Gov. Haley Barbour announced Tuesday $100 million has been set aside for work-force housing in South Mississippi. Barbour's office said the money would be added to $150 million already approved for the program. The $250 million is part of the Long-Term Work-Force Housing program, which uses Community Development Block Grants offered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Barbour's housing plan allows businesses and nonprofit groups to apply for the funding to build work-force housing. The proposals must meet HUD's guidelines for low-income homes. Private funding, along with the CDBG money, would be used to build single-family and multifamily rental homes and also some units the occupants would own, Barbour said. Those units would be available to mixed-income tenants or owners.
"Restoration of the affordable housing stock is absolutely vital to Coast recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in American history," Barbour said in a written statement. "The commitment of these additional dollars will produce an estimated 2,500 to 4,000 housing units for work-force income families whose skills we need to rebuild the Coast."
A FEMA spokesman said Tuesday there are still about 11,329 occupied FEMA trailers in the state, and some storm victims are having a hard time finding permanent homes because of the "tough" post-Katrina housing market. About 250 FEMA trailers in the state are vacated each week, and FEMA officials expect the few remaining trailer parks to be closed by year's end.
A HUD spokesman in Washington confirmed Tuesday a HUD decision is expected by Friday on whether the state can spend $600 million in CDBG money - which some say was initially intended for housing - on the Port of Gulfport. Barbour has been criticized for advocating the port plan by those who say the money could be better spent on affordable housing.
The governor said late last year it had been erroneously reported that the port plan would be a diversion of housing money from the homeowner-assistance grant program, and that the terminology the Mississippi Development Authority used had caused the confusion. Barbour said the money for the port has always been part of the state's hurricane-recovery plans.
The money would be used to relieve congestion, improve rail service to the port and create as many as 3,000 new jobs, Barbour said. Barbour said last year $4 billion of the state's $5.4 billion in CDBG money was set aside for housing programs, including the two phases of homeowner grants and grants for public-housing authorities, along with other programs.
Roberta Avila, a member of the Steps Coalition, which opposes the port expansion plan, said in reaction to Tuesday's announcement her group has estimated there would still be more than $900 million in unmet housing needs after the $250 million is allotted. However, others have said it is very difficult to get accurate numbers about South Mississippi's real housing needs. "It's a step in the right direction, definitely," Avila said. "But it is not anywhere near what is going to be needed to address unmet housing needs on the Gulf Coast."
Source: SunHerald.com