NOLA: WH ideology and Hastert inaction keep New Orleaners from coming home

[AirAmFan]

The White House LOVES school vouchers, which never have been shown objectively to produce better education results than public schooling. But it HATES housing vouchers, which the Senate approved unanimously for Gulf flood victims on September 14th, and which could save tens of thousands of families from trailer-park slums or worse.

Instead of housing vouchers, the WH wants to buy 200,000 trailers for trailer park cities of up to 15,000 units. But only 130,000 units were built all last year, and dry-ground sites with utilitites are scarce near New Orleans. And even Newt Gingrich recognizes that, in the past, such trailer parks quickly have turned into violent slums in Florida and elsewhere.

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DETAILS:

See also an article in The Nation, summarized at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4868701&mesg_id=4885353

From http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05268/576768.stm

"Efforts to find shelter for 200,000 people displaced by Katrina set back by an absence of clear-cut government policies, planners say; Housing efforts bog down

By Spencer S. Hsu and Ceci Connolly, The Washington Post

Sunday, September 25, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Nearly four weeks after Hurricane Katrina displaced more Americans from their homes than any event in at least 60 years, efforts to find housing for 200,000 families along the devastated Gulf Coast are bogging down, according to federal, state and private sector officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials complain of a drastic shortage of sites suitable to state and local officials for the huge trailer parks FEMA hopes to establish for evacuees. Local and parish leaders say FEMA's plans to supply the trailer parks with water, sewer, electricity and other services are haphazard or nonexistent, and the encampments, some of which could include 15,000 units, are bigger than any the agency has ever established. ...

planners from Baton Rouge to Washington fear there is no government-wide housing strategy... delays are compounding what some housing advocates call a slow-motion replay of the bureaucratic divisions that crippled the emergency response for days after Katrina hit.... Congress has approved $23 billion for temporary housing and individual relief aid.... FEMA estimates that 200,000 families need homes. But the manufactured housing industry says it will take six months to build 40,000 trailers. Of 600 proposed trailer sites, only 33 have water, sewer, power and other infrastructure....

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, asked FEMA to move as many as 50,000 people from shelters into hotels and motels for up to 90 days.... With trailers proving a less than ideal solution, FEMA officials are lining up 18,000 units in hotels, motels, cruise ships, closed military bases and rental units.... Those left behind are among the least self-sufficient. ... roughly two-thirds do not have bank accounts, credit cards or insurance, most had family incomes of less than $20,000 and half have children under 18. To house them, FEMA has ordered 125,000 trailers that it planned to deploy as close as possible to affected cities, following a playbook the agency relied on after four Florida hurricanes and its New Orleans exercise last year.... FEMA officials ... hoped to install 30,000 homes every two weeks and planned vast campuses of up to 15,000 units... David Roberson, speaking for the Manufactured Housing Institute, said the industry will be able to build only about 40,000 homes over the next six months. The industry built 130,000 homes in all of 2004....

in Baton Rouge and Washington, some state and federal officials say... that FEMA trailer cities in Florida have regressed into "ghettos of despair," in Newt Gingrich's words, with high rates of poverty, crime and social strain. ... In Washington, some agency officials, lawmakers and non-governmental groups want to give more responsibility to agencies such as HUD and Health and Human Services. Rental occupancy rates and rents are at historic lows, with 1.1 million units available in the South for less than $700 a month on average, according to Edgar Olsen, a housing economist at the University of Virginia. HUD has identified 65,000 of its housing units that could be used for short-term housing.... On Sept. 14, a unanimous Senate adopted an alternative to trailers, providing $3.5 billion in HUD rental vouchers to Katrina victims -- up to $10,000 each for 350,000 families -- for six to 12 months. A House proposal for 50,000 vouchers is pending, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said. GOP sources say they are waiting for a response from the Bush administration, which one official said is not expected until mid-October. The topic is politically sensitive. Bush in his 2006 budget proposed phasing out the HUD Section 8 housing voucher program for the poor as well as related community programs."

[cap]

1. trailers arent safe in hurricanes

why are we doing this? What about families with lots of kids?

In 06 budget,we are phasing out Section 8 housing vouchers...I cant believe it.

[AirAmFan]

9. Great point. What if people are killed in FEMA trailers next summer, or in

a tornado or late-season hurricane this year?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Clueless, Incompetent Corrupt Republicans Out 2006. Nominated.

[AirAmFan]

4. Thanks for the nomination. This WH is SO extreme! To allow families to suffer

by the tens of thousands because of their ideology is the worst kind of crime.

[Missy M]

3. The bush 2006 budget "proposed phasing out HUD Section 8...

housing voucher program for the poor as well as related community programs." What were they planning to do to replace it? There is an abundance of empty houses and buildings in this country that could be used or renovated if needed. HUD identified 65,000 housing units available for short term housing, what is wrong with utilizing them. The only time Newt Gingrich has been right about something is the statement that trailer cities regress into "ghettos of despair". Not only ghettos of despair but most times eyesores that cannot stand up to hurricanes or tornadoes. The poor people who have been displaced by Katrina and Rita have got to be helped and trailer parks are not the answer.

