Definitions, intentions and political will

So, you heard NPR’s piece on Katrina Cottages, or read one of the many still too few articles about them, and you’re searching the Internets, looking for more information on these small houses, and the federal law that prevents FEMA from funding them? You are not alone. Recently, many of the search strings bringing people to this blog have included “katrina cottage,” though that will likely happen less frequently as more national news media finally pick up the story.

After seeing the photos and drawings of Marianne Cusato’s Katrina Cottage, I had hoped that the little yellow house would be the beginning of a new and better approach to disaster relief housing. I asked, rhetorically, wouldn’t a village of these little houses be a vast improvement over a trailer park?

Connie Moran, mayor of Ocean Springs, MS, thought so when she requested funding from FEMA to build 87 cottages. FEMA turned down her request, because “FEMA is not in the business of providing permanent housing.”

Moran said agency officials explained to her that under federal law, FEMA can provide housing only on a temporary basis after a disaster. For many Gulf Coast residents, that means the loan of a trailer or larger mobile home for up to 18 months.

As a result, the spot where Moran envisioned rows of starter homes will soon be another post-Hurricane Katrina trailer park. Like dozens of other “FEMAvilles” in the region, it will be welcome for the shelter it provides, but dreaded for its potential to degenerate into a blighted slum — that is, if it doesn’t blow away in the next storm.

The federal law in question is the 1974 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Section 408 of the Stafford Act sets out requirements and priorities for post-disaster housing assistance; 408.c describes four types of housing assistance that the government may provide: temporary housing, repairs, replacement and permanent housing construction.

Based on what I’ve read, I gather that Mayor Moran’s hopes of providing Katrina Cottages for the displaced residents of Ocean Springs have been dashed by this subparagraph:

408.c.4 Permanent housing construction.– The President may provide financial assistance or direct assistance to individuals or households to construct permanent housing in insular areas outside the continental United States and in other remote locations in cases in which -

1. no alternative housing resources are available; and
2. the types of temporary housing assistance described in paragraph (1) are unavailable, infeasible, not cost-effective.

Apparently, FEMA considers the Katrina Cottages to be permanent housing, which, as alternate housing resources are available, it is not allowed to provide.

To me, this raises a critical question: what is permanent housing? The Stafford Act has no definition of permanent housing, nor have I been able to find a federal government definition in my (admittedly non-exhaustive) search. (The folks in the non-profit housing community with whom I work define permanent housing as safe, decent, appropriate, affordable housing. Sadly, there’s considerable evidence that the federal government doesn’t care much about what they think.)

Is permanent housing any housing that is intended for long-term occupation? Tell that to the residents of Ocean Springs, Pass Christian, Biloxi and New Orleans whose “permanent housing” turned out not to be so permanent after all. No, that’s not an answer to the question; I’m just saying that “permanency” cannot be defined by intention.

Is permanent housing any housing that is inhabited for more than 18 months? If that’s the case, then FEMA trailers and mobile homes are now “permanent housing” in some parts of Florida and Texas, where residents have purchased their trailers from FEMA. What was intended as temporary housing has become permanent housing. In fact, the Stafford Act contains provisions for charging rent for “temporary” housing after 18 months, and further provisions for selling that “temporary” housing to its occupants.

What is permanent housing? Unless someone can point me to a good definition, I’m left to conclude that we’ve wandered off into the land of “I know it when I see it” and “what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

OK, I admit that architects and planners involved in the development of the Katrina Cottages have described them as “permanent,” as did Mississippi governor Haley Barbour in his recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Appropriations. But since when has the federal government allowed a few highly-educated, well-informed professionals – or even state and local politicians – to define its terms for it?

We could parse the Stafford Act’s language regarding temporary and permanent housing until we’re blue in the face, and still not agree on terms. Instead, let’s back up a step – or in this case, a subparagraph – and look at the Act’s first words on housing assistance:

b. Housing Assistance.-

1. Eligibility.–The President may provide financial or other assistance under this section to individuals and households to respond to the disaster-related housing needs of individuals and households who are displaced from their predisaster primary residences or whose predisaster primary residences are rendered uninhabitable as a result of damage caused by a major disaster.
2. Determination of appropriate types of assistance.-
   1. In general.–The President shall determine appropriate types of housing assistance to be provided under this section to individuals and households described in subsection (a)(1) based on considerations of cost effectiveness, convenience to the individuals and households, and such other factors as the President may consider appropriate.
   2. Multiple types of assistance.–One or more types of housing assistance may be made available under this section, based on the suitability and availability of the types of assistance, to meet the needs of individuals and households in the particular disaster situation.

Did you catch that? The President shall determine appropriate types of housing assistance… based on considerations of cost effectiveness, convenience to the individuals and households, and such other factors as the President may consider appropriate.

The Stafford Act makes the President responsible for determining what sort of housing assistance is appropriate in a particular disaster situation. Perhaps court cases in the years since the Act’s passage have limited the President’s options in making such determinations, but I can’t imagine that trailers are the only option he has left.

Why would the President not decide that Katrina Cottages are more appropriate emergency housing than flimsy travel trailers? I think California architect Christopher “Kit” Ratcliff’s take on this question is spot on: “One of the problems that I see with it, and I probably shouldn’t say this, is that it looks nice. I think the government has a very hard time giving things away to people or underwriting things that go beyond some sort of bureaucratically understood minimal gesture.”

Why aren’t Katrina Cottages going up along the Gulf Coast? The sticking point is not the Stafford Act, but rather President Bush’s lack of concern for and attention to the plight of all those displaced by Katrina. This is not about definitions of temporary and permanent housing, but about a lack of good intentions and political will.

FEMA trailer on the left, Katrina Cottage on the right. You choose…
More on Katrina Cottage 1 here, Katrina Cottage 2 here.
Technorati tags: hurricane katrina + architecture + FEMA+Stafford Act
For the full text of the housing assistance provisions of the Stafford Act, click here.