(Photo: scout, March 2006)
TheTimes Picayunereports that FEMA is quietly evicting residents of nearly half the trailer parks in NOLA…
Neither the city nor FEMA has publicly announced any park
closures in New Orleans. But during the past few months, the
agency has quietly delivered eviction notices to residents
at nearly half the city’s parks.Since August, FEMA has mothballed more than 800 trailers
in New Orleans. More than 550 more will be emptied in the
current round of eviction notices. But the agency’s
efforts to phase out the trailer parks, always intended to
be temporary housing for hurricane victims, might leave many
departing residents in unstable living situations, largely
because of the city’s steep post-Katrina rents.Typically, residents have been given between 30 and 60
days to find new housing, but they say that’s often not
enough time, given the acute shortage of affordable housing
in New Orleans. Most people still in trailers are
working-poor renters who have clung to the temporary
solution for a lack of other viable options in their now
high-rent hometown, where the $500 rents that were once the
norm are now a rarity.
The article notes that 3 of 4 trailer park residents were renters rather than homeowners and “are also
likely to have an annual household income of less than
$15,000.” And the closings are “driven by FEMA mandate” not due to pressure from the city.