Black Politicians, Activists Decry Iraq War Spending vs. Katrina Relief Aid
By: Michael H. Cottman
Federal officials said last week they will not evict thousands of hurricane Katrina evacuees from hotels before the Christmas holidays and will extend the deadline to January 7. The government will also offer stipends for 18 months to help desperate families find permanent housing.
But several civil rights activists said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still not doing enough for thousands of black families who are displaced and unemployed.
Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, said the federal government’s inadequate initial response to Hurricane Katrina has resulted in blacks plunging deeper into poverty, a crisis, Walters says, that "makes no sense."
"This issue will be in the public eye for years to come," Walters told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Walters said it’s inconceivable that the Bush administration can spend billions of dollars to fight a war in Iraq while so many Americans in the Gulf Coast region remain homeless.
The aftermath of Katrina has already resulted in the largest displacement of black families since the Civil War and, according to some economists, the crisis will force thousands of black Americans into poverty for years.
"It comes down to this: Iraq or Katrina," Walters said. "Which one do you fund?"
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other civil rights leaders have recently urged Congress and President George W. Bush to allocate additional funding for Katrina evacuees.
"It's blatantly obvious that not enough is being done for the victims of Hurricane Katrina," Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"An extension of government-paid hotels to January 7 instead of a December 15 deadline -- it's after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays -- is a good and humane thing to do, but it's far from what's needed," Jackson said.
"We're already spent over $200 billion in Iraq, and the president just asked for another $4 billion to train Iraqis to defend themselves, but he can't find any money to repair the damage done to American citizens," he added. "He hasn't followed through on his promise of the most massive reconstruction effort in the history of our country. Indeed, he hasn't even come close."
But Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for FEMA, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that FEMA is working diligently to offer financial resources to many families. He said FEMA is not "kicking people out of housing" on December 1.
"Even when evacuees leave their hotels for more permanent housing, FEMA will be paying $2,358 every three months for their housing for up to 18 months after the disaster," Kinerney said. "We are not leaving people homeless before the holidays.
"Folks can even use their $2,358 for hotels if they choose, but the money will go much farther if they rent an apartment, condo or house," he said.
Kinerney said FEMA has given more than $4.4 billion to 1.4 million Katrina families.
"For the thousands of evacuees," Kinerney said, "the FEMA hotel program will provide rent-free lodging for 4 and 1/2 months with no impact on their final FEMA housing assistance -- in other words, if they have been in a hotel since Katrina, that cost won't come out of their $2,358 per three months for the next 18 months. So, in effect, FEMA is providing free housing for more than two years."
According to FEMA’s website, the 10 states with the highest concentration of evacuees in hotel rooms can extend their stay until Jan. 7 to help evacuees find longer-term housing "on the condition that they provide FEMA with a plan to reach the Jan. 7 deadline."
The 10 states eligible to request the additional extension are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas, according to the website. The request and transition plan must be submitted to FEMA for expedited review.
"Our top priority remains addressing the long-term needs of millions of hurricane victims. Today we offered an extension to the end of the hotel program because we are committed to working with governors and mayors to move evacuees out of hotels and into long-term housing," said Acting FEMA Director David Paulison. "We recognize that finding housing is a challenge, but this is a doable task, and we are confident that as we work together, we will improve the quality of life for thousands of evacuees."
Officials said FEMA has provided $500 million to hurricane evacuees in the last seven days. FEMA said the $300 million hotel program is a less cost effective and less comfortable solution for families working to recover from these storms.
According to media reports, FEMA has run into a series of hotel-related accounting problems.
Last week, The Detroit News reported that a number of Katrina evacuees had checked out of area hotels even though the federal government was still paying for the rooms. The rooms, according to The Detroit News, are among nine at the Southfield Hotel registered to evacuees not currently staying at the hotel or who could not be located by The Detroit News or the hotel staff.
The News reported that hotel officials could not explain why the evacuees remain registered in rooms costing taxpayers a minimum of $325 a week. The hotel is not supposed to bill FEMA, the federal agency charged with paying for housing the evacuees, for people not physically staying in the rooms, the News said.
FEMA, which has some 5,700 hotels across the country still housing about 50,000 people, has no procedure for checking the accuracy of hotel bills, making the potential for overbilling large, the News reported.
Meanwhile, several black health-care professionals and congressional leaders insisted that FEMA’s housing plans are "short-sighted," saying many black families could find themselves on the streets or deeper in poverty if they don’t meet FEMA’s new eligibility requirements.
"While we know that the "E" in FEMA stands for 'emergency,' which implies short-term, the Katrina disaster is far from a short-term scenario," Dr. Lorraine Cole, president of the Black Women's Health Imperative, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"It would seem that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Services or other relevant federal agencies should be authorized and funded to take over the responsibility," Cole said. "Otherwise, that natural disaster will be further compounded by a man-made disaster."
story from BlackAmericaWeb.com
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