If you though you COULDN'T possibly hear anymore stories of how horrible and heartless FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency ) was post-Katrina, read today's Philadelphia Inquirer. If you think you are sad & have it bad during the holidays, just read this.
In a nutshell: they are quite possibly evicting Hurricane Katrina victims soon. FEMA doesn't want to pay their rents, apparently. Can you say Scrooge? Can you say this just sucks? Can you say perhaps that the President should have spent part of his visit to Philadelphia this week visiting the transplanted victims of Katrina? Yes Iraq is important, but hey, what about our own people in this country? They lost their homes, their livilihoods, friends, relatives and even their pets! Now they have to worry about being homeless? Yeah, we want you to keep contacting government officials about eminent domain, but you know what? They need to hear it about this too. With tears in our eyes, here is the article:
In Phila., evacuees fear new uprooting
By John SullivanInquirer Staff Writer
Contact staff writer John Sullivan at 215-854-2827 or johnsullivan@phillynews.com
"Rene Phillips' three children have finally memorized their new phone number and address on South 52d Street, where they moved last month after Hurricane Katrina had displaced them from their New Orleans home.
They've even learned to love the snow and the freezing temperatures. But Phillips is afraid that he and his children may be out in the cold, because the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it will stop paying his rent in March.
The city could be on the hook, too, for Phillips' and 139 other evacuated families that came to the City of Brotherly Love, because Philadelphia promised to pay those costs - which could total more than $1 million - through September if FEMA did not.
FEMA said yesterday that it had told cities that funding for temporary housing would be available for up to one year - but it did not guarantee funding for a year, said Niki Edwards, a FEMA spokeswoman in Philadelphia....Philadelphia is just one of many cities that stretched out its hand to Katrina evacuees, only to possibly have to pull it back because of the policy....
....The policy change is yet another black eye for FEMA, which last week took sharp criticism from Congress for prematurely ending another program, which helped house evacuees who previously qualified for public housing.... "A significant percentage of those displaced by Katrina were already poor," said Douglas Rice, an analyst at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
"Now, hundreds of thousands lost jobs, have no income or savings, and no security deposit to persuade a landlord they are a good risk." "
Full text found here:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/13401249.htm
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