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Gulf Coast 2009: Unlike Any FEMA I'd Met Before
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A year can make a big difference.
Last spring, I remember sitting with our Gulf Coast partners in a meeting in a U.S. Senator's office, listening to a high ranking Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official tell Gulf Coast survivors that she "understood their pain" because her family had lost their vacation home in Mississippi.
She spent the whole meeting trying to pit one Gulf Coast state against another and making lame excuses for the botched recovery of the region.
I remember feeling sick to my stomach listening to her. At the same time, I was proud that our partners stood in solidarity with each other and continued to speak truth to power.
Last week our Gulf Coast allies were back in D.C. as part of a lobby day organized by the Equity and Inclusion Campaign, Oxfam America, National Low Income Housing Coalition, and PolicyLink.
Eighty Gulf Coast advocates came, on short notice, to speak to all the key congressional committees and federal agencies working for Gulf Coast recovery.
We were supposed to meet with Jim Stark, the Assistant Administrator for FEMA's Gulf Coast Recovery Office, at FEMA headquarters. But he never showed up. Turns out he's having a tough week.
A newly released congressional report blasts FEMA for doing a disastrous job of providing housing after the hurricanes and another congressional committee just launched an investigation into allegations of Stark's mismanagement of the Louisiana Recovery Office and possibly lying to Congress.
The staffers who did attend our meeting were unlike any FEMA staff I'd met before.
They listened respectfully to each Gulf Coast advocate's report from the ground, their stories of their communities' continuing needs. Staffers took notes and committed to several small but potentially meaningful next steps.
I'm glad their boss didn't make it to our meeting. We had a much more human and productive discussion than we might have otherwise.
With new leadership in the White House and on Capitol Hill and ever-vigilant activists, we will get our country back on track. Even FEMA may have a chance to redeem itself.
The requests we presented, as outlined by the Equity and Inclusion Campaign, are:
1. Expand the authority and elevate the importance of the Office of the Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery.
Bureaucratic restrictions and lack of accountability have hampered the deployment of federal resources that were allocated years ago. A reinvigorated office will streamline processes, increase transparency, and demonstrate how bottlenecked funds can be put to use with a sense of urgency.
2. Increase access to quality affordable housing by addressing needs directly related to the 2005 storms that persist and risk becoming chronic.
Over 30,000 households are still living in trailers, receiving aid from the Disaster Housing Assistance Program or receiving other forms of FEMA assistance; 17,000 households are dependent on assistance from the Disaster Housing Assistance Program, which is slated to end on February 28, 2009. In Louisiana alone, more than two of every three homeowners receiving federal funds to rebuild did not get enough money to cover their repairs. The current credit crisis is worsening the prospects for a full housing recovery, which threatens to undermine the economic stability of the entire region.
3. Restore the environment and rebuild infrastructure by creating a Gulf Coast civic works program to employ local and displaced workers.
Coastal land loss along the Gulf has increased its vulnerability to severe weather events, and significant public infrastructure awaits repair. A comprehensive investment in civic works projects will revitalize the region's economy while helping local and displaced workers develop valuable skills in the "green-collar" sector.
4. Revise the Stafford Act to improve the effectiveness of disaster response and long-term recovery in the future.
The limitations of the Stafford Act have hampered the governmental response every step of the way, and caused undue hardship for Gulf Coast citizens. We must apply the lessons learned in the Gulf to ensure an adequate response for future catastrophic events.
