Happy Thanksgiving! Now you're homeless!

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Happy Thanksgiving! Now you're homeless!

Postby banned » Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:33 pm

FEMA Tells 150,000 in Hotels to Exit In 15 Days<br>No More Free Rooms For Katrina Evacuees<br><br>By Spencer S. Hsu<br>Washington Post Staff Writer<br>Wednesday, November 16, 2005; Page A01<br><br>The Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday warned an estimated 150,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees living in government-subsidized hotels that they have until Dec. 1 to find other housing before it stops paying for their rooms.<br><br>The announcement effectively starts the clock ticking toward a new exodus of Gulf Coast storm victims who have been living rent-free in 5,700 hotels in 51 states and U.S. territories under the $273 million program.<br><br>At the Jack London Inn in Oakland, Calif., last month, Elena Cunha of Redwood City donated supplies for more than 40 families that survived Hurricane Katrina. Under a FEMA decision, many people in hotels will have to move soon.<br>At the Jack London Inn in Oakland, Calif., last month, Elena Cunha of Redwood City donated supplies for more than 40 families that survived Hurricane Katrina. Under a FEMA decision, many people in hotels will have to move soon. (By Frederic Larson -- San Francisco Chronicle Via Associated Press)<br>Special Report<br><br>Under FEMA's decision, the evacuees will have 15 days to lease apartments, make other arrangements or begin paying their own bills. Many families will be eligible for as much as $2,358 for three months' rental assistance from FEMA, payments that may be extended for as long as 18 months.<br><br>Families in 12,338 hotel rooms in Louisiana and Mississippi -- nearly one-fourth of the 53,894 total subsidized by FEMA -- may get a reprieve. Because of those states' devastated housing stocks, officials may seek extensions of hotel aid two weeks at a time until Jan. 7, at the discretion of the top FEMA official in each state, officials said.<br><br>The deadline will fall hardest in Texas, where 19,734 hotel rooms are occupied by Katrina evacuees, and Georgia, where they are housed in about 8,900 rooms.<br><br>Coming three months after Katrina's Aug. 29 landfall, the phaseout of the hotel program marks the latest effort by FEMA to manage the largest national housing crisis since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It follows criticism of the cost and management of efforts to place people in cruise ships, mobile homes and trailers.<br><br>FEMA had set the deadline four weeks ago and discussed it publicly with the media. Yesterday was the first time that the agency formally released its plan to move evacuees out of hotels and emphasized the looming deadline to them.<br><br>David Garratt, acting director of FEMA's recovery division, said the agency has begun to notify displaced families. He said FEMA issued a news release, released a public service announcement, directed a contractor to slip fliers under the hotel room doors of evacuees and yesterday began to contact people by phone or in person.<br><br>"As of the close of business on Nov. 30, 2005, FEMA will no longer be subsidizing hotel and motel leases or rents for individuals," Garratt said. "We'll be working hard in our case management program . . . with those individuals and helping them establish the ability to manage their lives in a temporary housing environment on their own, with or without assistance."<br><br>FEMA has awarded $66 million to two organizations to use 3,000 case managers to help move families into apartments if they sign leases by Dec. 1. The agency set up a nationwide housing referral service, open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST daily, at 1-800-762-8740 (TTY 1-800-462-7585).<br><br>Housing advocates criticized the announcement, saying that FEMA failed to spell out long-term housing plans, ignored existing federal housing programs and will push some poor evacuees into shelters for the homeless because of lack of planning.<br><br>"Unless they have some serious plan for helping move people from hotels into apartments, other than putting up fliers . . . as of December 1, there's going to be a lot of homeless people," said Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.<br><br>Apartment industry officials called the long-awaited action positive but worried that the agency is dumping the crisis into their hands. They predicted chaos if families do not receive counseling about federal assistance programs.<br><br>"To date, the information provided to both the evacuee and the apartment owners about housing assistance has been inadequate and has led to significant confusion," said Jim Arbury, senior vice president for the National Multi Housing Council. "It will be difficult, if not impossible, to secure executed leases for all the eligible families in slightly over two weeks -- including a long holiday weekend."<br><br>"It's a hell of a time to be telling people that they're kicked out, a week after the [Thanksgiving] holiday," said Doug Culkin, executive vice president of the National Apartment Association.<br><br>Several Texas cities, including Houston and Dallas, have set up city-funded apartment programs for storm victims, anticipating FEMA reimbursement. Under FEMA's new policy, dated Monday, the agency will not pay for any leases signed after Dec. 1, and existing leases must be phased out by March 1.<br><br>Housing experts said FEMA is opening itself to legal challenges. On Thursday, 14 people filed a class-action lawsuit in the Eastern District of Louisiana, claiming that FEMA has failed to live up to its responsibility to provide relief to Katrina victims fairly and quickly.<br><br>"It appears that FEMA is working very hard to make itself so unreliable that state and local governments will say, 'We can't depend on FEMA in the future,' " Crowley said. "I can't imagine what other explanation there can be for this level of incompetence."<br><br>Nationwide, the number of Katrina evacuees living in shelters has fallen to 2,491, down from a high of 321,000 shortly after the storm, FEMA said. The agency said 1.4 million families have registered as storm victims and 500,000 families have received housing assistance.<br><br>Print This Article<br>E-Mail This Article<br>RSS Feed<br>Permission to Republish<br>© 2005 The Washington Post Company<br>Advertising Links What's this?<br>Save on All Your Calls with Vonage <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Happy Thanksgiving! Now you're homeless!

