AP: FEMA may put storm victims in foreclosed homes
MIAMI -- The federal government is exploring how to put Florida hurricane evacuees in foreclosed homes if a Katrina-like storm devastates the region and shelters, hotels and other housing options are full.
Officials told the Associated Press on Tuesday that it is an effort to find some usefulness in the foreclosure crisis and keep people close to their homes and communities instead of scattering them around the country, which happened when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi almost four years ago. Thousands of victims who lost their homes in the storm moved to Houston, Atlanta and other cities, and many never returned.
New Orleans has been slow to recover, partly because of the lost population.
"When you have a diaspora that leaves the state it's very hard to get those guys back. You really want to prevent them from leaving the state," said Jeff Bryant, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's federal coordinating officer for Florida. "We want to keep them in their same local community."
The idea is still being developed, but FEMA would likely contact banks, other mortgage holders and their representatives to compile a list of available homes. The evacuees would then be assigned homes close to their own and FEMA would use a contractor, acting as its agent, to pay rent directly to whoever owns the home, said Jon Arno, FEMA's individual assistance branch director for Florida. His duties include finding temporary housing for disaster victims.
If the idea works in Florida, it could serve as a model nationally.
In April, there were 278,287 homes in some stage of foreclosure in Florida, according to RealtyTrac.
Images of Katrina refugees, from the lines to get on buses at New Orleans' Superdome to the numerous cots at Houston's Astrodome, are seared into memory. When the evacuees made their way out of the Gulf Coast region, many boarded buses and planes without knowing their destination. Many of them were separated from immediate family with no way of finding them.
