel rooms for most evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Dec. 1, officials said Tuesday as the agency pushed victims to find more stable housing.

Housing advocates said they fear that won't be enough time for an estimated 53,000 families ---- mostly in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi ---- who remain in hotels.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had previously set the December deadline as a potential goal to have evacuees out of hotels and into travel trailers, mobile homes or apartments until they find permanent homes. Tuesday's announcement marked the first time the agency said it would cease directly paying for hotel rooms that have cost FEMA $274 million since the storms struck.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/01/special_reports/hurricanekatrina/111505190950.txt

[azmouse]

1. Are you sure about this?

I thought I read somewhere that FEMA changed its mind and will pay for rooms through Jan.
Has anyone else heard this?

[brmdp3123]

2. You are correct.

That link is to an article from November 15th. FEMA made the change last week.

[Warpy]

3. I only heard about the proposed eviction

that came out two days before a story on foreclosed housing that Fannie Mae was offering rent free to evacuees through FEMA, but that FEMA hadn't given to anyone.

That's right, lots of empty houses, and FEMA hadn't assigned a single home to a single family.

They showed pictures of those houses in Texas, mostly upper middle class houses in upper middle class neighborhoods, certainly a giant step up from the shotgun shacks and trailers poor evacuees with no housing were used to.

I have a feeling that's why FEMA didn't act. Pure meanness and class warfare.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Yes, I heard that too. On CBS news last week.

[BJW]

4. There's also a fair amount of sham evictions

going on in NOLA as owners and managers of lower-income apartments are attempting to evict people from barely damaged buildings in attempts to cash in on FEMA reconstruction monies.

Here's one link to one story. There's updates and other stories on the same site: http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/6066.php

Thx for posting this. I think it's extremely important to keep Katrina related news front burnered.

[RepublicanElephant]

5. thanks for this link...

the eviction story i heard was on tv, so i couldn't post a link for that here.

[BJW]

7. NOLA residents to protest for "Right of Return"

Here's a link to a planned march and protest upcoming in about a week:

http://www.ntimc.org/newswire.php?story_id=3422

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. "Gulf Coast Homeowners' Mortgages Come Due"

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Like many homeowners around here, Janet Kisling owes a pile of debt on little more than a pile of debris. She has a $1,000-a-month mortgage on a home that is uninhabitable.
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For her and others along the Gulf Coast, December brings a cruel cut-off: It marks the end of an informal 90-day grace period that many lenders offered to Hurricane Katrina victims that let them put their mortgage payments on hold.

That means Kisling, a self-employed wardrobe consultant who sells fabulous clothing to wealthy women across the country who are too busy to shop, will have to start making payments again come Dec. 15.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051201/ap_on_re_us/katrina_mortgaged_ruins