Housing Shortage Is Slowing Down Louisiana Recovery

Whitsell said she hasn't got a deal with FEMA, yet confirmed she plans to bulldoze anything left on her land, which she said is uninhabitable after Katrina. "If FEMA comes along, God bless them," she said.

James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman in Baton Rouge, said his agency only contracts for space available at the time of a site visit. "At no time will FEMA make someone homeless to house someone," he said.

FEMA signed a contract with Wayne Breaux, owner of another Kenner trailer park, Airline Oaks, on Oct. 7 for a year lease for 77 mobile home pads and 13 travel trailer pads. Antoinette Landry and others interviewed at the park say they received notice on Oct. 10 that they had to leave by the end of the month. FEMA said that's not what the agency had in mind.

"We did not sign a contract with any intent of him evicting anyone," McIntyre said of Breaux. No FEMA trailers had been placed at the park, near the New Orleans airport, as of Nov. 8. Breaux didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

The current residents pay about $320 a month for their mobile home lots. FEMA agreed to pay $800 for each of 77 spots, said Larry Orluskie, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA.

More displacement may be on the way. As of Nov. 11, FEMA had already leased spaces for 6,763 travel trailers in the eight parishes of the New Orleans area, and the agency is negotiating leases or constructing sites for another 44,105, McIntyre said.

Katrina victims last week filed a class-action lawsuit against FEMA in U.S. District Court in eastern Louisiana, asking that the agency be forced to provide more housing assistance. They also want FEMA to stop evicting trailer park residents from their homes to make room for other displaced people.

The agency has also snapped up higher-end property.

After evacuating to Baton Rouge, C.J. Minor, co-owner of custom homebuilder C&G Construction in Kenner, said he stood in line for hours to rent a luxury condominium for himself at Southgate Towers near Louisiana State University. "They broke all their rules to be as accommodating as possible," Minor, 53, said. "And FEMA scooped it up."

The day before Hurricane Katrina hit, FEMA took all of developer R.W. Day & Associates' vacant units, including at Southgate, said Sandy Avery, director of development for the company. On Sept. 14, the agency signed a one-year, $1 million lease on the furnished apartments.

Even some outside contractors are priced out. Adam Luna brought five men from Brackettville, Tex., to install emergency roof tarpaulins under a FEMA contract held by the Baton Rouge- based engineering company Shaw Group Inc. Luna said he tried to rent a house for his crew. "They wanted $1,200 for a two-bedroom house," he said. "I can't afford that."

Gardner and other brokers say they expect rents to come down as more housing is repaired and some workers leave. The question for New Orleans is how many residents will have moved away for good by the time that happens.

One ominous sign: Dave Nelson, owner of Just Ask Rental in Kenner, said only seven Penske do-it-yourself moving vans came in the first two weeks of November from people moving back to the area. Local customers rented 52 trucks -- about seven times the usual volume.

"These are one-way," Nelson said. "'Out of here and I'm gone."'