HUD finally approves $350 million housing plan, thank you Bennie Thompson

It has been a long three years for the working poor of south Mississippi. Solid, working-class families saw their lives turned upside down by the massive storm surge of Katrina. Homes and jobs were gone for many in the blink of an eye. Some have been able to escape to the refuge of relatives or friends out of town, yet many have remained trapped in FEMA trailers tainted with poisonous fumes, or if lucky a FEMA cottage. In fact according to Bennie Thompson in testimony to a House subcommittee, there are still over 5,000 Mississippians still living in temporary housing as a result of Katrina.

After watching Haley Barbour align support for hijacking $600 million in HUD funds intended for lower income housing it was good to read this today in the Sun Herald.

On Wednesday Steve Preston, the secretary of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, accepted a $350 million plan from Mississippi to build thousands of affordable housing units for working families.

The project, titled Mississippi's Long-Term Work Force Housing Plan, will provide grants and loans to local communities, nonprofit organizations and private developers to build 12,000 affordable homes in Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Pearl River counties.

I want to thank Bennie Thompson for his most diligent work on getting real justice for the forgotten victims of Hurricane Katrina. As long as Bennie Thompson is in Washington, those 5,000 Mississippians without a home will have a voice.