FEMA May Use Foreclosed Homes As Shelters

Fema Homes Agency Explores Placing Storm Victims In Bank-Owned Houses If Other Options Are Full..

by Associated Press

Published: Wed, June 03, 2009 - 10:33 am CST Last Updated: Wed, June 03, 2009 - 10:36 am CST

(AP) The federal government is exploring how to put Florida hurricane evacuees in foreclosed homes if a Katrina-like storm devastates the region and shelters, hotels and other housing options are full.

Officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it is an effort to find some benefit in the foreclosure crisis and keep people close to their homes and communities instead of scattering them around the country, which happened when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi almost four years ago. Thousands of victims who lost their homes in the storm moved to Houston, Atlanta and other cities, and many never returned.

New Orleans has been slow to recover, partly because of the lost population.

"When you have a diaspora that leaves the state it's very hard to get those guys back. You really want to prevent them from leaving the state," said Jeff Bryant, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's federal coordinating officer for Florida. "We want to keep them in their same local community."

The idea is still being developed, but FEMA would likely contact banks, other mortgage holders and their representatives to compile a list of available homes. The evacuees would then be assigned homes close to their own and FEMA would use a contractor, acting as its agent, to pay rent directly to whoever owns the home, said Jon Arno, FEMA's individual assistance branch director for Florida. His duties include finding temporary housing for disaster victims.

If the idea works in Florida, it could serve as a model nationally.

In April, there were 278,287 homes in some stage of foreclosure in Florida, according to RealtyTrac.

Images of Katrina refugees, from the lines to get on buses at New Orleans' Superdome to the numerous cots at Houston's Astrodome, are seared into memory. When the evacuees made their way out of the Gulf Coast region, many boarded buses and planes without knowing their destination. Many of them were separated from immediate family with no way of finding them.

Bryant said the plan will probably only be implemented in a "large catastrophic event," anywhere the housing situation was devastated and only as a last resort.

"But a large disaster, everything has to be on the table, including foreclosed homes," said Ruben Almaguer, the new interim director of the state's Division of Emergency Management.

Angelo Edwards, a Katrina victim who just returned to New Orleans from Houston three months ago, likes the idea.

"It provides income to the bank, the person who holds the deed ... It's taking some of that inventory out of the market," he said. "With this program they could keep that family unit together."

Edwards said he would have rather stayed closer to New Orleans when he evacuated.

"Families dispersed across country and couldn't get back," he said.

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ickthus Says:

Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 10:25 am

i needs to go rent a shack in the saw grass so i can get me a new home to live in then the huricanes gets me. i want one of them foreclosed homes with a pool to, i had a pool in the back of my rent shack but it got holes in it, the air came out. need me an in ground pool so that don’t happen again to.

cmb1 Says:

Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 10:25 am

Please, has the government completely lost it this time? What bank is going to rent these houses to people who have torn up trailers and you can’t even get them out of them now?

nuff said Says:

Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 10:12 am

How long has it been and they still can’t get the whiners out of “temporary” shelter? Rather than letting the homes sit vacant waiting for a disaster (whether it’s a hurricane or an evacuee) trash them, why not help the people who have been fore-closed on?

rmseek1234 Says:

Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 8:28 pm

So the foreclosed homes are trashed, by the folks who couldn’t pay their mortgage.The government is going to pay to clean up all the trash, mold/mildew and filth left behind, then “rent” it from the bank, only to have trouble getting folks out of these $500,000 homes (see how well they wanted to leave the FEMA trailers?) Then if and when they DO get them out of the homes, they are going to be trashed to the extent that they are not marketable, or it will be a salvage sale. They are also going to pay “rent” in the amount that they could BUY how many mobile homes, or rent hotel rooms? O-Kay…

southfan1981 Says:

Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:50 am

This is crazy! What bank sends their employees out to SHORE UP foreclosed homes in preparation for the hurricane season? How many are left in disarray by disgruntled homeowners? Who is going to pay to turn on the electricity and water? GIVE US ALL A BREAK! Can’t you buffoons come up with a better idea for assisting your citizens? IS it time to look to Cuba?

dixiebelle365 Says:

Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:44 am

I’m curious as to how a “large catastrophic event” where “the housing situation was devastated” could selectively leave these forclosed homes in better condition than those around them. When a home goes into foreclosure, does it develop a magic shield that prevents hurricane damage?