FEMA Press Release: Dec. 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today projects selected under the Alternative Housing Pilot Program (AHPP). The pilot program aims to expand the types of housing FEMA provides disaster-affected communities by identifying, developing and evaluating alternatives to FEMA travel trailers and mobile homes. This program will also provide housing to people with on-going housing needs due to the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf Coast. "FEMA's alternative housing grants will ultimately come down to helping people in rebuilding their lives after a disaster," said FEMA Director David Paulison. "The more that FEMA can improve the process for individual victims, the more quickly we can accelerate recovery for the entire community."
Top Projects Selected and Possible Award Amount:
Texas, Heston Group Project, up to $16,471,725.00
Texas requested grant funding for single-family pre-fabricated, panelized housing that can be broken down to fit a standard 8' x 20' shipping container. Heston is a Italian manufacturer of pre-fabricated, panelized housing used in relief situations for the United Nations and military housing in Iraq for some 90,000 troops. Heston is an experienced producer of housing designed for quick deployment and reuse.
o The proposal was unique in design and concept for housing immediately following a disaster, because it can be pre-positioned, stored flat, and reused. Because they can be pre-positioned and transported by any number of standard means (flat bed truck, barge, train) they can be delivered quickly. These houses can be constructed in as little as eight hours by a six person crew, and minimal skills and training are required to complete the job. Heston Group has offered to build a "Texas Vernacular" style that can meet neighborhood and community standards throughout Texas. The units can also be used on private and group housing sites.
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The New York Times Release: Dec. 23, 2006
U.S. Gives Grants to 4 Gulf Coast States to Upgrade Disaster Housing
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 — FEMA trailers, the cramped, impersonal housing units that have come to define the federal response to major disasters, may be on the way out, thanks to $388 million in federal grants, announced Friday, that will test half a dozen cozier, more permanent models of postdisaster housing.
The program will offer new housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to thousands of families, among the 100,000 still living in trailers across the Gulf Coast, by placing them over the coming year in these studier, roomier, better ventilated homes, many of which have front porches, large windows and even small attics.
The one model planned in Texas is based on a design that is already used by some 90,000 troops in Iraq. A small house made of prefabricated parts that can be moved by flatbed truck, it can be set up in eight hours by six people. It offers more living space than the trailers and is capable of being elevated so that it can be lifted out of the flood plain.
“It is not going to make the front of Architectural Digest,” said Gil H. Jamieson, a deputy director of FEMA, “but it is aesthetically pleasing.”
In some cases, these homes can be built on regular foundations, making them permanent or at least semipermanent housing, unlike the travel trailers, which are not considered sturdy enough to survive winds that could be produced by a tropical storm.
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