Affordable housing on the Coast may have to wait for affordable insurance. That was the word from Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., after being questioned about Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to move federal grant money away from low-income housing to be spent instead on improving the port of Gulfport. "Until we straighten out insurance, we can't straighten out affordable housing," he said.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Taylor said, the federal government gave Mississippi $5 billion to help residents recover and rebuild. The money Barbour is asking to use for the harbor is part of that post-Katrina grant. Taylor said he has mixed feelings on the issue. While he doesn't want to see money for low-income housing diverted to the port, he said there are several issues that prevent low-income housing from being built.
Last year, he said, there was a problem with finding labor. "A year ago, I was begging for framers and plumbers," said Taylor, a resident of hard-hit Bay St. Louis. "I was in a bidding war for their services. Only now has the labor shortage stabilized." Now, he said, developers are telling him they can't get affordable insurance for low-cost housing. "They are looking for insurance costs at $300 a month per apartment," Taylor said. That means, he said, that developers can either build and charge rent that puts them into a loss, or charge rent that few people can afford.
While developers are waiting for labor and lower insurance costs, the port of Gulfport needs to be deepened and modernized, Taylor said. The port is 36 feet deep and the Panama Canal, which he said is an international standard for shipping, is about to be deepened to 42 feet. "If we are going to compete for that international cargo, we have to dredge to 42 feet," Taylor said. "When it's done, 95 percent of the cost of modernizing the port will be borne by the federal government."
Taylor said he doesn't agree with Barbour on everything, but said he was sympathetic to the governor's desire to move the money. "This is money we have on hand, that I don't have to go to Congress for," he said. "We have the means to take care of the problem with the port."
Taylor said something has to be done about insurance, and that he plans to reintroduce peril insurance for Coastal residents, noting that 50 percent of the American population lives near a coast. To pass peril insurance, he said he needed the help of Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker. "They have to be on fire," Taylor said.
The loss of Sen. Trent Lott hurt the effort, Taylor said. Lott, who lives in Pascagoula and retired from the U.S. Senate late last year, had his home reduced to a slab by Katrina, so he knew the issue from a personal standpoint.
Source: GulfLive.com