Our Views: An end game for recovery
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency is going to extend case management services for Louisiana and Mississippi residents affected by the 2005 hurricanes for another year. That means more help for those in temporary housing to help them return to permanent housing.
Extending this assistance to next March means FEMA will still be handling hurricane survivors about three and one-half years after Katrina and Rita came ashore in 2005.
FEMA’s role in the recovery isn’t going to last forever, nor should it. The goal of getting hurricane survivors out of trailer parks and into a more normal existence must be primary, and we already see the beginnings of this end game as FEMA empties its trailer parks of residents.
“Let me be clear: I absolutely support the closure of FEMA trailer parks,” said Raymod Jetson, who assists families affected by the 2005 storms through the nonprofit Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. “I also think that recovery is a personal responsibility.”
But Jetson said a significant portion of those who will be moved from trailer parks include the elderly, the disabled and those with mental illnesses.
Assisting these hurricane survivors and dealing with other complexities of case management, such as the continuing shortage of housing in the New Orleans area, means that policymakers should focus on outcomes, not merely outputs, Jetson recently told a group of Advocate reporters and editors.
In other words, the goal must not be simply moving residents of temporary housing from point A to point B, but to craft policies that empower individuals and strengthen communities.
