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Synikul · **New Orleans Update -** 11-16-05

Quote:

FEMA to Stop Paying for Evacuees' Hotels

WASHINGTON - FEMA is stepping up the pressure on some 53,000 families left homeless by hurricanes to leave government-paid hotel rooms and find long-term housing.

The agency said Tuesday that it will stop paying hotel bills by the end of the month for most of the families devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, even though housing advocates fear they won't have enough time to find other places.

Most of the people still staying in hotels and motels are in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had previously set the December deadline as a goal to have evacuees out of hotels and into travel trailers, mobile homes or apartments until they find permanent homes.

Tuesday's announcement marked the first time the agency said it would cease directly paying for hotel rooms that have cost FEMA $274 million since the storms struck.

FEMA granted exceptions to evacuees in hotels in Louisiana and Mississippi, where there is a shortage of housing. Evacuees in those states have until Jan. 7 to find homes, said David Garratt, FEMA's acting director of recovery. He said 9,830 households remain in hotels in Louisiana and 2,508 in Mississippi.

"There are still too many people living in hotel rooms, and we want to help them get into longer-term homes before the holidays," FEMA Acting Director R. David Paulison said in a statement. "Across the country, there are readily available, longer-term housing solutions for these victims that can give greater privacy and stability than hotel and motel rooms."

"Those affected by these storms should have the opportunity to become self-reliant again and reclaim some normalcy in their lives," Paulison said.

After Dec. 1, most hurricane evacuees who aren't ready to leave hotels will have to pay the costs out of pocket — either with FEMA rental housing aid they receive or from their own funds.

Katrina hit on Aug. 29, followed by Rita on Sept. 24.

In Houston, Mayor Bill White demanded that FEMA grant a similar extension to the city as it moves 19,158 evacuees out of city hotels.

"We have moved more evacuees out of hotels than any other city has ever had in hotels," White said in a statement. "So we encourage those new to it to ask us, not tell us, how to do it."

The hotel program marked FEMA's second step in finding homes for hundreds of thousands of evacuees displaced after the storms. Over the last month, FEMA has moved 8,748 people out of emergency shelters and into hotels and other transitional housing, Garratt said. As of Tuesday, 2,491 evacuees remain in shelters, down from a high of 321,000, he said.

Also by Dec. 1, thousands of evacuees who receive FEMA housing aid in vouchers issued though state or local authorities will have to sign a rental lease to remain eligible for the funding. Three months later, on March 1, FEMA will end the voucher program and send housing aid directly to evacuees who qualify.

Additionally, the six-month leases for evacuees living on cruise ships will end March 1, Garratt said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose state welcomed many Katrina evacuees, said: "We recognize and agree with FEMA's decision to make personal responsibility a part of the hurricane recovery process. However, my great concern is that there is still no long-term housing plan for the hundreds of thousands of Katrina victims who lost everything — including their homes — as a result of the storm, and come March 1 many of them may find themselves with no long-term housing options."

Housing advocates said FEMA has not given evacuees enough time to find homes and sign leases — a process that can take months in rental markets already nearing capacity.

So far, FEMA says it has provided $1.2 billion in transitional housing assistance to more than 500,000 households displaced by the hurricanes.

The Red Cross had not seen details of the plan Tuesday, but spokesman Michael Spencer said "the time has passed for emergency housing."

"Interim housing is the responsibility of the state and federal government, and we have to assume they have a plan in place," he said.

LINK

In other words "Life sucks, then you deal with it, so move on with your lives, you fucking worthless shitbags!"

In unrelated news......

Quote:

Big Easy uneasy about migrant wave
Thousands of Latino laborers have beaten a path to hurricane-battered New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in a quest for paychecks. Hopes are high. So are tensions.

NEW ORLEANS -- Every day throughout the French Quarter and downtown, the ranks of deeply tanned, Spanish-speaking men in soiled clothing grow and become more visible amid the ruin.

