Congressman Bennie Thompson Takes On Barbour On Housing And Recovery

Families displaced by Hurricane Katrina need our continued help. As of last Friday, there were still 5,741 Mississippi families living in FEMA provided temporary housing units.

One of the major obstacles in providing housing for disaster victims has been the reluctance of Mississippi’s leaders to provide assistance to those who need it the most. Last September, the Governor stated that “housing is, and will continue to be, the most pressing issue facing Coastal recovery.” Despite that statement, the Governor requested and received permission from HUD to reprogram $600 million intended for the construction of low and middle income housing for a port expansion project.

In response to this I, along with eleven other Members of the House, have sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee asking them to prevent the State from using these funds to expand the port. This is a question of priorities. Economic development is critical to the recovery of the coast, but how can the state justify moving forward when low and middle income families are being forced to move out-of-state because there are no locally based affordable housing options?

In addition, the National Deficit and Reduction Act of 2005 provided Mississippi with $700 million to help restore health care in the disaster area and provide the State with the ability to match Federal grants for hurricane relief. Somehow, these funds wound up going to the State’s general fund, where the Governor tried to use them to raise judicial salaries. To make matters worse, the Governor attempted to divert additional hurricane relief funds to improve a highway in north Mississippi that leads to a Toyota plant.

It is a question of priorities. Apparently providing affordable housing solutions to the victims of Hurricane Katrina is not high on some priority lists.

In better news, the Committee on Homeland Security along with the Financial Services Committee joined forces on Wednesday to pass H.R. 6276, the Public Housing Disaster Relief Act of 2008, that I cosponsored with Congressman Childers (D-MS) and Congressman Cazayoux (D-LA). This will streamline federal funding to help repair public housing units that receive damage during future disasters.

The Committee on Homeland Security has also held several hearings exploring the high levels of formaldehyde in FEMA supplied travel trailers - we have to make sure that we provide health care for those that FEMA may have put in danger. In response to this, Congressman Barrow (D-GA) and I introduced the Travel Trailer Health Registry Act. This will require FEMA to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a health registry of those who lived in travel trailers, provide health screenings to these individuals, and track their health status as we move into the future.

We must hold Federal agencies accountable for their mistakes, especially when their mistakes endanger the health of disaster victims. As we move forward, I pledge to work with any and all Members of Congress who share my priorities--to hold FEMA and HUD accountable and rebuild the Gulf Coast.

- Homeland Security Committee Chair Congressman Bennie Thompson (MS-02)

Does Gene Taylor Stand With Those Needing Housing Or With Industry And The Port?

Gene Taylor hasn't been shy in the past about his opinions on Mississippi Gulf Coast recovery issues.

(Y)ou can try to throw as much as you can on the backs of Louisianians, but I'm a witness as to what happened in Mississippi. You folks fell on your face. You get an F-minus in my book. Maybe the president made a very good move when he asked you to leave your job.

He also said in a television interview that there needed to be a national registry for sex offenders and insurance company executives.

The biggest issue recently has been the diversion of $600 million in housing funds to the port of Gulfport.

He has been quite open with his opinion on most recovery issues so far. What is his opinion here?

Does he stand with the people of the Coast who still need housing and need it at a price where they can afford it?

Let me know if he's made a public comment on it which I've missed. His is an important voice and his opinion is needed.

Help Save Designated Housing Money For Gulf Coast Housing

I hope a Gene O at A Sociable Loner won't mind be reproducing THIS important post here:


Help Color of Change push hurricane recovery into the national presidential debates with a few clicks of your mouse.

Join the Facebook Bring the Gulf Coast to the Debate Campaign.

The congressional hearing on the handling of housing funds mentioned in the AP article I linked to in this post would be held by the House Financial Services Committee or by its Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity.

Rep. Barney Frank chairs the full committee. Rep. Maxine Waters chairs the subcommittee.

Contact them and ask them to schedule the hearing.

Rep. Frank: (202) 225-5931

Rep. Waters: (202) 225-2201; fax (202) 225-7854: e-mail form

Mississippi has no representatives on the committee. Contact Mississippi Representatives Gene Taylor and Bennie Thompson and ask them request that members of the committee hold the hearing.

Rep. Gene Taylor

e-mail form

Washington: (202) 225-5722; fax (202) 225-7074

Mississippians can find numbers for his local offices at the very bottom of this page.

Rep. Bennie Thompson

e-mail form (His local office numbers are on the right-hand side of this page).

Washington: (202) 225-5876; fax (202) 225-5898

Financial Services Committee members.

Subcommittee Members.

Change the untruthful story that the governor and his allies are telling about our Gulf Coast hurricane recovery by telling the truth in your own way.



It's an excellent post. Please use the links and contact folks. Coast citizens need your help.

New York TImes Reports On Mississippi's Spending On Coast Housing

The New York Times:

The nature of that program helps explain the unhappiness in some neighborhoods. It provided grants of up to $150,000 to homeowners who lived outside of the federally defined flood plain and so did not have flood insurance to cover their losses when their houses were swamped by the storm surge.

To be eligible, families had to have carried regular homeowners’ insurance, so that, as the governor said when he was selling the plan to Congress, “we’re not bailing out irresponsible people.”

But advocates for the poor said that requirement barred many of the least affluent, especially retirees and the disabled, who live on fixed incomes. “The fact is, people who have no money choose food and medicine, and not insurance,” said Ashley Tsongas, a policy adviser for the aid group Oxfam America. “That moral superiority doesn’t recognize the reality people face.”

Renters were also excluded from the program, as they were in Louisiana, and homeowners who had wind damage were also not covered. Some federal officials have said Louisiana’s decision to help cover wind losses is one reason its program almost ran out of money.

... But some community advocates are dubious, noting that before the storm only 10 percent of the port jobs went to low-income residents. They also think the cost per job will be too high.

And they note that the port’s own master plan envisions a new tourist and casino development. “It’s not all about bananas,” said Reilly Morse, a lawyer for the Mississippi Center for Justice.

Mr. Morse and many others who oppose the port plan say the state should first ensure that all the families now living in more than 10,000 government trailers have a permanent place to live, that rental housing gets built and that all homeowners can repair their houses.

“I don’t have any problem with economic development and expanding the port, but not at the cost of people,” said James W. Crowell, president of the N.A.A.C.P. branch in Biloxi, just down the beach from Gulfport.

The New York Times Article

We often rightfully complain that much of the media has forgotten us after the immediate interest after Hurricane Katrina. I'm glad they're paying at least some attention.