Louisiana Weekly Housing Update 

Urgent announcement for public safety officers on the Ecstasy and Sensation Cruise Ships…

Release Date: February 20, 2006
Release Number: 1603-356

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- Important meetings for residents of the cruise ships Ecstasy and Sensation will be held tonight, Monday, Feb. 20, 2006, at 6 p.m. in the Blue Sapphire Lounge on the Ecstasy, and in the Fantasia Lounge on the Sensation . Only residents of the ships may attend. Media will be briefed after the meetings.

"The purpose of these meetings is to complete the steps which have been taken to ensure that every shipboard resident has a place to go," said Tony Robinson, deputy federal coordinating officer for the FEMA area field office in New Orleans. "Our greatest priority is to ensure that these first responders can continue to do their jobs. Ensuring that each one of them has housing is essential to the mission."

No further extensions can be obtained. These ships must be vacated and turned back over to Carnival Cruise Lines according to the contract which expires March 1. "The cruise ships must leave so they can return this fall with paying passengers so the revitalization of this great city can continue," Robinson concluded.

The residents of the two ships include many police officers, fire fighters, and first responders of the city of New Orleans and their families. Each officer will have a FEMA community relations representative to help with their relocation.

This week in Louisiana : At the close of business on Feb. 18, there were: 42,460 travel trailers and mobile homes on private, industrial, group and commercial sites occupied; 1,703 cabins of three cruise ships are occupied; and 3,010 federal housing resources provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) occupied.

The following charts provide detailed information on the types of temporary housing available and a listing, by parish, of housing units currently occupied: 

Cumulative Housing Summary for Louisiana

Type Units Occupied

Travel Trailer & Mobile Home
Individual Assistance**

42,460

Federal Housing
HUD - Housing & Urban Development

USDA - United States Dept. of Agriculture

3,010

Ships

1,703

TOTAL:

47,173

This table shows the parishes with housing units currently occupied :

PARISH

UNITS OCCUPIED

Acadia

65

Allen

34

Ascension

109

Assumption

39

Avoyelles

73

Beauregard

214

Bienville

1

Bossier

46

Caddo

30

Calcasieu

3,321

Caldwell

2

Cameron

598

Catahoula

8

Claiborne

4

Concordia

70

East Baton Rouge

1,236

East Feliciana

22

Evangeline

47

Grant

17

Iberia

821

Iberville

26

Jackson

17

Jefferson

13,504

Jefferson Davis

250

La Salle

16

Lafayette

213

Lafourche

325

Livingston

336

Madison

1

Morehouse

2

Natchitoches

28

Orleans

5,842* **

Ouachita

104

Plaquemines

1,624

Pointe Coupee

54

Rapides

32

Red River

11

Richland

1

Sabine

14

St. Bernard

3,297**

St. Charles

675

St. Helena

117

St. James

122

St. John the Baptist

237

St. Landry

93

St. Martin

61

St. Mary

145

St. Tammany

7,058

Tangipahoa

326

Tensas

3

Terrebonne

676

Union

8

Vermillion

935

Vernon

48

Washington

429

Webster

5

W. Baton Rouge

4

West Carroll

2

West Feliciana

3

TOTAL

43,401*

*Does not include parish breakdown for federal housing.

**Includes cruise ships, travel trailers and mobile homes.

FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program.  FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003 .

Last Modified: Tuesday, 21-Feb-2006 10:06:07