Hurricane Victims Getting Out Of Shelters And Into Temporary Housing

Baton Rouge, LA - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the State of Louisiana, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are all working together in a push to provide temporary housing for all victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who have been living in shelters since the storms.


Strike teams of representatives from the State and federal departments are visiting shelters this week and talking with individual evacuees directly, informing them about housing options and other programs that are available.
"Hurricane Katrina forced over 270,000 Gulf Coast families to flee to emergency shelters.

In the past few weeks, 92 percent of them, over a quarter million people, have moved from shelters to some form of transitional housing," said Vice Admiral Thad Allen, principal federal official and federal coordinating officer for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. "While we continue to make significant progress in reducing the shelter population, no one will be forced out of the shelters by mid-month, absent options for other temporary housing. We are working diligently with our State, local and private sector partners to help the remaining eight percent move into transitional housing that fits the needs of each family."


FEMA workers also are doing pre-placement interviews for travel trailers or mobile homes with evacuees in Disaster Recovery Centers to facilitate getting them into temporary housing as soon as possible.
FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident.

FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003