Pine Belt Progressive

I am no longer updating this page, and I don’t know anyone who is calling or faxing on this, but I refuse to stuff this information down the memory hole. See my last comment below.

Facts About the Mississippi Gulf Coast Housing Crisis

35,129 Mississippians are still living in FEMA housing more than two years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. This includes 13,022 households. 11,641 of these families (89 percent) live in FEMA trailers.
(Mississippi Steps Coalition 2008 CDBG Report Card .pdf)

The population of Tupelo, one of our ten largest cities, is only slightly larger than the number of Mississippians who live in FEMA housing.

Many of these trailers contain the toxic chemical formaldehyde.

A Congressional investigation has determined that FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control misrepresented scientific data in order to prevent the public from learning about this information. The Sierra Club tested 600 of these trailers in 2006 and determined that more than 90% contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde and toxic mold.

The State of Mississippi has received $5.4 billion in disaster relief funding since Katrina. As of Sept. 30, 2007, only $1.64 billion of that money had actually been spent re-building the Mississippi Gulf Coast. (CDBG Report Card, p.4)

Less than one quarter of Mississippi’s total relief funding is targeted toward low to moderate income housing, even though 37 percent of the Mississippi Coast population is below HUD’s low-moderate income level.

Please help us bring these facts to the attention of the public and demand a solution to this crisis. How to help:

• Join our e-mail campaign by copying these facts and sending them to people you know.

• Make your friends and acquaintances aware of these facts.

• Call attention to these facts on your home page, blog, or networking site.

• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Include these facts. End your letter by asking why this story is not receiving more coverage.

• Contact your Senator or Representative. Make them aware of these facts and ask them to work toward a solution to this issue sooner rather than later.

• Contact Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Development Authority. Make them aware of these facts and ask them to take immediate steps to find safe, clean housing for these Mississippi families until adequate permanent housing can be constructed.

• Governor Barbour: 1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150

• Mississippi Development Authority: 601-359-3449. Fax: 601 359 2832. e-mail: comms@mississippi.org

• MDA Executive Director: 601-359-3449. Fax: 601-359-3613