Katrina Trailers Find New Life

Herbert Jolly moves into his new FEMA Trailer.

Staff reports

Grande Isle, LA – Mobile home trailers used to house homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina have been showing up in other mobile-home parks, and in open fields around the BP oil disaster. With the influx of cleanup workers at the spill site and a lack of public housing accommodations, many workers have found themselves scrambling to find housing.

Recently some workers and sub-contractors have bought the FEMA
trailers so families can remain together during their work. Most of the
workers in the gulf are not living in the trailers but in newer quarters
provided by BP, its subcontractors, or by state or federal agencies.
However, housing remains scarce.

FEMA officials and federal regulators have said that these
trailers are not to be used for housing because of the formaldehyde’s
health risks found within these units. When they were used as emergency
housing for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, a number of the
mobile trailer dwellers became ill.

The House Energy Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer
Protection raised concerns that the trailers would end up being used for
housing. More than 100,000 of these trailers have been sold so far in
public auctions.