Chron.com runs an AP story on yet another so-called FEMA deadline:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been helping thousands of displaced residents pay for temporary housing and utilities. When the storms hit last August and September, most of the evacuees — about 150,000 — retreated to Houston.
About 16,000 families in Texas still eligible for assistance must recertify with FEMA by Oct. 31. They would receive aid until the end of February.
Another 4,000 evacuees now determined to be ineligible for more federal aid have until Aug. 31 to begin paying for their own housing. That deadline was extended last month from July 31.
Houston Mayor Bill White urged evacuees to meet the deadlines or prepare to live without the assistance.
“We all know it will not be forever. It’s not an entitlement,” White said. “Those who are able-bodied are expected to work, those people who do have plans to return home need to take personal responsibility.”
Not an entitlement? That may well come as news to some people!
KUHF-88.7’s Jack Williams chimes in with more:
For New Orleans evacuees like Dionne Rogers, the housing crisis is already here. She’s homeless after being told she had to leave an apartment that FEMA had been paying for since August. She works as a fill-in nurse, but still can’t afford regular housing in Houston.
“It’s not the money situation, it’s you can’t find nowhere to live. Out here, it’s too high, it’s $875 for a three bedroom. I can’t afford that. I’m a single mom with five kids. You know, it’s hard right now so I’m just doing what I can do. I’m living in a one bedroom house with five kids with a friend I knew from New Orleans.”
Thousands of evacuees are in the same situation. They’ve either lost their short term housing or face a FEMA deadline early next year when emergency assistance runs out.
The odds are probably good that the latest FEMA deadline will be extended yet again. Indeed, it wouldn’t shock if taxpayers are still paying the bills of some Katrina evacuees a year or two from now.
