Well, it looks like Governor Perry and Mayor White wrote a huge check that Houston's ass has no hope in cashing. FEMA is ready to leave the city holding the bag when it's time to pay the rent for all of our recent disaster guests...
Unless federal policy changes soon, Houston will find itself in an embarrassing position three months from today — breaking a key promise made to hurricane evacuees in their most desperate hour.Despite written statements to the contrary, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cease honoring the 24,000 year-long leases, backed by the city, signed between hurricane evacuees and local apartment landlords.
As a result the city could fail to deliver on a promise made to nearly 100,000 storm-ravaged evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — a safe roof over their heads for a year.
Landlords, who are accepting tenants without a security deposit or credit checks, would be left with scores of families unable to pay their rent.
"Everybody is concerned about what could happen," said Larry Hill, president of the Houston Apartment Association.
"The city, the mayor, the judge, everyone stepped up to the line after these storms hit. We opened our doors. I have no idea what these people would have done if the city of Houston hadn't stepped up."
Probably working towards rebuilding New Orleans instead of bitching and whining and worrying.
If there isn't enough housing in New Orleans to handle the workforce, maybe rolling up your sleeves and building it might make some sense?
But I have another idea. You see, a lot of the tents that were sent to the Kashimir-Pakistan border weren't all-weather tents, so a few thousand jihadi-loving scum will freeze to death this winter.
Instead of sending more useless tents there, those tents will work just fine in, say, Crawford in February and March.
It's time we used the fact that there's finally a Bush in the White House who lives in Texas. A threat of a few thousand bus trips to the home of the head honcho of the government should get Bush cracking the whip on FEMA.
We've proven that with a little planning, we might be able to get a few million people away from the city and the Gulf Coast. Why not scale it down with public transportation to flood Bush's ranch with all the folks who get booted from Houston apartments because FEMA is backing down from their promise to help reimburse the cost of housing them?
We've got enough crazy, angry, and bitter homeless in the city as it is. No sense in adding to their numbers, unless you've got plans to bolster the fire department's staff. These folks will take their frustrations out on the complexes that kick them out, not the government.
Let 'em elect Cindy Sheehan as their mayor, for all I care. Just don't kick them out into Houston's streets without giving them a trip back to New Orleans... or Louisiana... or anywhere.