Sheltering Program Continues Helping Families Receive Travel Trailers after Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program Continues Helping Families Receive Travel Trailers after Hurricane Ida

 

First-of-its-kind state program has helped hundreds of households receive units as FEMA’s temporary housing programs ramp up.

 

BATON ROUGE (November 23, 2021) – The state managed Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program continues to help those affected by the storm get placed in travel trailers as part of their recovery. As of Tuesday, November 23, 1,347 trailers have been deployed to the hardest hit parishes where shelter options are limited. Families are occupying 820 of those units. The state purchased 2,083 trailers as well as developed, implemented and refined a new FEMA approved program to jumpstart the housing mission for hurricane survivors. Governor John Bel Edwards announced the program in early October as a bridge to help families receive the units ahead of the window FEMA projected to start its Direct Housing mission. GOHSEP was tasked with developing the program, purchasing the trailers, establishing staging areas and priority zones with leaders from the impacted parishes and installing the units. The first families received their units within weeks of the program being announced. The speed of installation continues to increase, with an average of 60 trailers being deployed from staging areas and 40 trailers becoming occupied by survivors each day. The goal is to have all of the trailers in the new state program deployed by early December.

 

Currently, 284 travel trailers are now occupied in Terrebonne Parish. Lafourche and Jefferson parishes have a total of 265 units occupied. The total is 271 for St. John, St Charles, St. James and Plaquemine parishes. Another 736 units are being inspected and prepared for deployment to seven parishes hardest hit by Ida. Contractors have mostly focused on one region at a time to make the program more efficient, to cut down on travel time for installation crews and to help contractors navigate local requirements.

 

“Hundreds of families have benefitted from this new program well ahead of traditional FEMA housing options. There is still a lot to be done, but Governor Edwards and those of us at GOHSEP recognized the need to help bridge the shelter and housing needs. We appreciate FEMA allowing us this opportunity to take this step ahead of the ramp up for its Direct Housing program. We hope it will be an option FEMA will consider in the future to help meet the public’s needs following similar emergencies,” said GOHSEP Acting Director Casey Tingle. “FEMA’s Direct Housing program is now providing Manufactured Housing Units (MHU) to our citizens as the state operations begin to wrap up. GOHSEP will continue to support the FEMA mission while continuing to help our families and communities recover.”

 

The Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program offers temporary, non-congregate sheltering, which means survivors have a living space with some level of privacy. The program provides assistance to residents in eligible, heavily impacted parishes until other temporary or permanent housing options are available. While this new program is funded through FEMA, it is run entirely by the state of Louisiana.

 

Registered with the state’s Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program? Check the status of your registration by logging into www.IdaShelteringLA.com or call 844-268-0301 or TTY 844-458-1806.

 

Interested in FEMA’s temporary housing assistance? Apply for FEMA assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by phone at (800) 621-3362 or TTY 800-462-7585