Ten years after Hurricane Katrina took out some 60,000 homes, the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) has determined the federal government poured over $3.2 billion into permanent homes for state residents, according to what sunherald tells MHProNews. Former COO for MDA’s disaster-recovery division, Jon Mabry, said, “When we received the money, there was no playbook, so you had to start with a blank sheet of paper and design programs.”

The first round of funding, $1.4 billion, went towards rebuilding efforts for homeowners who had insurance. The second round of funding, $381 million, went to people who did not qualify for the first round, and included workforce housing and the modular Mississippi Cottages, two of the ten housing programs that assisted victims of the devastation. Some communities objected to the Cottages, calling them mobile homes because they arrived on wheels, and would not let residents occupy them as permanent residences.

Community groups, like the non-profit Neighborhood Home Program, were advocates for residents left out of the initial housing-recovery programs.

“What we saw was an enormous effort, an enormous amount of money thrown at homeowners, quickly, out of the box,” said Reilly Morse, a Coast attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice who monitored the programs and prodded the state to assist those with the fewest resources.

“For some, it took a hard fight for them to even be recognized. There are people, this month, who are getting Katrina damage repaired or reconstructed. I see the reports. I see the pictures. I know who they are. Largely, these are the very last to be processed under the Neighborhood Home Program.” ##

(Photo credit: sunherald/John Fitzhugh–Mississippi Cottage being towed to its homesite in Pearlington, MS, 2008)

Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.