So we can bail out Wall Street but tornado victims have to pay for the help they get??

FEMA to charge rent for Greensburg trailers

GREENSBURG, Kan. | The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to start charging rent for its trailers being used by Greensburg residents displaced by last year’s tornado.

Eighteen months after the massive twister all but wiped out the Kansas town, FEMA sent a letter saying that residents still living in agency trailers would pay $667 per month in rent.

Resident Jackie Scheuerman said Thursday she plans on moving out of her FEMA trailer to avoid having to pay an “outrageous” amount for rent because she needs the money to finish rebuilding her home. Instead she and her family will live in their half-finished house.

City Administrator Steve Hewitt questions whether $667 per month is fair market value for Kansas and Greensburg, and he’s trying to convince the agency to lower the price.

Hewitt said, “I just don’t want to lose citizens.”

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/835223.html#recent_comm

to get billions of dollars for things that make a real difference in people's lives at a relatively small cost. But they have no shame in stretching the deficit for their cronies.

How long should a person expect to live in a FEMA trailer for free after suffering a natural disaster? Honestly, I would've thought that the free housing would end sooner than 18 months after the disaster. Sounds like someone could make a killing now by constructing a trailer park in Greensburg and undercutting FEMA's price.

Seems reasonable to me.

There should be some time limit on it. I thought 18 months seemed sufficient to rebuild most houses. Maybe I'm wrong on that - I'm not in construction. But it seems to me most houses take less than a year and a half to build.

It more likely has to do with finances. Depending on the type and whether or not they had insurance, many people just literally lose everything. The job opportunities that were there are diminished, if not gone, and moving somewhere else is probably the only option. Do they have enough money to move, enough to put up the down payment for rent? Do they have a working vehicle? If they were injured, that just makes everything that much harder.

The government has had many chances to see what happens in natural disasters, and what kinds of assistance people need long term to rebuild (perhaps elsewhere). It doesn't seem as if they've learned their lessons.

It's not like Bob the Builder has an office there.

"Matthew Abson, 46, a building contractor who has lived in a FEMA trailer in Gulfport, Miss., for 2 1/2 years, figured something was wrong when his FEMA caseworker came to his trailer last month wearing a mask. When he asked her why, she said “formaldehyde.” Then she recommended he wear a hazardous-materials suit.

“If they knew chemicals are in the trailers, why did they put us in them?” Abson asked. “Billions were sent down here after Katrina, and I did not get a dime. All I got was this trailer, and now that’s going to cause potential death?”

"FEMA trailers toxic, tests show"
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/15/nation/na-trailers15

We can bail out Bankster/Gangsters, but we can't pass unemployment for millions of workers? Something is wrong with this picture.