Gov. Gregoire to Congressional Delegation: Help Preserve Housing for Katrina, Rita Evacuees

For Immediate Release: December 2, 2005

Governor says that new deadlines impose an unfair burden during the holidays

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire today asked members of the Washington congressional delegation to pressure the Department of Homeland Security to extend deadlines recently imposed on victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

�It is very unfair to impose absolute deadlines on these evacuees when a fully coordinated federal, state and local recovery is not yet underway,� Gov. Greogoire said. �We still do not have an answer to our repeated requests for evacuee names and hotel data so that we can distribute vital information about available resources.�

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced it will end its motel/hotel reimbursement and new leases for interim housing on Dec. 15. FEMA also has declared that it will terminate all disaster housing leases for evacuees on March 1, 2006.

The state on Nov. 18 appealed these decisions through FEMA to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. Gov. Gregoire, in a letter to the congressional delegation, asked for:

� An extension of the motel/hotel temporary housing until Jan. 7, 2006;
� An extension of the authorization to enter into new interim housing leases through at least Jan. 7, 2006.
� FEMA to honor its original guidance issued in September and October that housing leases entered into by the state on behalf of the evacuees would be reimbursed for up to 12 months.

FEMA�s recent 15-day extension in the motel/hotel deadline �is a band-aid on a problem that will affect Washington State if evacuees are left without any resources during the holidays,� said Gov. Gregoire. �The new deadlines are unrealistic.�

A large number of evacuees continue to remain in hotels and motels managed by the Corporate Lodging Consultants (CLC) for FEMA due to a shortage of available rental units in the Puget Sound area. There are also tremendous backlogs in the processing of U.S. Small Business Administration loan applications and FEMA damage claim inspections. Forcing evacuees to leave hotels or FEMA�s interim housing program (403 Housing) without settlement or resolution of their disaster aid claims creates significant new financial and emotional hurdles for people who have lost almost everything in the hurricane disasters.

As of Nov. 20, a total of 1,864 hurricane evacuees had registered with FEMA using Washington State addresses. That represents between 4,660 and 5,592 individual evacuees since registration typically involves family groups of two or three persons.

Hurricane evacuee registrations are listed in 35 of 39 counties, with the largest concentration in the Puget Sound region. King County has the largest number of current registrations with 814 families; followed by Pierce County, 316; Snohomish County, 149; Kitsap County, 89; and Clark County, 82.