Project Katrina

Folks just can’t seem to catch much of a break:

With the closure of another FEMA trailer park where Hurricane Katrina victims had been living, there are new concerns over a lack of available housing.

While some of the people who were living in FEMA trailers have found rental apartments, or been able to renovate their storm-ravaged homes and move back into them, many people have not found another place to live. Some of them have moved to motels, but many disabled people are in danger of becoming homeless, local charities officials say.

Some of the problem was caused when FEMA had to close some trailer parks earlier than it had planned, after dangerously high levels of formaldehyde were found.

But other problems came because FEMA hasn’t provided adequate support to victims.

That lack of support included an early, and continuing, failure to distribute supplies to Katrina victims. Instead, the agency paid to store cleaning supplies, blankets and home furnishings in warehouses for years before selling them as surplus.

After Katrina hit and the levees failed more than 378,000 people were displaced. Based on U.S. Postal Service data collected by the Brookings Institution and reported in USA Today:

The re-population of New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina slowed drastically last year and may be hitting a plateau, a study released today finds.

The city’s population grew 3% from 2007 to 2008, compared with a 19% increase from 2006 to 2007, according to the report by the Brookings Institution and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Overall, the city is at about 72% of its pre-Katrina population of 450,000.