Project Katrina

The Times-Picayune recently reported the story of Earnest Hammond:

A spry 70, Hammond likes to stay busy. So he putters in his sprawling garden. Pulls mildewed drywall out of his 7th Ward house. Smashes thousands of aluminum cans he has collected, hoping they will provide the rehab money the Road Home program hasn’t.

But he worries that FEMA might tow away his trailer at any time. Technically, it is no longer his: Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered him, by letter, to leave his “FEMA-furnished manufactured-housing unit” by this past Friday.

Like Hammond, those remaining in trailers across the region are mostly people who lived on their own before Hurricane Katrina: Eighty percent were homeowners, and most of them told FEMA in a survey this year they want to return to their storm-damaged homes.

But last week, as the deadline approached, FEMA issued conflicting messages. Some caseworkers told occupants their possessions would be put on the street if they were not out by Friday. Others told elected officials and legal advocates that FEMA would work with trailer occupants on a case-by-case basis and remove only trailers that are vacant or housing unauthorized occupants.

But officials at the top levels of FEMA in Washington, D.C., would offer no assurances. Instead, they said their hands were tied. Friday marked the end of the Temporary Housing Program for Katrina victims, including about 2,000 families in trailers and 54 more in local hotels.