FEMA removes last of post-Katrina temporary housing from N.O.

More than six years after Hurricane Katrina, the final temporary housing unit in Orleans Parish has been vacated and removed, FEMA announced today. The family living in the unit moved back into its rebuilt home on Feb. 8, and the agency removed it on Feb. 12. FEMA provided travel trailers, mobile homes and park models to approximately 92,000 families throughout Louisiana following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. About 25% of the units sat in Orleans Parish, containing as many as 23,000 households in New Orleans. FEMA also provided approximately $5.8 billion to assist 915,884 individuals and families in the state, including $4.2 billion in housing assistance for rent, repairs and replacement housing and $1.6 billion in other assistance. “At the end of the day, FEMA trailers were never meant to be permanent housing units, so I’m glad that our code enforcement efforts coupled with FEMA case work has helped individuals transition to permanent housing,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says in a prepared release. “Working together, we’ve gone from 230 trailers in December 2010 to zero today. Another page has turned in New Orleans’ post-Katrina history.”