Housing aid for Katrina and Rita victims extended

The federal government will extend housing assistance payments to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita for 18 more months, officials announced Thursday, but residents will be required to pay a portion of their rent for part of that period.

Almost two years after the 2005 hurricanes, more than 100,000 Gulf Coast households remain dependent on government housing aid, according to figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The program was initially set to expire at the end of February, but was extended through Aug. 31 and now will last until March 1, 2009. The continued aid will cost about $1 billion.

Beginning March 2008, residents living in government-subsidized apartments, mobile homes or trailers would be required to pay part of the rent, starting at $50 a month and increasing $50 each month until the program expires. Residents unable to pay, such as disabled people and seniors, would be exempt.

“Many of the persons we are talking about don’t have homes to go back to. They have vacant lots,” said Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “This is a very difficult and unique situation, and we’re trying to do everything we can to stabilize the lives of people affected by Hurricane Katrina.”

As part of the new program, at least 86,000 residents living in trailers or mobile homes -- the majority of them in Louisiana -- would be given the option to buy the homes at fair-market value, FEMA Director R. David Paulison said. About 33,000 people remain in government-subsidized apartments, primarily in Texas.

The new policy calls for HUD to take over management of the disaster housing program that had been administered by FEMA since the storms.

News of the aid extension was greeted with mixed reaction by housing advocates and hurricane-displaced residents.

“It’s a temporary lifeline,” said Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of Advancement Project, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group. “While it’s a good move to provide a safety net, where’s the long term plan?”

Browne-Dianis said the initiative failed to include many former residents of the New Orleans public housing complexes that are slated for demolition.

These residents have been receiving housing-assistance vouchers from HUD, and not FEMA, she said. The HUD aid is set to expire at the end of September, and many residents fear they will be left homeless. Advancement Project is representing tenants in a class-action lawsuit who are seeking to return to public housing.

Beth Butler, regional community organizer for the housing advocacy group ACORN in New Orleans, said that though her organization supported the extension, it did not think residents should be required to pay any rent.

Butler said the government should channel money into programs that help people rebuild their homes rather than essentially encouraging people to remain displaced. “Why should the federal government force people to pay for a home somewhere else, when they haven’t stepped up to help them pay for the homes [the government] destroyed in New Orleans yet?” Butler asked.

Her words reflect a view shared by many here that their properties were ravaged by flooding due to substandard levees built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Jackson, the HUD chief, said during a briefing that “it is only right” for the federal government to ask residents “to take some responsibility for input in their living conditions.”

FEMA’s Paulison said: “We’re not kicking people out. We’re just trying to get people back to self-sufficiency.”

Julie Andrews, 45, a former resident of New Orleans’ Desire public housing complex, said FEMA was paying $450 a month for a three-bedroom house for her family in Gaston, Ala. The mother of three welcomed the aid extension and said that she was not opposed to contributing to the rent but that it would be a struggle.

“The problem is, people have so many other issues, being low income,” Andrews said. “Most people are in such financial debt, it’s unbearable.”

A former insurance agent turned garbage collector, Andrews works in New Orleans -- about 190 miles from Gaston -- and spends part of the week there. She hopes to move back there with her family.

“In the long term, I would like to see residents back in New Orleans, where they can reset a foundation, and get employment and help rebuild the city,” Andrews said.

Wanda Jones, 52, who has been in Houston since Katrina, said many landlords were refusing to lease to evacuees who received housing assistance. As a result, Jones said, she struggles to pay $700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, plus utilities.

“I feel the extension is good, but it doesn’t mean a hill of beans if we’re still having problems because places won’t take the assistance,” Jones said.

ann.simmons@latimes.com