Kellie Lunney
govexec.com
November 8, 2012
Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers are heading to East Coast communities hit hard by megastorm Sandy to provide temporary housing for people the disaster left homeless.
The agency is deploying the mobile homes, which became ubiquitous on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to give people displaced by the storm another temporary housing option, said FEMA chief Craig Fugate during a conference call with reporters Thursday. The agency also is providing rental assistance to disaster victims, which can be used for apartments, hotels or motels.
More than $300 million is going toward housing aid for Sandy victims, Fugate said, which is the lion’s share of the $320 million in assistance the agency has provided so far. Fugate said he did not know offhand how many people to date have received temporary housing assistance or how many trailers ultimately would be needed. People typically live in the manufactured housing for up to 18 months, though many Katrina victims lived in trailers for years.
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