2nd Round of Homelessness for Katrina Victims as FEMA Prepares to Enforce June 1 Eviction Date

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/43062

Second Round of Homelessness for Katrina Victims as FEMA Prepares to Enforce June 1 Eviction Date
Submitted by Chip on Fri, 2009-05-29 19:29.


SECOND ROUND OF HOMELESSNESS FOR KATRINA VICTIMS AS FEMA PREPARES TO ENFORCE JUNE 1 EVICTION DATE | Press Release

US Human Rights Network Condemns Federal Government’s Move to Repossess Trailers and Leave Thousands Homeless


Atlanta, May 29, 2009 - In response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s decision to repossess temporary housing from survivors of Hurricane Katrina on June 1, the US Human Rights Network issued the following statement:

The move by FEMA to enforce the June 1st eviction date for Gulf Region residents who live in temporary trailers not only lacks basic compassion but is also a derogation of the government’s responsibilities to uphold fundamental human rights. If FEMA moves forward with the Bush administration's plan to forcefully evict people living in temporary housing, it will make a mockery of the Gulf Region recovery promised by President Obama and Congress.

Earnest Hammond is a 70 year-old retired truck driver who received no assistance after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home. He took matters into his own hands and by collecting aluminum cans, raised thousands of dollars to repair his badly damaged house. He is eager to move back but can’t restore his home by the June 1st deadline, and is facing eviction. “I have nowhere to go if they take my trailer. It’s hard to believe I have to go through this again.”

Instead of carrying out the former administration’s callous plan for eviction, the Obama administration and Congress should apply the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a human rights policy that, for several years, has guided our government in providing temporary and permanent homes for people in foreign countries who become displaced by earthquakes, typhoons, and flooding.

Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network, said: “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that our government will be applying the human rights policy that governs internally displaced people to the homeless in Afghanistan. It is unconscionable to hold our own population to a lower standard and subject displaced Americans to evictions before permanent housing has been secured.”

Hurricane Katrina displaced over a million people, many of whom have yet to fully recover as a result of the government’s failure to honor the UN Guiding Principles and human rights treaties ratified in the US. Gulf Region residents, both renters and homeowners, have worked tirelessly to access safe, permanent housing and should have the support that our government provides under basic standards of human rights law.

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CONTACT: Riptide Communications, Inc. [phone] or Ajamu Baraka [phone] (after 2pm on May 29)

The US Human Rights Network is made up of more than 250 organizations and over a thousand individuals working to bring the United States into compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other internationally recognized human rights instruments by applying the standards and principles within those instruments to domestic and foreign policy priorities. To learn more about USHRN, please visit: www.ushrnetwork.org

[barbtries]

1. is chertoff

still in charge of fema? fucking bushie tool. i'm outraged.

[babylonsister]

2. No.

Chertoff was asked by the Obama administration to stay in his post until 9 a.m. January 21, 2009 (one day after President Obama's inauguration), "to ensure a smooth transition".<8>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Chertoff

[barbtries]

6. thank you

at the moment i can't tell the difference. i just don't see how they can do this.

[babylonsister]

8. The former admin set the date, but I don't know what would have

prevented this one from changing it. I'm having a lot of trouble with this, too. Obama met with FEMA yesterday to discuss hurricane plans for this year; why didn't this come up, and if it did, what happened?

[Uben]

3. And just what the hell are they gonna do.....

...with those trailers? Burn em? No one's gonna buy them for anything. Give them to the occupants and let them sell them when they secure adequate housing if and when they can. Most of these folks were left with nothing. Some of us lost half of our savings when the banks collapsed, but these folks lost everything! Can you even begin to imagine what it was like waking up the next day and having nothing but the clothes you have on? Any politician who thinks that they will evict these people better get ready for a stint in the public sector cuz they will never be re-elected!

[Obamanaut]

5. "...cuz they will never be re-elected..." Yes they will. Normally, there

is about a 90% retention for members of both houses at election time. The majority of replacements are due to death or retirement, not being voted out. They know that. They don't care.

But giving the people the trailers is a good idea.

Was the deadline a surprise to the occupants of the trailers or the motels?

[clear eye]

4. Oh, crap.

I really thought the Obama administration would make some real improvements on this one. The NYTimes reported on the situation May 8th: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08trailer.html , but it sounds like nothing's changed since then.

[ananda]

7. enduring shame

The government response to Katrina and its
poor disaster victims will go down in history
as a great, enduring shame.

[clear eye]

12. If we had the will, we could still correct most of it now.

Rebuilding could be part of a WPA-style program for the unemployed. The owners of the properties are in the public record, as is whether they already received funds to rebuild. I honestly don't understand this "what a shame it was; we have to wear sackcloth forever" attitude.

[pitohui]

9. well it's been 4 yrs and there are homes/apts standing empty, for that matter, neighborhoods empty

at some point people have to acknowledge that for whatever reason, a very small remaining segment of the population is never going to repair their house for reasons of finances, mental illness, or what have you -- some people will never ever meet a deadline, as anyone who ever attended college can tell you -- there is nobody in this world or the next who can fix human nature

it doesn't mean that it's safe to live forever in trailers, in an area subject to hurricane force winds, no one should be living in trailers on the gulf coast

don't know what the answer is, but "selling" a bunch of trailers to people who undoubtedly have no $$$ anyway is not the answer IMHO, even giving the trailers while it might seem OK and is probably what will happen is just killing them in slow motion, isn't it? tornadoes and hurricanes are on the increase...not the decrease

does a 70 year old belong in a trailer? maybe in arizona, not in florida or louisiana or anywhere else subject to tornadoes/hurricane force winds

i doubt these people are going to be kicked out of their trailers, there have been many of these deadlines and no one ever has the heart to say, look, dude, it is not safe to live like that indefinitely...it's recognized that for some people it's probably that or a cardboard box so what do you do?

by the way, i have a different idea of "received no assistance" than the 70 year old truck driver does, i think 4 years of free housing, even shitty free housing like a trailer, is a far cry from NO assistance...he's old and will no doubt have to receive public assistance for life, but i don't think his claim he got nuthin' from fema is real believable when he's still living in a fema trailer

i don't like the idea of creating permanent refugee camps on usa soil, we have to do better than this -- rental assistance to my mind would be better than keeping this dude in a trailer -- there is lots of rental housing now, it's just too expensive for louisiana level incomes

[Obamanaut]

10. You stated some of the things I was thinking when I made my post,

but did not type because of the flames I did not want to incur. Perish the thought anyone shoulde suggest personal responsibility in finding a permanent spot, or at least more permanent than a camper or a motel.

Four years does seem like ample time to have saved for a rent deposit, etc., especially knowing in advance that there was indeed a time limit set for these temporary dwellings.

[clear eye]

11. It's not so innocent.

Whole neighborhoods haven't had the utilities restored. Try rebuilding a house w/ no power tools. Also the federal program that was supposed to make sure the underinsured had the money to rebuild was looted and went bankrupt, and no further funds were made available.

Most people believe that notoriously corrupt New Orleans is looking to declare large swathes of riverfront and coastal property abandoned, seize it under "public domain" and sell it to developers of upscale homes and condos.