Two men from Mexico, now working here for a Houston contractor, are being tossed out of a Bourbon Street strip joint because they don't have any U.S. identification. "They're coming from all parts" of Mexico, one man said of his compatriot illegal migrants.

On nearby Canal Street, bisecting the city's heart, where street gutters are lined with putrid debris, Jaime Salas Aguilar, 27, wanders about with a desperate and hungry look. "You got any work?" he asks a visitor.

A native of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi who paid a smuggler $2,000 three years ago to guide him illegally across the Arizona desert, Salas, whose features hint of his Mayan ancestry, left Atlanta for New Orleans about a month back because he had heard of bigger paychecks here.

He is among uncounted thousands of migrant Latino laborers beating a path to New Orleans and other parts of the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast, sensing an extraordinary opportunity for jobs if they're willing to work 70 to 80 hours a week for $8 an hour or better.

They face harsh living conditions, ranging from tent camps to dilapidated motels, and they often are cheated out of their full earnings by labor brokers.

The emergence in New Orleans of America's ubiquitous pool of illegal immigrant workers--estimated at up to 12 million nationwide--is straining ethnic tolerance in a city that had counted only 3 percent of its population as Hispanic. That was before Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29.

More migrants, more tension

The swelling numbers of Hispanic migrant laborers, legal or not, have raised political tensions. A Tulane University historian speaks of a possible "population swap" between the city's evacuated black population and its new Latino workforce, and the backlash was fueled by New Orleans' African-American mayor, C. Ray Nagin, who recently uttered remarks deemed offensive by some.

"How do I make sure New Orleans is not overrun with Mexican workers?" Nagin asked at an October forum with business people as he discussed the city's future.

That comment prompted rebukes from both African-American organizations typically friendly to rising leaders such as Nagin and from Latino groups, which together called the comment "an example of remarks that can divide Americans at a time when we need to be united."

"We are united in the belief that legitimate concerns should not be the catalyst for pitting one group against another," said the joint statement by the National Urban League, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Asian American Justice Center.

FULL ARTICLE

Remember a few months ago when the President of Mexico made national headlines when he said something to the effect of "my people are great because they take the jobs that not even blacks will do"? Gosh, HE WAS FUCKING RIGHT!

All the shitbags of New Orleans are sucking money from the government trough, while doing fuck all but sitting on their asses, while the Mexicans are moving in to do the rebuilding work. Using the stats from the previous story, I'd say there are 53,000 volunteers who need a fucking boot up their asses to get them back to the shithole they used to call home, and rebuild it themselves!

Wicked Lady · 11-16-05

My family and I have talked about this... a lot. Now, I defended those people initially, just after the hurricane. But the longer this goes on, the more pissed off I get.

You know how long it took me to receive aid after Hurricane Ivan? You know where I lived after my house got blown away? The answers are 4 months and in the stockroom of an outlet mall retail store. Respectively. FEMA gave me $400 for what they call (emergency housing aid). It took over a month to get that so-called emergency aid. And these people are getting tens of thousands of dollars, free room and board, and debit cards?

You know what the one great thing about hurricanes is? THERE ARE TONS OF JOBS AFTERWARDS. And in the cases of these New Orleans evacuees... they're handed everything on a silver platter and STILL think they're entitled to more.

Pisses me off to no end.

Billy the Kidd · 11-16-05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wicked Lady

My family and I have talked about this... a lot. Now, I defended those people initially, just after the hurricane. But the longer this goes on, the more pissed off I get.

You know how long it took me to receive aid after Hurricane Ivan? You know where I lived after my house got blown away? The answers are 4 months and in the stockroom of an outlet mall retail store. Respectively. FEMA gave me $400 for what they call (emergency housing aid). It took over a month to get that so-called emergency aid. And these people are getting tens of thousands of dollars, free room and board, and debit cards?

You know what the one great thing about hurricanes is? THERE ARE TONS OF JOBS AFTERWARDS. And in the cases of these New Orleans evacuees... they're handed everything on a silver platter and STILL think they're entitled to more.

Pisses me off to no end.

