Mississippi housing blues

I spent yesterday meeting with community groups in Mississippi, including the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and MS Worker's Center for Human Rights. Both have been on the front lines in providing basic assistance to those affected by the hurricanes -- and battling corrupt contractors, complacent FEMA operatives, and others standing in the way of a decent recovery.

Like New Orleans, one of the biggest issues is still housing. The big news this week is that Gov. Haley Barbour was seeking an extension from the feds on how long Katrina evacuees could live in FEMA trailers. The scope of the problem is staggering:

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency records show that as of Monday, 84,494 people were living in FEMA trailers in 13 Mississippi counties. That's 31,294 trailers multiplied by the average family size of 2.7 people.

This is, at best, a stop-gap measure. The real problem is that there is no leadership in Washington to help people find homes -- as a judge said this week, the federal program is "a disaster."

News stories and the stories I heard talking to community leaders were the same: insurance companies have bailed or been as slow as molasses. Money allocated for homeowners has yet to reach people; less than 60 in Louisiana and under 200 in Mississippi. Renters -- the majority of Katrina evacuees -- aren't even in the budget.

More than one of the people I spoke to believe an orchestrated plan is in the works: holding out on the homeowners and renters until they break, then letting the casino and development interests move in and buy up the land. Given how little state and federal leaders have done to help people get into homes, you can see why this theory sounds plausible.

Few people know this is what's still happening in the Gulf Coast. Whether you believe it's neglect, incompetence, or deliberate economic disenfranchisement -- or some combination -- the reality is that it's keeping hundreds of thousands of people from getting on with their lives.

One highlight of our visits: almost everyone we talked to profusely thanks us for our Gulf Watch project, and the work we're doing to keep the stories and struggles of Katrina on the national radar. You can help support our work here.