Many in Mississippi Still Lack Homes After Katrina, Rita

GULFPORT, Miss. — John Moody spends each night huddled on a thin sleeping bag in a tent in a thick wooded area in the center of this coastal city. He keeps a steel pipe nearby, in case of unwanted visitors.

Ever since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and a sputtering economy took his job, Moody, an unemployed truck driver, has lived in the woods.

"We don't want this," says Moody, 65, who shares the wooded area with several other homeless encampments. "If we can change this today, we would. But we can't."

More than four years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked the region, Mississippi faces a growing problem in finding permanent housing for residents upturned by the storms in 2005. Housing advocates say more than 4,000 residents are looking for long-term housing — and state leaders are misusing the $5.5 billion in federal disaster funds they received to alleviate the problem.

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more...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-24-mississippi-housing_N.htm

them help NOW.