Second round of homelessness for Katrina victims as fema prepares to enforce june 1 eviction date

Atlanta, May 29, 2009 - In response to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision to repossess temporary housing from survivors of Hurricane Katrina on June 1, the US Human Rights Network issued the following statement:

The move by FEMA to enforce the June 1st eviction date for Gulf Region residents who live in temporary trailers not only lacks basic compassion but is also a derogation of the government's responsibilities to uphold fundamental human rights. If FEMA moves forward with the Bush administration's plan to forcefully evict people living in temporary housing, it will make a mockery of the Gulf Region recovery promised by President Obama and Congress.

Ernest Hammond is a case in point. Hammond, a 70 year old, former New Orleans homeowner, could not get financial help from Louisiana's Road Home program for his triplex since the housing structure was ineligible for a grant. To help himself, Mr. Hammond has collected almost $10,000 in aluminum cans but that won't even begin to cover the costs to rebuild his home in the 7^th Ward. His FEMA trailer is keeping him off the street while he struggles to return home. Mr. Hammond is one of thousands of families living in FEMA trailers because they are either caught in a web of deeply flawed, bureaucratic home repair grant programs, a victim of all too rampant contractor fraud or simply priced out of a rising rental markets where affordable housing is being demolished or gentrified. No one chooses to live in a FEMA trailer, but it is better than no home at all. Evicting residents without providing access to safe, permanent housing will only lead to homelessness and further destabilize families.

Instead of carrying out the former administration's callous plan for eviction, the Obama administration and Congress should apply the United Nations' Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a human rights policy that, for several years, has guided our government in providing temporary and permanent homes for people in foreign countries who become displaced by earthquakes, typhoons, and flooding.
Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network, said: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that our government will be applying the human rights policy that governs internally displaced people to the homeless in Afghanistan. It is unconscionable to hold our own population to a lower standard and subject displaced Americans to evictions before permanent housing has been secured."

Hurricane Katrina displaced over a million people, many of whom have yet to fully recover as a result of the government's failure to honor the UN Guiding Principles and human rights treaties ratified in the US. Gulf Region residents, both renters and homeowners, have worked tirelessly to access safe, permanent housing and should have the support that our government provides under basic standards of human rights law.

Together, we helped keep survivors off the streets.

>>> Please take a minute to click here and send an email or make a call to let the Administration know that evictions are a bad idea and tell President Obama and Congress to extend the May 30th FEMA trailer program deadline!



The US Human Rights Network