More than 2,200 manufactured housing units have been installed in East Baton Rouge Parish, and 555 families still are living in hotels statewide due to the August flood, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Most of the MHUs—the updated version of a FEMA trailer—are on private sites, but 291 are on commercial sites where a private company owns a group of lots in EBR. FEMA spokesman Kurt Pickering says the commercial sites are being leased from existing trailer parks.
FEMA finished doling out MHUs for August flood victims in mid-February, but Pickering says more may be handed out as individual cases pop up. When the Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, which pays for hotel rooms for flood victims, ends, some of the people in hotels will likely be eligible for MHUs, Pickering adds.
More than 1,500 MHUs are licensed in Livingston Parish, and 433 are in Ascension Parish, nearly all on private property, according to FEMA statistics.
To be considered eligible for a MHU, one must be registered with FEMA, and property owners must prove property loss of $17,000 or more, Pickering says. Renters must prove their property was significantly damaged or destroyed. Then, those without another housing option within a “reasonable commuting distance” from their primary residence may be considered for an MHU.
The Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, where hotel rooms are directly billed to FEMA for flood victims without anywhere else to stay, is approaching another deadline on March 12, but the state has extended the deadline more than once. Individual deadlines can also vary, Pickering says.
“Many residents are still not back in their homes,” Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said at the Press Club of Baton Rouge on Monday, adding she sent a letter to Louisiana’s congressional delegation in support of more federal money.
Gov. John Bel Edwards has asked Congress for an additional $2 billion in flood aid, on top of the $1.6 billion coming down the pipe in the coming months.
East Baton Rouge Parish separately will receive $11 million in Housing and Urban Development block grants. Former mayor Kip Holden submitted an action plan for spending that money, and Broome is amending it, says Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Rowdy Gaudet. The plan will send money to homelessness prevention, affordable rental properties and a small homeowner assistance program, he says.
The plan must go before the Metro Council for approval, then Broome’s administration must hold a public comment period before submitting it to HUD for approval.
—Sam Karlin
