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Biloxi's Recovery Shows Divide
"At night, you can see the casino lights up in the sky," said Shirley Salik, 72, who lives in a FEMA camper. "But that's another world."
(By Peter Whoriskey -- The Washington Post)
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Louisiana leaders designed a homeowner grant program that is far broader. Essentially, any homeowner with significant hurricane damage is eligible to receive as much as $150,000 for rebuilding, less any insurance payouts received. A special provision for low-income homeowners added as much as $50,000 to the award if the damage claim was not enough to rebuild.
Mississippi's primary homeowner grant program, by contrast, was much narrower.
The program, known as Phase 1, focused only on the relatively narrow group of homeowners who lived outside the designated flood-prone areas -- and as a result did not have flood insurance -- but were flooded by Katrina.
It excluded thousands who lived in the flood zone and lacked adequate flood insurance, as well as anyone who experienced only wind damage.
Bailing them out, the argument went, would encourage homeowners to forgo insurance coverage in the future. But because low-income households were more likely to lack insurance or to be underinsured, Mississippi's exclusions fell most heavily on the poor, advocates said.
"Mississippi had to be pushed every step of the way to a compassionate position, and it's only partway to the finish line -- that's why losing this money to the port would be so wrong," said Reilly Morse, a lawyer for the Mississippi Center for Justice, a legal aid organization that has lobbied for the housing money. "It's just not compassionate to stop here when so many people still aren't cared for."
Mississippi did eventually begin compensating low-income homeowners who lacked insurance. But that program, Phase 2, limited awards to $100,000, and about 20 percent of the 11,000 applicants for that money have received checks so far.
Mississippi's program for rebuilding affordable rental properties has lagged even more. A proposed $262 million program for the owners of small rental complexes or houses, the primary type of rental on the coast, has yet to dole out any money. Another program, for low-income housing tax credits, is supposed to generate about 5,730 affordable rental units, but fewer than 1,100 have been built.
More than 20,000 rental units in Mississippi sustained major or severe damage in Katrina. The post-storm scarcity of rentals has driven prices up as much as 30 percent, making it more difficult for families in FEMA trailers to find new homes.
"Renters -- well, a lot of us sort of fell through the cracks," said Salik, the former casino housekeeper.
A widow, she quit her job after having a knee replacement years ago but still works three days a week at a mini-storage facility.
For a month after the storm, Salik lived in a tent. After a few more temporary living arrangements, she landed a FEMA camper that she has parked in her son's yard. Her son's camper flanks his house on the other side. He is still repairing the house, and though Salik had rented a house before Katrina, she expects to move in with her son when he finishes.