LIAR LIIIIAAAR! You have white privilege!

Panthera66 · 11-16-05

Yeah- I'm sick of hearing about it.

thefr0g · 11-16-05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billy the Kidd

LIAR LIIIIAAAR! You have white privilege!

And Billy plays the race card. Right on schedule.

Panthera66 · 11-16-05

ha ha

Billy the Kidd · 11-17-05

Quote:

Originally Posted by thefr0g

And Billy plays the race card. Right on schedule.

Yeah not like you with your "poor muslim youth looking for equal rights" in the other thread right? It made me throw up a little bit in my mouth it was such liberal fucking tripe.

thefr0g · 11-17-05

What the fuck does that have to do with this thread?

You bring up race every single chance you get. Its getting redundant. Trust me, everybody here knows what you think about blacks, muslims and mexicans. And EVERYBODY here knows how much you love the chinese. Christ.

Billy the Kidd · 11-17-05

What does it have to do with anything? I dont know, you did the same shit in other threads and then demonize me for it here? Fuuuuuny.

thefr0g · 11-17-05

How is defending a race that you are suggesting genocide against the same as bringing up all the negative aspects of the black race every time you get a chance? I'm not following the logic.

Billy the Kidd · 11-17-05

Pro or con its still the race card. Wwaaaaah poor muslims are angry at a lack of jobs. Its utter bullshit and the race card, its the same trick Jesse Jackson plays everytime hes got a camera on him.

Wicked Lady · 11-17-05

I thought we were talking about free-loading darkies.

Stay with it, peoples!

Sic Simon · 11-17-05

How come the government doesnt give us floridians aid when hurricanes fuck our shit up, last year I spent 3 weeks drinking and bathing out of a river cause I had no power or water where the fuck is my hotel room?????

Wicked Lady · 11-17-05

They do. Just not on the same scale as they got. After Ivan, us Alabama people were pissed because Florida residents got more FEMA aid.. and got it quicker.

Sin · 11-17-05

Wow, they still have people in there!

I agree it is definitely time to move on with their lives, do they think they are just going to live in a hotel until their city is rebuilt? I doubt it! They've had since the hurricanes hit to spend looking for a new home, I think a December 1st deadline is MORE than fair.

And please to all the bleeding hearts that hopefully aren't on this board, don't give me crap about how "How can they move on just like that when they lost everything they had, blah blah blah" --That's a very good question, and the answer is "Easily-means there's less shit to pack."

Wicked Lady · 11-18-05

Werd. I've done it. Lots.

I saw on Fox News last night that FEMA ran out of money and is telling insurance companies not to pay flood claims. They said "everyone will be paid.. eventually".

That's interesting. I wonder how long "eventually" is going to be. These are people that bought legit insurance to cover their property, paid into that insurance for a length of time, and now when it comes time to pay up they're not getting it. THAT pisses me off. Why even bother to have insurance?

Sic Simon · 11-18-05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wicked Lady

They do. Just not on the same scale as they got. After Ivan, us Alabama people were pissed because Florida residents got more FEMA aid.. and got it quicker.

They need to fix their scale, cause it's broken.

Panthera66 · 11-18-05

Damn people are taking all the jobs.

SoullessHeathen · 11-24-05

Just another example of people who will suckle the govt. teat until they're

forced to start standing on their own two feet.

Jordyn · 12-12-05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sik Simon

How come the government doesnt give us floridians aid when hurricanes fuck our shit up, last year I spent 3 weeks drinking and bathing out of a river cause I had no power or water where the fuck is my hotel room?????

what i found most ironic about this situation is that most of the aid went to rich people who were hardly touched in miami, so the paper reported...my mother in law had to live in her house with no front wall for almost a year before we moved...and the landlord wanted full rent too, she received a one time check of 1000 dollars to cover all the damage, (everything in her living room) while the owner got several thousands to fix the roof and wall...only after being threatened with government reporting and needing new renters inspired her to do a quickie job...*shrugs*

people suck!

"I