Take action to stop evictions of Hurricane Katrina survivors

Take action to stop evictions of Hurricane Katrina survivors

Six months have passed since the ruin caused by Hurricane Katrina. We now know that nature was responsible for only a part of the destruction. Government mistakes, missteps, neglect, and fraud all played a part in the subsequent tragedy — much of which never should have happened.

On this six-month anniversary of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has said that on March 15 it will evict the survivors from the hotels even though FEMA has no plan in place to ensure that the families find permanent housing.

Take action now!

Send an immediate message through our Legislative Action Center to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (under which FEMA operates), and to your elected members of Congress. Urge them insist that FEMA adopt a humane, realistic, and achievable plan instead of simply threatening survivors with deadlines for eviction.

Message

Recently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that on March 15 it will end payments for lodging of displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors, amounting to an eviction notice for families who have already suffered far too much and for far too long.

This action does nothing for those who have, in most cases, lost everything they own, including their homes and it will only compound the numerous problems that still exist six months following the worst disaster in U.S. history.

I urge you to take whatever action is needed to have FEMA abandon this course of action, cancel the deadline, and commit instead to a plan that results in a humane, realistic, achievable, and satisfactory resettlement of those who have lost their homes in this tragedy.

Our goal should be to house those without homes, help restore dignity, rebuild the cities that were destroyed in this last hurricane season, and do it in a way that reflects the best of what this country stands for. Eviction should not be an option.

Background

UUSC has joined with the Unitarian Universalist Association to establish a Gulf Coast Relief Fund and Panel to mount a coordinated response to the humanitarian crisis created by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The destruction caused by these hurricanes was so vast that clean-up and repairs may take many years. The UUA-UUSC response effort supports the right of the hurricane survivors to return to their homes.

UUSC also has organized two JustWorks camps to enable volunteers to participate in on-the-ground recovery work in New Orleans, La., and Biloxi, Miss.

UUSC thanks our colleague organization Faithful America for providing information for this action alert.

Posted March 7, 2006