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Critics Fear Trailer 'Ghettos'
Hundreds of mobile homes are at a staging area in Baton Rouge, La., from which they will be assigned as temporary housing for hurricane evacuees.
(By Rogelio Solis -- Associated Press)
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Edgar O. Olsen, a conservative housing economist at the University of Virginia, said he pestered the Federal Housing Administration and HUD with faxes, imploring them to scrap the mobile home contracts for rental vouchers.
After all, he noted, rental occupancy rates are at historic lows, as are rents. There are more than 1.1 million available units in the South, with an average rent of less than $700 a month. Houston's vacancy rate stands at 15.6 percent. But Olsen said he has received no response.
The problem, he said, may lie with HUD's organizational chart. Like many other agencies, it has been hollowed out: assistant secretary for public and Indian housing, assistant secretary for policy development and research, general deputy assistant secretary for policy, assistant secretary for fair housing, general counsel, chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration, all vacant.
Now, HUD will be in the spotlight, Katz predicted. In his 2006 budget, the president had proposed stripping the department of virtually all of its community development functions. The White House has tried to eliminate HOPE VI, the primary housing program designed to raze and rebuild failed public housing complexes. And the administration has de-emphasized the Section 8 housing voucher program.
"The administration has spent the past five years trying to ratchet back the Section 8 voucher program," Katz said. "It's going to be fairly hard for them to turn on a dime and say, 'Oh, we were just kidding.' "
But now, they may have to do just that, housing experts and politicians say. "The whole relief effort was such an incredible screw-up that they felt they just had to throw money at the program," Olsen said, referring to buying the army of trailers. "They had to do it fast. Now, the question is whether they can undo it."
Gingrich agreed: "A key test of the administration right now is to refuse to spend one more penny on such a disastrous policy."
Staff writer Krissah Williams contributed to this report.
