SEATTLE—May 31, 2006—Nearly 50 households who evacuated New Orleans for Seattle have received notice from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that they are no longer eligible for housing assistance through FEMA.
In order to assist these 49 households in obtaining jobs locally and completing the often difficult transition they face, Seattle Housing has offered to extend the aid currently being provided by the Emergency Management Division of the State's Community Trade and Economic Development Department.
CTED is providing assistance to households deemed ineligible through the end of June. By using temporary voucher funding, Seattle Housing Authority is extending this assistance for two more months, through the end of August. This will mean that evacuees have had a full year of rental assistance since Hurricane Katrina displaced them from their homes.
Many of the households contacted by SHA in a March survey indicated their intention of staying in Seattle, although most had not yet secured jobs. Households who will continue to need assistance have been encouraged to apply for Low Income Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher Program assistance.
According to Dennis Hall, SHA's admissions manager, "We will probably end up serving about half of the households that were deemed ineligible. We are finding that a lot of these people have moved on with their lives and have not responded to our offer of continued assistance."
Over the past several months, FEMA has transitioned many of the 160 households that SHA originally assisted to their newer assistance program. About 30 households still reside in SHA housing, and others are placed with private landlords. Corporate Leasing Consultants, a national company hired by FEMA, has largely taken over the administration of leases and payments.