Chairwoman Waters Issues Statement on Housing Needs of Families Leaving FEMA’s Toxic Trailers
February 25, 2008
Washington, DC - Rep. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity today released the following statement regarding the housing needs of families in trailers that FEMA acknowledges are contaminated with formaldehyde:
“Finally, the Federal Emergency Management Administration has admitted what people living in these trailers have known for several years: The trailers contain high levels of formaldehyde that pose serious health risks for residents. Almost after moving in, trailer residents complained about respiratory and other formaldehyde-related health problems.
“The first private study on the unacceptable levels of formaldehyde in these trailers was in 2006. A few months later the Occupational Health and Safety Administration conducted its own testing and found formaldehyde concentration as high as 5 parts per million or 50 times higher than the level the Environmental Protection Agency considers “elevated.” But FEMA didn’t stop the sale or deployment of trailers until July 2007. And here it is 2008 and it still has no plan to move families out of these environmental health hazards and into safe, permanent, and affordable housing.
“FEMA must rise to the challenge of getting these 38,000 families out of its toxic trailers as soon as possible and move them into safe, permanent, and affordable housing. Unfortunately, because affordable housing creation has not been a priority of the Bush Administration, this will be a difficult task.
“The Bush Administration has failed to ensure that the Gulf Coast region has an adequate supply of affordable housing for its displaced persons, including those in trailers. The administration approved redevelopment plans in Mississippi and Louisiana that provide less affordable housing than was available before Hurricane Katrina. It even allowed the state of Mississippi to move $600 million from housing assistance to the redevelopment of the Port of Gulfport.
“In New Orleans, the administration has approved the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing, with no regard to the 12,000 homeless persons who could have benefited from having a roof over their heads. The demolition of New Orleans’ public housing during an affordable housing crisis is a prime example of this Administration’s short-sightedness and lack of concern for our country’s low-income renters.
“Now, it is hard to see how the Administration can move people out of trailers and into affordable housing when it has directly contributed to the affordable housing crisis along the Gulf Coast. This is a crisis that could have been solved with public housing and efficient use of disaster block grant money. This is simply bad policy. This Administration needs to learn from its mistakes and soon.”
###
Contact: Mikael Moore
202-225-2201