After Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, the Federal Emergency Management Agency signed contracts for more than $2 billion in temporary housing, including more than 120,000 trailers and mobile homes. But the agency has placed just 109 Louisiana families in those homes.
A month after the disaster, the federal government's temporary housing effort is stumbling.
The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that FEMA was freezing many orders for trailers, although the agency disputes that. Members of Congress, complaining that a $236 million deal to lease three ships to house evacuees was far too expensive, are calling for an investigation. And under an alternative FEMA program to give victims cash to find their own housing, 332,000 households have been approved in just a week.
Federal officials acknowledge that the installation of mobile homes has moved slowly, especially in Louisiana. But they are blaming the disruption caused by Hurricane Rita, as well as local officials in Louisiana.
"We as a federal government can't come in and just place anything anywhere," said James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman. "This is not a takeover. We have to work within the limitations set by state and local officials."
Louisiana officials, though, have been working tirelessly to find spots for the trailers, said Kim Hunter Reed, director of policy and planning for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
----edit due to length --- read much more
Brownie (as in "Yer doin a good job Brownie) may be gone - but his boss Chertoff is still there, and the Brownie legacy lingers)
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