The efforts of unified manufactured housing industry have resulted in an amendment to Federal law that allows FEMA to sell or donate emergency housing units - including nearly 10,000 units currently stored at the Hope Municipal Airport - that were purchased by FEMA in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Congress approved the Homeland Security Department's appropriations bill shortly before the House and Senate recessed for the pre-election break. A key provision of the appropriations bill included language that amended the Robert T. Stafford Act, which is the FEMA enabling legislation, as it relates to the disposal of emergency housing units.
Prior to the adoption of the revisions FEMA was limited in its ability to dispose of such units, with disposal allowed only:
              a. To residents occupying the units,
              b. By sale at open auction, and
              c. By donation to government entities or non-profit agencies for use by "disaster victims."
The new language lifts these restrictions on units currently in FEMA inventory, and allows the agency to sell or donate unwanted inventory to Federal, state and local government agencies and non-profits for any use. The legislation also specifically names the Dept. of the Interior as a possible recipient of homes for use as Native American housing on the various reservations. This provision was in specific response to the requests of Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota. The Senator had repeatedly plead the need for the unwanted units on the reservations for the "First Americans".
Concerns had risen earlier this past summer over FEMA's plans to auction the units currently in storage at an open auction. This concept fueled fears that the wholesale dumping of these units into the private sector would flood the affordable housing market with the 'Katrina Cottages' and thus drive down demand for new homes. An additional safe guard against this situation, at least here in Indiana, is the fact that the FEMA units were not constructed to the HUD Code but to the FEMA standards. These standards are not recognized within Indiana as are the HUD Code and the Indiana Residential Code for modular homes. Therefore, placement of FEMA units for use within Indiana is going to meet with resistance form local jurisdictions.
FEMA will be drafting guidelines and procedures for the disposal of the excess units. IMHA will continue to monitor this situation and comment further in future editions of Foundations.