Katrina Victims Evicted!

[legion]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070305/ap_on_re_us/katrina_fema_trailers

I can't help but think that had I been a "Katrina Victim", I would have been in temporary housing no more than three months before re-evaluating my housing and employment status and gotten on with my life--perhaps moving to another part of the country altogether. There is no way in hell I would be depending on government handouts a year and a half after the fact. Sorry, but you don't get to claim victimhood forever.

[Jims5543]

You need to reread what you typed the answer is in there.

Government handouts, same deal different situation. These folks have grown accustomed to getting handouts their entire life. If your expecting a hurricane to change that its just not going to happen.

These folks have been on the government teat before the sotrm and now have a name to go with their inability to help themselves "Katrina Vitcims."

[Jeff Higgins]

"Inability", or "unwillingness"?

[legion]

Where's the outrage over the injustice?

[Jim Richards]

I'm outraged that nobody bought lunch for me today.

[jyl]

New Orleans isn't going to come back to what it was. The city has been permanently shrunk, and there simply isn't an economic incentive to rebuild all that low-income housing. These people have got to move on. I imagine many of the best and brightest have done so.

In Berkeley, I got to know a Katrina refugee, a young guy, he'd come to the SF Bay where he knew no-one, gotten a job as a teachers' aide in a school, was rebuilding his life. I really respected him.

[berettafan]

Too bad the slackers are putting a nasty face on such a tragedy.

[Noah930]

"It's very unhealthy. The question is why did it take a year?" said Ron Harrell.

He lived next to the site's sewage treatment system with his family, and the stink of sewage filled the air as he spoke. He said his two sons have repeatedly complained of health problems, which he said could be related to the sewage.

I realize it's not quite so simple, as a lot of people have lost just about everything they've ever had. And opportunities are bleak. But at the same time, you'd think that living next to God-awful stench daily and having your kids start to get sick as a result of that, would be dynamite enough to get yourself off your rear and out of such a hell hole trailer park.

[rfuerst911sc]

Just another example of people not being accountable for themselves. There is no doubt it was a tradgedy but at some point in time you have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get moving to be a contributing member of society. I have no problem with "assistance" but I have a problem with it being a long term bandaid. Longterm in some cases is generations !!!!

[rcecale]

There have been freeloaders taking advantage of this disaster since the beginning. Here's an article that was discussed here last summer.

A Very Late Checkout
New York’s last Katrina evacuees prepare to depart (under duress) from the JFK Airport Holiday Inn.
* By Matthew Philips

This winter, FEMA put up over 300 Hurricane Katrina evacuees in New York City hotels. Almost all of them have gone back to their lives, their jobs. But not Theon Johnson. He’s currently sprawled out watching Halloween 5 on one of the two full-size beds in his room at the JFK Airport Holiday Inn. He is one of four evacuees still living in a hotel in the city.

The others left in February and March, when, after spending more than $500 million, FEMA stopped paying for hotel rooms housing some 40,000 evacuees across the country. That left many scrambling for places to live. But thanks to the city’s squatters-rights law, evacuees here were safe. Their rooms weren’t paid for, but since they’d been in them for more than 30 days, the hotels couldn’t just kick them out. Only a judge’s order could evict them.

And Johnson, 49, isn’t that motivated to leave. For one thing, AMC’s in the middle of its “Thrill Me” marathon. Next up, Gothika. “Halle Berry,” he says with lazy lust. These days he’s usually up all night—it’s hard to sleep on an empty stomach. When he has to, he’ll go outside and beg for change, but he doesn’t really like that too much. Most days he just showers and gets back in bed, showers and gets back in bed. Once a week he and another evacuee, a diabetic named Larry, walk to a church off the Van Wyck and get canned goods. When Johnson’s caseworker, Sharon, comes around, she gives him some bus passes and maybe a few bucks, but she’s getting frustrated. “They sit around on their butts watching TV. There’s only but so much I can do if they’re not willing to help themselves.”

After being flown here for free back in September, Johnson’s been at the Holiday Inn since Super Bowl Sunday. On April 21, the hotel served Johnson with three notices of occupancy termination, saying that it would begin court proceedings if he wasn’t out by May 9. He wasn’t, so it did. If the court boots him, Johnson could end up in one of the city’s homeless shelters. He’s been broke for over a month now. FEMA sent him $9,000 in housing aid, but he spent it all on booze, cigarettes, some clothes, and food—partying, mostly. “I spent my money just the way I wanted, and I think [fema] should send me some more,” he says. But it won’t. Johnson’s caseworker says FEMA offered to buy him a ticket home to New Orleans in February, but he didn’t take it. FEMA won’t now. So he’s stuck, at least until the Holiday Inn pays him to leave.

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society have been negotiating a buyout deal for Johnson and the remaining evacuees, and expect a settlement—he heard about $1,200—imminently. He says he’ll use the money to get a room for a few nights and have some fun before flying back to his little house in New Orleans’ Third Ward. But for now, Gothika’s on. “Halle Berry,” Johnson says. “Halle . . . Berry.”

Source.

Randy

[rammstein]

I lost my power for a couple of minutes last week. Where is my relief?!

[speeder]

Jesus...

[sammyg2]

Too little, too late.
These people are paracites who have no inclination to work hard to support themselves, but rather seem to work very hard at getting the rest of the country to support them. i say they need to learn to work or do without.
If someone makes an effort, I'll support them. If they want to do nothing, I say let them do nothing but starve.

[techweenie]

Last I heard, something like 107,000 homeowners have applied for promised federal help in rebuilding. Fewer than 1900 applications have been processed.

The residents/ex-residents are still being victimized by the feds.

[Racerbvd]

Originally posted by techweenie
Last I heard, something like 107,000 homeowners have applied for promised federal help in rebuilding. Fewer than 1900 applications have been processed.

The residents/ex-residents are still being victimized by the feds.

You get what you pay for, and when you don't pay taxes........

[the]

The feds hate poor people.