NPA: Lonely cottages
Source: National Public Radio
All ready to move in except for the red tape:
Mississippi has built and delivered 2,000 Katrina Cottages to people like Acosta.
"When you look at the intent of our program, we would like to have placed a unit with everyone who was eligible," according to Keith Johnson, who directs the Katrina Cottage program in Mississippi.
At a Gulfport, Miss., staging area, dozens of cottages stand like pastel perennials sprung from a gravel lot. Johnson says many storm survivors wanted a cottage but couldn't get one.
Cities and towns erected a maze of permitting requirements. Communities feared today's temporary cottages would end up tomorrow's neighborhood blight.
"It's an obstacle and continues to be an obstacle, and unfortunately, there are some families that are paying the price," Johnson says.
That means Acosta is one of just 2,100 families who have successfully swapped their trailer for a cottage.
And the state plans to take her cottage back in a year.
Acosta says she hopes that will be enough time to get back on track with her job and home repairs.
But really she wishes the state would let her keep the cottage.
She says she'll pay them back.
"It's been almost three years now, and you would think that people would be on their feet, but it's like you keep trying and trying and can't get anywhere," Acosta says.
Whether Acosta will be able to keep her little pink cottage is up in the air.
And so is the bigger question of whether Katrina Cottages will be FEMA's top choice in the next disaster.
The irony of "little pink houses" waiting for people to move into them but red tape blocking the process is just too much. And you get it for a year and then what. Is FEMA planning to store them somewhere for the next disaster? I'd love to see there plans for that.
