Good news from Washington regarding the Katrina Cottages - The senate is considering allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide inexpensive, permanent housing to Americans who have lost their homes to a natural disaster. The key word here is "permanent," which currently prevents funding for the 300sq-ft Katrina Cottages.Current law only allows FEMA to provide temporary housing to disaster victims, which has already resulted in the placement of over 37,000 trailers in the Gulf Coast. Governors of both Mississippi and Louisiana are arguing that there are better options considering residents of South Florida are still occupying FEMA trailers more than 13 years following Hurricane Andrew.
The design for Katrina Cottage evolved out of the Mississippi Renewal Forum, a design charrette organized by the Congress for the New Urbanism which brought together 200 professionals with the goal of developing design options for eleven communities along the Gulf Coast. One of the assignments of the Forum was to develop designs for affordable housing, which can be immediately put into place while respecting the place upon which it would be built. Costing only $35,000 to build, the Katrina Cottage has fulfilled that assignment. Built on site, or prefabricated and delivered, the Katrina Cottage is certainly a welcome alterative to the typical FEMA travel trailer, and will not cost a penny more.
Visit the Katrina Cottage website
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