The FBO has a hard time understanding why it's taken two years and counting to get Katrina victims new homes. It would cost -- per FBO analysis -- less than three days' budget of the Iraq conflict to at least get victims into better housing from the FEMA trailers they now live in.
Some stats to consider:
* 275,000 homes demolished during Katrina
* 30,000 families still living in temporary housing (ie trailers), not including families who left Louisiana and Mississippi for good
* $32,000 cost of far-better, furnished 'Mississippi cottage' housing
* $1 billion cost to get each person in those families a Mississippi cottage -- if two people live in one, the cost would be $500 million
* $341 million spent in Iraq every day
--> To get families living in trailers from Katrina would take, using NY Times statistics, about three days of the Iraq war expenses.
If ALL 275,000 homes were replaced with $100,000 homes, that would cost $275 billion, about half the cost of the Iraq war so far.
See this article for some figures used.
Maybe we need Andy Jackson to save New Orleans?
FBO Admin
Mobile/Semi-Permanent HQ -- Brooklyn, NY
2 comments:
While I agree with FBO on a few points in this post, I'd also like to point out additional factoids that help clarify why Misssissippi has been able to crank these units out, while Louisiana's program has languished:
1) Mississippi Cottages, with the exception of the lack of formaldehyde, aren't that much safer than travel trailers, which is why every Mississippi municipality is treating them like "travel trailers" for the purpose or permits and zoning and why they have to be kept on wheels and aren't placed on a foundation. Louisiana has been trying to build their cottages as "starter" units that can be expanded.
2) There's a lot more "cleared" land in Katrina-impacted areas of Mississippi than in the Louisiana, so it's much easier to site trailers (oops, I mean "cottages")
3) Louisiana was forced to give the production contract to a Bush Administration crony that low-balled its original bid and has been subsequently been fighting with the state to get more money.
The FBO doesn't want to get too involved in cottage or trailer or X. But the FBO still sees no sense in the money going to Iraq while we've bickered over responsibility (city/state/national) and watched a US city die.
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