President Bush-Talk To The Hand
Source: Alternet.org
The Bush Administration, FEMA and Governor Hailey Barbour — just said screw the poor, let’s build more casinos and luxury accommodations.
Remember those toxic FEMA trailers? Looks like folks in Mississippi hoping for more affordable housing to be built so that they can start to get back on their own feet again will have to keep on waiting.
The Bush Administration and FEMA — along with former RNC head turned lobbyist turned Governor Hailey Barbour — just said screw the poor, let’s build more casinos and luxury accommodations. Again. I’m not kidding. Via Digby:
While thousands of Mississippians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina remain in FEMA trailers, the federal government on Friday approved a state plan to spend $600 million in grants earmarked for housing on a major expansion of the state-owned port — a project that could eventually include casino and resort facilities.
[...]
The money in question is part of $5.5 billion in HUD Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) that Congress authorized for Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005. Administered by the Mississippi Development Authority, about $3.4 billion was allocated to replace and repair some of the nearly 170,000 owner-occupied homes destroyed or damaged by the storm. Another $600 million was set aside for programs to replace public housing, help small landlords fix their units and foster construction of new low- and moderate-income housing.
Scout Prime has more. Well, what’s wrong with being stuck in FEMA trailers because there is no where else to move to that these folks can afford? Here’s what’s wrong:
FEMA “ignored, hid and manipulated government research on the potential impact of long-term exposure to formaldehyde” on Katrina and Rita victims now living in the FEMA trailers, the congressmen wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department includes FEMA.
