Wednesday, November 02, 2005
New Orleans: Dispersing the 'Underclass' posted by Richard Seymour
Via Le Colonel Chabert. Remember how the rich of New Orleans insisted they didn't want the 'underclass' back? How construction firms and estate dealers wanted to build the city anew for condominium residing hipsters? How one politician praised God for 'cleaning up' New Orleans' housing?This is how they're keeping the poor from returning to New Orleans:
In the two months since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept the Gulf Coast, the federal government has spent almost $1.3 billion buying 95,151 travel-trailers to shelter evacuees - an effort many housing experts nationwide view as misguided and unnecessarily expensive.
The idea of purchasing tens of thousands of trailers and scattering them across four Southern states in parks, on driveways and in temporary trailer communities is a critical component of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's massive assistance plan for the Gulf Coast.
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Criticism of today's temporary housing program has come from conservatives and liberals, who see the plan as costly and detrimental to hurricane victims' well-being. Beyond the fiscal cost is the social one: The trailer parks are likely to become crowded, remote and undesirable, giving residents little chance to conveniently tap into jobs or schools.