Postby robertdreed » Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:53 am

That does amaze me, that the Feds won't even extend their vouchers up to the New Year.<br><br>Beyond the symbolism of tossing the destitute into the streets during Christmas season, this policy also ignores the practical fact that Christmas is a time when there are a lot of seasonal hires, which at least allow even the dislocated and relatively unskilled to pick up some short-term work, income, and even savings. However, if someone like that is faced with the iminent prospect of being deprived of a voucher and assuming the full cost of paying motel rates for housing, it's hardly worth the effort to even go out looking.<br><br>I read the part about "many families" being eligible for rental housing assistance, etc. But 15 days notice is simply impractical. That's a dream-world deadline set up by people who make 6-figure annual incomes. Not that that's an excuse- even they should know better. That's a take-whatever-you-can-get deadline, which is simply inhumane. Especially for families with dependent children. <br><br>Meanwhile, according to some irate citizens I listened to in the course of a radio news story, the power isn't even on in many parts of New Orleans. So what's the urgency to compel people to return to the area? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 11/19/05 12:24 am<br></i>
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Re: Happy Thanksgiving! Now you're homeless!

Postby marykmusic » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:50 am

I've BEEN homeless. I've tried to find housing that would be paid for... if only I could find a place. It was a rough period in my-- and my kids'-- lives.<br><br>I picked up a homeless guy last week, hitch-hiking. He was planning on going to Phoenix. Talked him into coming to my little town here, where there was work, and a shelter... Turned out that the shelter wasn't one, but only opens up 4 days per week so folks can take showers and get some food. What was I to do? Ended up bringing him home. It took him about 5 days to find a full-time job and another place to stay, but there was NO help. The agencies told him, "Katrina took all our money."<br><br>I probably won't do that again. He was reasonably honest, not a thief, a hard worker... just a young guy who would have been eaten alive by the homeless scene in Phoenix. It was already bad before the disasters; some of those soon-to-be-homeless are there, too. Stories abound in people who have been on the waiting list for houses getting bumped....<br><br>What a scene.<br><br>It's the same old same old, the War on the Poor, only now even bigger. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
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I've thought about moving to AZ...

Postby banned » Sat Nov 19, 2005 5:05 am

....for my asthma, maryk, do you know if it's still true that Arizona's climate is favorable, or is there as much pollution there now as everywhere else? <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I've thought about moving to AZ...

Postby robertdreed » Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:34 am

Do NOT move to a big city there, especially Phoenix.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I've thought about moving to AZ...

Postby marykmusic » Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:26 pm

Right here we are in a fabulous place, down in a riparian area. Here in the valley with cottonwood/willow trees, where it's not dusty, your asthma would be helped.<br><br>Phoenix sux. The Valley of the Sun has been renamed Valley of the Scum.<br><br>We moved from out in the desert where the dust was so bad, if we had a church it would be named Our Lady of Perpetual Vacuuming.<br><br>Tucson is not much better for dust, although there is no major industrial base.<br><br>We have found that doing the Agnihotra ceremony helps with asthma, no matter where you are. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
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What about Flagstaff?

Postby banned » Sun Nov 20, 2005 1:18 am

And what is agnihotra? Sounds Vedic. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: What about Flagstaff?

Postby marykmusic » Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:46 am

Flag is where I go to school. Beautiful, outdoor sports, highest mountain in the state. City 7000'. Fantastic place, but expensive to live (according to Arizona standards.) Art and music scene, especially because it's a university town. Also county seat, so lots of jobs in law. I live an hour down the hill, at 3300', on a river.<br><br>Agnihotra is indeed a Vedic practice. It involves doing a fire ceremony every sunrise and sunset. The resultant ash has incredible healing properties. <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.agnihotra.org" target="top">www.agnihotra.org</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> We use it in all kinds of ways. Perhaps, if there's interest, I'll start a new thread. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
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