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Thursday October 19th
No Room At The Inn
10/17/07
Kathleen Johnson is a long term full time volunteer who has been working in Waveland, Hancock County, Mississippi, since just after the onset of the storm. She currently operates her own disaster relief agency serving a growing list of 1500 clients. Her fiscal arm is the Waveland Citizens Fund - a registered 501 (c) 3. Website: http://www.reliefvolunteers.com
FEMA is trying to get all the families that are still living in trailers out of them by the end of the year. That is reported in the Gulf Coast News. With Waveland not cutting any slack for MEMA to place Mississippi Cottages for "renters" - this is going to be problematic for those residents not owning property. There is no affordable housing within the confines of Waveland and, if FEMA follows thru on their plan, then these residents are going to be forced to leave the Waveland City limits.
Waveland went on further to ban the placement of private trailers on properties. This effectively put a cloud on those evacuees who would like to come home to build and live on their property in a trailer during construction. There is limited rental housing, there is no affordable housing, and pilferage from construction sites is at an all time high. Without the homeowners there, at the site, to protect the building materials - it is an enormous security problem. These evacuees need to be allowed to put trailers, akin to FEMA, trailers on their property during construction.
Bay St. Louis is also placing harsh restrictions on MEMA placing Mississippi cottages for "renters" and the approval process is arbitrary and capricious. Again, if FEMA follows thru on its plan to have all the trailers removed by the end of the year - Bay St. Louis residents who were not able to navigate the Bay St Louis process will also have to leave Bay St Louis.
With this harsh approach to this class of residents - this is going to impact the business section of the community as there will be no affordable housing for the basic wage earner within the confines of both cities. I believe the plan, as outlined by Waveland and Bay St Louis, is short sighted and is going to create havoc in both the long and short haul. With both towns dropping the hammer and forcing out the option of trailers as an affordable housing solution - effectively both these communities are doing a "class cleansing" of the lower wage earner. The current policy of both towns with regards to "renters" and the replacement MEMA cottages is elitist and prejudicial and further compounds the problems of those who, otherwise, qualify for a Mississippi Cottage.
Why is it that we can not seem to come up with a Master Plan for "renters" that is equitable?
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