Gulf Coast Recovery
FEMA typically addresses disaster-related housing requirements with a combination of travel trailers and manufactured homes. Travel trailers have been used principally for shorter-term housing needs and are placed on private sites while a homeowner’s permanent residence is being repaired, or in group configurations to primarily support displaced renters. Manufactured homes have been used to meet both short and longer-term disaster housing needs, and are typically placed on commercial pads or in group sites developed expressly for this purpose.
Hurricane Katrina spawned the largest natural disaster in our nation’s history, decimating housing stock in the Gulf Coast region. Hurricanes Rita and Wilma further exacerbated the
housing crisis in the region. Although FEMA’s traditional temporary housing options are sufficient to address the unmet housing needs of residents in most disasters, the catastrophic
dimensions of Hurricane Katrina challenged the efficacy of these traditional methods, which are based on the statutory supposition that such assistance will generally not be required for more than 18 months. Some of those catastrophic dimensions are identified below:
1. A significant number of homes on private lots were completely destroyed.
2. Complete neighborhoods were destroyed.
3. Protracted community recovery timelines, with the likelihood that temporary housing may be required in some cases for extended periods.
4. A shortage of resources for reconstruction of homes, uncertainty with respect to community and neighborhood recovery, labor shortages and other factors that limit the pace of recovery.
5. Community and individual resistance to the use of travel trailers for extended temporary housing concurrent with the interest of the design community, local governments and
Congress to find better options for disaster victim use while pursuing permanent housing solutions. >
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Recognizing the extensive and complex housing challenges facing victims and communities as a result of Hurricane Katrina and acknowledging the limitations on FEMA’s ordinary statutory
authority to provide non-temporary housing solutions, Congress appropriated $400 million to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to support alternative housing pilot programs.
Congress provided that: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall consider eligible under the FEMA Individual Assistance Program the costs
sufficient for alternative housing pilot programs in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes of the 2005 season.” (P.L. 109-234, Sec 2403) The Alternative Housing Pilot program represents a one-time exception to FEMA’s existing authority under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, by providing an opportunity to explore, implement, and evaluate innovative approaches to both short and intermediate-term housing
solutions, an initiative that may yield systemically adoptable alternatives worthy of future consideration by FEMA and Congress.
The objectives of the Alternative Housing pilot program are to:
1. Evaluate the efficacy of non-traditional short and intermediate-term housing alternatives for potential future use in a catastrophic disaster environment.
2. Identify, develop and evaluate alternatives to and alternative forms of FEMA Disaster Housing to assist victims of the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.
3. Consider the feasibility of these options as part of the standard package of housing assistance that could be made available by federal government agencies or state agencies
for other disasters of various sizes, locations and impacts.
4. Assure that pilot projects address the needs of a variety of populations, such as persons with disabilities and the elderly, historically underserved populations as well as renters,
homeowners, single-family dwelling occupants and multi-family dwelling occupants
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