Katrina Cottage? Not in My Backyard!

Yesterday Shannon picked up the story of the thousands of Katrina cottages sitting vacant along the Gulf Coast, sometimes in sight of indigent residents who need a permanent place to live.  Shannon rightfully pointed to the national shame that as more housing sits vacant, more and more Americans are homeless.  But we are further implicated in the original Washington Post story - for our refusal to allow Katrina cottages to be sited in our communities:

Mississippi built 3,075 cottages, but many local jurisdictions refused to grant permits or alter zoning codes, apparently concerned that the small structures would lower property values.  The state retreated, limiting the cottages for temporary use, and more than 1,800 families remain in them.

The article points to government red tape and mismanagement as the fundamental reasoning behind the warehousing of these unused - adorable - cottages.  But enshrined in that red tape is our collective unwillingness to spend money on housing, education or social services for lower-income Americans.  It began with Bush not wanting to expand HUD programs to house the displaced in the immediate aftermath of the storm.  Then the State of Mississippi used affordable housing funds to expand one of its ports.  Now MS municipalities are blocking cottages from being placed on vacant land.

For now, the Obama Administration is hoping to sell about one-third of the occupied trailers to inhabitants for $5 or less, and to provide vouchers for a vast majority of the rest of the displaced.  But the cottages?  One by one, they're moving into Mississippi neighborhoods.

Don't even get me started on Louisiana.

(Photo from http://www.katrinacottagehousing.org.)