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FEMA Extends Housing Deadline
Jesse L. Jackson, center, speaks in Las Vegas. He and others criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency's plan to stop paying the hotel bills of hurricane victims.
(By Jae C. Hong -- Associated Press)
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Housing advocates were even more critical of the federal government's attempt to move evacuees out of temporary housing.
"We certainly cautiously welcome the announcement, but our concern is what FEMA will say tomorrow or next week," said Linda Couch, deputy director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "They seem to shift position on a weekly basis, and not understand real people are facing real challenges in finding and affording housing."
Doug Culkin, executive vice president of the National Apartment Association, said his group offered in mid-September to sit down with federal officials to discuss the details of the evacuees' plight but has yet to receive a reply.
"We're willing to help find apartments for people," said Culkin, whose group represents 32,000 apartment owners, managers and developers across the country. "They need to tell us where those people are."
FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said the agency has been hampered by federal privacy concerns, and has already given Culkin "everything we can under the law."
Paulison said several states should easily meet the extended deadline, noting that New York will have to move only 12 families out of hotels a day to resettle its evacuees. But Couch said this is impossible in New York City, where there are virtually no vacant affordable housing units.
Paulison emphasized that the government's drive to move people out of hotels and motels reflects the authorities' desire to improve evacuees' living standards, rather than an effort to save the government money.
"We want these families to have some semblance of normalcy," he said. "These families have lost everything. We want to make sure they have some decent living conditions."
