Louisiana Weekly Housing Update 

FEMA funds new disaster housing assistance program…

Release Date: December 12, 2005
Release Number: 1603-217

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) and the State of Louisiana's urgent priority is providing temporary housing. In this massive housing operation, several programs and strategies have been implemented by involved parties to ensure that housing options are made available to the thousands of displaced residents.

FEMA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are helping individuals and families with rental assistance who were previously a resident of HUD-assisted housing prior to Hurricane Katrina. Through a new FEMA-funded housing assistance program called the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP), families will be able to relocate in areas across the United States that were not affected by the disaster. FEMA will relocate families to the area of their choice. The families may return to their home state as housing is rebuilt or repaired.

To qualify for the KDHAP program, individuals must have been previously HUD assisted by a Section 8 voucher, in public housing, or in some other type of HUD-assisted property, or homeless immediately before Hurricane Katrina. Eligible families must first register with FEMA by calling 1-800-621-3362 by Dec. 31, 2005 to be eligible for KDHAP. To get more information or to register with the KDHAP program, call the KDHAP Referral Call Center at 1-866-373-9509.

This week in Louisiana:

At the close of business on Dec.10: 16,015 travel trailers and mobile homes on private, industry, group and commercial sites are occupied; 2,299 units on cruise ships are occupied; 925 FEMA-leased hotel rooms are occupied, and 2,881 units of federal housing provided by HUD and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are now occupied.

There are also several housing sites under construction throughout Louisiana. Crews are working continuously to complete these sites in various parishes including St. Charles, Calcasieu, Orleans, St. Bernard, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and East Baton Rouge.

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

Cumulative Housing Summary for Louisiana

Type Units Occupied
Travel Trailer
Individual Assistance**		 12,095
Travel Trailer
Industry**		 2,950
Mobile Homes 970
Federal Housing
HUD - Housing & Urban Development
USDA - United States Dept. of Agriculture		 2,881
FEMA Leased Hotels/Other 925
Cruise Ships 2,299
TOTAL: 22,120

**Travel trailers are categorized as Individual Assistance (assistance for affected individuals and families) and Industry (housing assistance for displaced workers who have returned to bring critical facilities back online).

This table shows the parishes with housing units currently occupied:

PARISH UNITS OCCUPIED
Acadia 7
Allen 4
Ascension 61
Assumption 5
Avoyelles 36
Beauregard 72
Bossier 43
Caddo 16
Calcasieu 1,584
Cameron 160
Catahoula 4
Claiborne 2
Concordia 65
East Baton Rouge 955
East Feliciana 5
Evangeline 12
Grant 13
Iberia 394
Iberville 9
Jefferson 5,079
Jefferson Davis 84
La Salle 7
Lafayette 99
Lafourche 129
Livingston 62
Madison 0
Natchitoches 21
Orleans 3,909*
Ouachita 75
Plaquemines 709
Pointe Coupee 11
Rapides 9
Red River 6
Richland 1
Sabine 3
St. Bernard 960
St. Charles 298
St. Helena 18
St. James 147
St. John the Baptist 71
St. Landry 5
St. Martin 21
St. Mary 72
St. Tammany 2,724
Tangipahoa 187
Tensas 2
Terrebonne 113
Union 1
Vermillion 265
Vernon 4
Washington 178
Webster 0
W. Baton Rouge 1
TOTAL 18,718*

*Does not include parish breakdown for federal housing.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 13-Dec-2005 10:12:04