Trailer trash no more

Who's in charge here?

The feds can spend $59,800 on trailers, but can't help people rebuild their homes???!!!

Are those things pimped out or what? This could usher in a new term for living a life of luxury in a FEMA trailer -- "trailer trash" no more.

The Times-Picayune:

That's the cost to taxpayers for the trailer's 18-month "life cycle," according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If FEMA offered the cash instead to hurricane victims, they might be able to spend the $3,322 per month in New Orleans on some housing more enticing than a box on wheels.

I've been anticipating for some time now that this would come out. Just a couple of days ago, I was talking to someone living in a trailer off of Airline Highway. She quoted the government's cost for a trailer of about $40,000 (if I remember correctly) -- not enough to cover her repairs, she said, but if given the opportunity, she might have tried to find a living arrangement that left her some part of that sum to invest in home repairs. She said her damn trailer still doesn't have working plumbing, and has to wait for a different contractor than the one who set up the trailer to schedule a repair. Sounds like a great way for cheap contractors to pass the buck on to other contractors ... which brings me in a rambling way to a related issue I heard the other day about contractors not doing their jobs. At that 2nd District Nonpac meeting, I heard a couple of residents complain about flooded cars showing up in the street and in the driveways of vacant houses. It seems that towing companies are getting contracts to remove cars from the city, but aren't taking them where they're supposed to go.