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October 11, 2005

From Bangla-cola to Uncle Sam: A Warm, Fuzzy, Collective...

WTF Are You THINKING???
Let's review for the simple minded, butt licking PUBLIC servants in Washington: We had us a hurricane last year. His name was Ivan. He blowed a lot of sh*t up. If people didn't have FEMA Blue Roofs, they had no roof at all and got to live in one of these:
One year goes by.

There's still a lot of blowed up sh*t. There's still lots of FEMA Blue Roofs. More impressive, there are still thousands of people living in these because all the affordable housing got all blowed up. But they have to be out by March, got a home or NOT. So how does our Federal Government care for it's people displaced in a natural disaster, in one of the POOREST counties in Florida? Why, f*cks them over in favor of the disaster of the month, naturally!

Oakwood manager Ken Smith says he's been forced to turn local people away because of a memorandum last month from the USDA.
It says people displaced by Hurricane Katrina must receive priority over any other applicant.

Ken Smith/Apartment Manager:
"I hate to tell this person that was displaced a month ago that they have priority over a person displaced 11 months ago. Its really not fair."


They'd a never done this to us if we'd been big enough for Jesse to fly in and get his a$$ some TV time, or if our Mayor and Governor had been complete LOSERS. But no, little old Escambia had a plan that was beautifully executed. All we needed was help for our folks afterward. Well, f*ck us to tears, you compassionate conservatives.


The complete WEAR-TV report.

Katrina Evacuees Get Priority on Some Local Housing The affordable housing market just got tighter. The government is now giving Hurricane Katrina evacuees top priority to move into some apartment complexes. That could leave some local families homeless. Misty Lindsay is a full time student and mother of three. She's been on a waiting list at the Oakwood Apartment Complex in Milton for months, but days away from moving in, she learned her slot was given to a victim of Hurricane Katrina.

Misty Lindsay/Searching for Affordable Housing:
"Its just out of balance. At the risk of sounding insensitive, I've waiting five or six months. There are people, some of my family members, displaced from Ivan. They are still in FEMA trailers, not the big ones, travel trailers, but they have been put on the back burner also."
Lindsay and her children have been living with relatives because she can't find an affordable home.
Oakwood manager Ken Smith says he's been forced to turn local people away because of a memorandum last month from the USDA.
It says people displaced by Hurricane Katrina must receive priority over any other applicant.

Ken Smith/Apartment Manager:
"I hate to tell this person that was displaced a month ago that they have priority over a person displaced 11 months ago. Its really not fair."

Cynthia Reeves/creeves@sbgnet.com
"Smith has 20 local families on his waiting list, but will have to turn most of them away."

USDA Area Director, Joseph Fritz, says the directive affects 50 subsidized housing projects in the Florida Panhandle financed by USDA's Rural Development program.
The goal is to help evacuees like this couple from Slidell, Louisiana.

Richard Tranum/Slidell Evacuee:
"Oh yeah, we looked around and we're lucky to have this."

Fritz says the housing targeted for Katrina evacuees is vacant property.
The intent is not to take housing away from local residents, or victims of Hurricanes Ivan or Dennis.
Whatever the intent, Lindsay says its left her homeless.

Misty Lindsay/Searching for Affordable Housing:
"I've met a few women like myself who are in the same situation as me and they're living with family members and there is no housing available for them."



Copyright 2005 WEAR-TV


Posted by tree hugging sister at October 11, 2005 10:35 AM

Comments

Racist! The poor folks in NO need the help, not you rich white folk.....

Posted by: Crusader at October 11, 2005 11:00 AM

How is it legal for the government to tell a private business who it's going to accept as a customer?

That's the real bullshirt.

Posted by: Cullen at October 11, 2005 11:44 AM

Somebody needs to sue, and I expect will. This sounds like an Equal Protection violation: how are people dislocated from two different natural disasters not "similar parties situated similarly?" Where's even a rational basis for this kind of discrimination between them?

Posted by: Dave J at October 11, 2005 11:46 AM

You've never read the "Squeeky Wheel Clause" of the Constitution, Dave?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at October 11, 2005 12:00 PM

I doubt that there's a legal "rational" for this sort of crap, Dave. I suspect it is due to, as THS put it, "the storm of the month".

I'm not familiar with FEMA temporary housing guidelines, but it's painfully clear that the policy is well and truly f**ked up.

Joy.

Posted by: The Real JeffS at October 11, 2005 12:44 PM

I know exactly where it came from, Dave. Some f*ckin' PINhead at a USDA office 1500 miles away said,

"Ooooh! New Orleans is here, right? So let's go, say, 250 miles in any direction except South. Then put 'em ahead on waiting lists in whatever subsidized housing we have there abouts. That should work. I mean, how long could the waiting list be that far from the City, so what's another month anyways?"

And I posted this before I read this morning's fishwrap, or I could have added a new twist to our housing crunch...

Mobile home park owners are warning that a property tax increase of as much as 600 percent will drive up rents for those least able to afford it.

A fledgling association of about 16 park owners met with Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones on Monday to voice concerns about the impact on their bottom line and their tenants.

Debi Dunkerley said she will have to raise rent $40 per month next year -- 25 percent above the $160 she charges per lot now.


These people are supposed to do what exactly, when they get booted out in 5 months?

Posted by: tree hugging sister at October 11, 2005 12:47 PM

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Uh-oh. And you've of course noticed that this doesn't include anyone displaced by that other storm... what's its face... Richard? Robert? Rutabaga?

And what are they doing when they're doing things "right"? It goes a little something like this.

Little consolation for those still staying at Blue Roof Inn, no?

Posted by: Nightfly at October 11, 2005 01:01 PM