The price of building and delivering a FEMA trailer is $75,000. Building a Katrina Cottage costs $60,000. While the safety and aesthetics of the former are questionable, the latter is designed to withstand hurricane force winds. What's the problem?
"The Louisiana Recovery Authority, St. Bernard Parish and the Mississippi governor's office are all lobbying FEMA to replace the temporary travel trailers it is housing displaced storm victims in with the 'Katrina Cottage,' a 400- to 750-square-foot pre-fabricated home that sleeps four, can be erected in days, and could eventually be expanded into a full-sized permanent home."
"Andres Duany, a Miami architect who promotes 'new urbanism,' a planning philosophy that seeks to create compact towns that reduce suburban sprawl, is working with Louisiana on planning issues and is a critic of FEMA trailers.
'The use of temporary trailers is a viable proposition if the loss is something on proportion of (Hurricane) Andrew, (which destroyed) 20,000 to 30,000 houses,' Duany said. But the metro area lost 300,000 homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Spending more than $70,000 on a travel trailer is an 'absolute scandal and waste of taxpayer money,' Duany said. '(FEMA got) caught with the wrong model and wrong policy.'"
Thanks to Edward Erfurt
FULL STORY: Officials push to replace trailers with Katrina Cottages
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