Katrina Victims: Pay Up

Apparently, the federal government has determined that it should attempt to recoup some of the many millions which it has spent foolishly in last 7 years.  Unfortunately, it looks to do this from those most in need.  In a demonstration of the continuing indifference to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, thousand of families will be offered the opportunity to purchase the FEMA-provided trailers in which they currently reside, or, to begin paying rent.

NYT link

Thousands of families living in the tinny white trailers provided by the federal government after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be offered the opportunity to buy them for a few hundred dollars, under a $1 billion housing plan announced yesterday in Washington.

But those who do not buy their trailers will have to start paying a modest rent for them next March, with the payments beginning at $50 a month and escalating sharply thereafter. It was unclear what the upper limit was.

No known upper limit?  For those who lost everything?  When will the nightmare end for these people?

The numbers are not insignificant.    

About 86,000 families are still living in the trailers a year and a half after the storms, said R. David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the trailer program. The majority of them are in Louisiana, although about 26,000 families occupy trailers in Mississippi.

The suffering of these people remains a story without end.