Myths & Facts About FEMA Housing Following Katrina

[uppityperson]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=43544

Myth: FEMA travel trailers have high levels of formaldehyde because of inadequate specifications.

Fact: There are no industry standards for air quality levels in travel trailers.
FEMA acquired travel trailer, mobile homes and park models from a variety of retail and commercial sources in good faith and fully expected all units to comply with all relevant industry standards, best practices and regulations. FEMA neither knowingly, or willingly, purchase manufactured units from dealerships and manufacturers that contained levels of formaldehyde above existing construction standards, nor did FEMA's specifications encourage non-compliance with such standards.

FEMA's specifications in Request for Quotes represented the minimum attributes that each travel trailer or mobile home must meet. For mobile homes, the specifications provided by the program office for use in acquiring units consisted of a "one page" specification detailing the minimum physical requirements. For travel trailers, a more detailed specification was provided for the solicitation, delineating the minimum standards and requirements, including quality. This specification had been developed by FEMA in coordination with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Following the CDC's findings, FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Health Affairs developed procedures to ensure the consistent and reliable testing of temporary housing units in FEMA's existing inventory. The same protocol is used for all air quality testing, no matter where it takes place, whether at storage sites, staging areas, forward staging areas or on private property.

Since 2007, FEMA has been working with the Recreational Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Health Affairs (DHS/OHA) to develop a new set of procurement specifications for manufactured housing. This year, FEMA announced that all future temporary housing units purchased by FEMA must meet strict new procurement specifications for indoor air quality, including a requirement that formaldehyde emission levels must be significantly reduced inside the units. Each unit must test below .016 parts per million (ppm).

[merh]

1. FEMA knew there were problems with the trailers in 2005

and early 2006 and did nothing.

[uppityperson]

2. "no industry standards" but still major issues.

I'm glad you are in your house. This sort of weaseling really pisses me off. "Don't complain that that didn't meet standards because there WERE no standards". Looking through FEMA website today and getting upset. Off computer and into garden soon.

[jobycom]

3. It wasn't about FEMA's intentions, it was about their execution, and the failure of an ideology.

BushCo and the Babbling Republican Theft Machine believe that the free market will set all standards, and that private business is inherently more honest, trustworthy, and reliable than the government. They believe that privatization will make government more efficient, and help spread the wealth better than government spending the money directly.

So when they needed a housing solution, they figured that prove their beliefs. They bought trailers from the private sector, didn't set any standards because rich people are so honest they needed no supervision, didn't do any quality checking to see what they were buying because rich people are so trustworthy, and they stuffed families into these trailers and refused to listen to any complaints, because poor people (even if they were only poor because a hurricane destroyed their homes and businesses) just complained a lot and should be happy with what they got.

So people were stuffed into inadequate housing that were dangerously inferior because FEMA wanted to give money to corporations rather than do its job.

I have no doubt FEMA didn't know they were being given substandard crap for their money. I have no doubt FEMA didn't want to know, either. THAT's their failure. They are so angry that they have to help "poor" people with the tax dollars those poor people paid that they want their help to be as useless as possible.

[uppityperson]

5. Yup. eom

[KT2000]

4. Wake up people!!

There are no standards for just about anything if it goes to a consumer.

Exposure rules exist for workers because of the work of unions and non-paid-off occupational physicians!

Consumers are NOT protected by many laws. There are generally suggested limits and voluntary compliance. That is why health issues are often found in environmental issues such as the endangered species act.

Consumers harmed by toxic products have to turn to toxic tort cases and believe me - they have fixed the courts to handle those cases.