Plans Afoot in Florida to turn Foreclosed Houses into Shelters for Hurricane Victims

Foreclosure Shelter Huricane Victims

According to Associated Press plans are afoot and the federal government is thinking about how to turn foreclosed houses into shelters for hurricane victims in Florida. Officials said that this way the foreclosed houses would come of use to the people and the communities. The hurricane victims would not be scattered around different places as what happened last time four years previously, but they will be able to stay together. New Orleans has never quite recovered as yet partly because the people who exited never came back to pick up the broken threads.

Jeff Bryant of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said, “When you have a diaspora that leaves the state it’s very hard to get those guys back. You really want to prevent them from leaving the state. We want to keep them in their same local community.”

The plan is still being processed and has not taken the final shape as yet. FEMA is contacting banks and other lenders to make a list of the units that could be made available. Then the displaced hurricane victims could be placed in shelters near their homes. FEMA plans to engage contractors who like agents would pay rent to the owners of these houses – whoever that may be. Jon Arno of FEMA explained the matter. His work includes finding temporary shelters for victims of disaster. If the plan was successful in Florida it could then become a role model for the rest of the country.

According to RealtyTrac in April there were 278,287 units in Foreclosure – in some stage of it.

The memory of Katrina refugees queuing up for buses and huddling in Houston’s Astrodome is still fresh in the mind. Many clambered on to anything they could get a toehold on without knowing where they were going. Families were broken up and never came to be united. Some were lost forever.

Bryant commented that the plan would be implemented when jumbo sized natural disaster took place. Ruben Almaguer of Division of Emergency Management said, “But a large disaster, everything has to be on the table, including foreclosed homes.” A disaster should not catch the administration unawares – it should be prepared to meet it. And the best way to be prepared is to keep the foreclosed houses in readiness.

One of the victims of Katrina, Angelo Edwards, who had just come back to New Orleans to Houston, was very much impressed with the idea. The banks would be greatly relieved to find a good number of houses being taken off their inventory.