[AirAmFan]

16. That would be the "urban homesteading" fantasy Dubya outlined in his

"Disneyland" speech at Jackson Square. Lotteries for a few dozen parcels of Federal land in NOLA would make great photo ops. But housing is needed for tens of thousands in NOLA alone, not dozens, hundreds, or even thousands.

And there are millions more poor people living in overcrowded and substandard conditions nationwide.

[wellstone_democrat]

5. housing vouchers=lower class education vouchers=middle

its simple: the few lower class (income category) takers of "vouchers" would be few due to access to private schools locally and transportation issues. The vouchers are for the middle class and particularly for the middle class who live near religious schools (or, "academies" as many near me call them) thus, its not "welfare" but a perk.

housing on the other hand goes almost exclusively to the "lower" class in income terms so it is assumed to be "welfare" going to a "base" they really don't want (they don't donate to candidates in any meaningful way nor do their churches) and who they assume vote Democratic.

Its definitely about "class"---would they really put the majority of the population of a "middle class" southern city wiped out by a tornado in trailers indefinitely? They surely would not. But this will isolate a constituency they don't value while undoubtedly throwing money to builders of these sinkholes of despair.

[AirAmFan]

6. I agree. Class helps explain BOTH WH voucher positions, But IMO RELIGION and

and RACE play much bigger roles.

Helen Thomas's column today (at http://www.wesh.com/helenthomas/5012957/detail.html ) explains how Dubya is trying to exploit hurricane tragedy to push his pre-existing agenda for school vouchers. EIGHTY PERCENT OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS are religious, and mandating vouchers need not require much Federal money to pay off Falwell, Robertson, and the rest of the Fundie base: The vast majority of the school funding that would be shifted from public to private schools by vouchers is state and local, not federal.

And torrid white desire for racial segregation in schools--especially in the upper grades--explains both Rethug positions on vouchers. Remember Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" album?

Racist words that have been shouted by anti-black mobs for centuries quickly come to mind when considering WH opposition to housing vouchers. Racists fear that "they" "are getting above themselves". Living in the high-ground sections of NOLA would be "way too good" for "them". "They" need to "go back where they belong".

[wellstone_democrat]

7. in many areas: race = class

and religion plays a role as well. Few poor churches have school systems. Large churches with defined school systems tend to have a m/c or an aspiring to m/c congregation who can pay the bills. Mixed in with the "religious" motivations for the schools are race----

2004 was a *very* big year for 50 year anniversaries of private schools and particularly "Christian Academies" in the entire region I regularly travel within. Certainly religious motivations are within the founding principles and operation of the schools but Brown v. Topeka Bd of Ed was in 1954 which was why these schools were formed.

In many areas you cannot separate race from class very well and as overwhelmingly churches are segregated, religion plays a role as well beyond the *intentional* issues in the founding of private "academies"

[AirAmFan]

8. Race=religion is a much stronger formula than race=class

During the 60s, Dr King used to say, "11am Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the US". That must still be true today.

Meanwhile, the majority of the poor ALWAYS have been other than black. Blacks are only about one eighth of the population. For them to be the majority of the poor, their poverty rate would have to be at least eight times the poverty rate of nonblacks.

But the black poverty rate (25 percent) is not even three times the white poverty rate (9 percent).

[tx_dem41]

10. "New Orleaners"?!?!?

Please tell me that no one on the NOLA website actually used this travesty of a term? Its "New Orleanians".

[AirAmFan]

12. IMO fewer syllables always are better, and I've seen and heard both

"New Orleaners" (four syllables) and "New Orleanians" (five symbols). Do you have a URL for an authoritative usage manual?

Here's a third option I just made up: Pronounced "New OR-lee-uns" but spelled the same way as the name of the city.

[tx_dem41]

13. Not trying to pick a fight...I'm from there...no one has EVER been

from there and used that term to describe themselves.

[AirAmFan]

14. Go ahead--a fight over what people should be called could be fun!

[tx_dem41]

15. Better than ANSWER vs. NON-ANSWER...

I agree. :)

[SoCalDem]

11. Housing vouchers allow some leeway to the individual

Fema trailer-cities force them to live in a defined area, where they can be "kept track of"..


It's as simple as that.. they want these "folks" to stay where FEMA tells them to go..and once they decide they want to go elsewhere, the aid ENDS.. ("they didn't need our help anymore")Case closed..

FEMA KNOWS that families cannot enjoy life in those metal boxes, so by making it as uncomfortable a proposition as possible, they get the people to "opt out"..

It would be a lot cheaper, and nicer too, to just actually BUILD a damned town for these folks..You KNOW there is plenty of state owned/federal owned land that could easlity accomodate them..but that would give people some actual say in their own local government..

FEMA would prefer to keep people as "pending"...pending their return "home" (which most likely will never happen)

[AirAmFan]

17. Good point. If FEMA gave evacuees 12 months of housing vouchers, nobody

would leave early. But if they were put in crummy trailer parks in the middle of nowhere, FEMA could "economize" whenever somebody found a better place to be.

It's the same "starve them out" mentality Brownie mentioned at the House hearing today.