FEMA to Stop Funding Hotel Rooms Dec. 1

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - FEMA will stop paying for hotel rooms for most evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Dec. 1, officials said Tuesday as the agency pushed victims to find more stable housing.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that 53,000 families remain in hotels — mostly in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi — after losing their homes to the storms that devastated the Gulf Coast this year.

FEMA had previously set the December deadline as a goal to have evacuees out of hotels and into travel trailers, mobile homes or apartments until they find permanent homes. Tuesday's announcement marked the first time the agency said it will cease directly paying for hotel rooms that have cost at least $250 million since the storms struck.

FEMA granted exceptions to evacuees in hotels in Louisiana and Mississippi, where there is a shortage of housing. Evacuees in those states have until Jan. 7 to find homes, said David Garratt, FEMA's acting director of recovery. He said 9,830 households remain in hotels in Louisiana and 2,508 in Mississippi.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051115/ap_on_go_ot/hurricanes_evacuees

[XemaSab]

1. if they have no bread,

let them eat cake!

:(

[CoffeeCat]

2. Great!

Might as well boot them out into the streets, just in time for the holidays.

/sarcasm off

[VegasWolf]

3. "Merry Christmas!!", from your compassionate conservative government. nt

[medeak]

4. those RV salesmen are making hay! n/t

[LostinVA]

5. These people seriously sicken me

[TomInTib]

6. You can't go home but you can't stay here

That's 53,000 FAMILIES for god's sake!

[gademocrat7]

7. And what is the cost of the war everyday?

53,000 families still don't have a place to call home. What has this country sunk to?

[uppityperson]

8. 9th Ward residents may be allowed back to check in a couple wks

heard it on NPR this morning. bah

Edited to clarify. That means that they may be allowed back to check their (destroyed) homes about the time they can no longer stay in hotels. What timing.

[Al-CIAda]

25. Its called 'look and leave'. -eom

[jody]

9. Bush would turn Mary and Joseph away from the inn but he claims to

follow Jesus' teachings.

Bush has never read, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?" and Jesus told them to go to hell. (Matthew 25:44)

[Catherine Vincent]

10. I don't think we should blame FEMA too much on this.

I have a feeling the motel/hotel owners complained enough to FEMA about getting their money on time, that FEMA had to agree to this. The motel/hotel managers were booting out these people long ago until it was reported on local news. They claim they weren't getting their money from FEMA (too slow).

[rodeodance]

15. so, --it is still Fema who is slow--or not paying at all--the bill.

[keopeli]

11. What happens in December that these hotels need their space back?

duh!

This is a corporate move at the expense of 58000 families - not people, but families!

Ho Ho Ho!

[uniden]

12. it's stupid

to pay hotels, when the money can be enough for a nice down payment on a house. Hotel charges do add up.

[superconnected]

13. Really caring of them

"There are still too many people living in hotel rooms, and we want to help them get into longer-term homes before the holidays," FEMA Acting Director R. David Paulison said in a statement. "Across the country, there are readily available, longer-term housing solutions for these victims that can give greater privacy and stability than hotel and motel rooms."

"Interim housing is the responsibility of the state and federal government, and we have to assume they have a plan in place," he said. "

Something tells me the states are broke. Couldn't be the fed funds cuts the Administration imposed...naw...

:eyes:

[Megahurtz]

14. Yeah the States are broke.

Now watch all of these people get screwed by whatever State.

Happy Holidays! :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

16. "we have to assume they have a plan in place," he said. "--more things

to push off to the states!!

[rainbow4321]

24. Oh, yeah, "government" planning....

It's worked out so well in the past....
:sarcasm:

[SoCalDem]

17. Merry Christmas..go live in your car...

Oh, you say you don't have a car?

well then Get a JOB .... Vacation's over

</republispeak>

[Yavin4]

18. The Compassion That Is Shown To These People Will Be The Same

level of compassion when the tables are turned on the more fortunate. This is how all revoltions begin.

[chalky]

19. Meanwhile, hundreds of FEMA trailers sit empty in Florida

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1920164

God almighty, but I can't stand this administration.
:grr:

[MarsThe Cat]

20. makes sense to me...

on the news last night they had a story about FEMA being broke...how long does it take for the owners of the hotels/motels to get their money?
and just how long do these people expect to recieve free housing at the expense of the taxpayer? at some point, life must go on.

[jayfish]

21. Why A Time-line For Katrina Victims And Not Iraq? -NT-

Jay

[Lindsay]

22. Because Repug cronies aren't making money

off Katrina victims as they are in Iraq.

[rainbow4321]

23. Evacuees won't be put of out hotels, Texas official assures

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8DUM4PO2.html


Hurricane evacuees shouldn't fear being put out of hotels on Dec. 1 when the federal government says it will stop footing the bill, Texas' emergency management coordinator told a Senate committee Thursday.

"We won't allow it to happen," Texas emergency management coordinator Jack Colley said. "We wouldn't allow it to happen to a Texan. We're not going to allow it to happen to anybody else. We'll do what we have to do to ensure no family is out on the street."

Colley doesn't know what the solution will be, but he said Texas officials are appealing the Dec. 1 deadline set by the federal government for stopping payment of hotels and motels for hurricane evacuees.

State officials reached a clear agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 12 to 18 months of housing for evacuees, Colley said

[Al-CIAda]

26. All is going according to PLAN.

The plan is to ethnically clense and flip the state.