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US to offer 2 housing programs to Katrina evacuees

Posted on: Saturday, 24 September 2005, 14:26 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Saturday it would distribute two types of housing assistance to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina based on the type of housing they had before the storm.

The Homeland Security Department and Housing and Urban Development Department said evacuees from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama fall into four categories -- previous homeowners, renters, people who lived in public housing, and those who were homeless before the hurricane.

Under a Federal Emergency Management Agency program, previous homeowners or renters will receive an initial three-month rental assistance payment of $2,358. That sum was calculated based on the average fair-market rent rate for a two-bedroom unit nationwide, and can be increased if needed, a FEMA spokesman said.

People who lived in public housing or were homeless before Katrina will qualify for a Housing and Urban Development Department program that will be administered by its network of local public housing authorities.

The departments said most evacuees will receive housing assistance under the FEMA program, and said the HUD assistance was "comparable."

Thousands of homes were destroyed when Hurricane Katrina battered the U.S. Gulf Coast in August.

"Our goal is to use existing resources in an innovative way to help all displaced individuals and families move from temporary shelters to more stable, safe and sufficient housing," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a statement.

FEMA spokesman Michael Widomski said FEMA began processing the assistance Saturday. He said FEMA had received 16,000 applications and had committed $37 million so far.

Source: REUTERS

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