As a result of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, many Americans became familiar with FEMA trailers—the little white structures driven in after a catastrophe, to provide basic shelter to area residents whose homes had been destroyed.
Unfortunately, FEMA trailers have problems. They’re extremely cramped, somewhat dehumanizing, rather susceptible to wind damage, emit toxic fumes…and oh yes, we found out the hard way that they have to be stored properly, or they become useless. (Witness the large trailer-park of unusable FEMA trailers in Arkansas.)
Not surprisingly, folks have been looking for alternatives.
One of the more interesting alternatives has been the “Mississippi cottage”, which was mentioned recently in the New York Times:
The only units FEMA says it is planning to test are the Mississippi Cottages, which have tin roofs, small porches and are colored like Easter eggs — rose-hip pink, malted mint, cloudless blue. The cottages are on wheels, but the larger models can be put on permanent foundations. All are equipped with appliances, beds, a table and chairs, ceiling fans, even pots and pans, and cost an average of $32,000 apiece to build.[...]
With its built-in closets and spacious kitchen cupboards, their cottage feels like a mansion, said Vicki Ladner Meshell and her husband, Rickey, whose apartment in Long Beach was washed away by Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge.[...]
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has installed more than 2,000 of them throughout southern Mississippi, and plans to put in 3,500.
But local governments in Mississippi have resisted the cottages. They fear people who get cottages will simply live in them and not rebuild their houses, said Mike Womack, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
“They’re too nice,” he said. “I’ve heard this over and over again.”
“They’re too nice”?!!
So we have an area, which is suffering from lack of affordable housing, a need to keep workers in the area both to staff recovering businesses and to help with reconstruction, a need to reduce stress in difficult recovery process, and problems with “demand surge” prompted by a lot of pressure to reconstruct as quickly as possible.
“Too nice” seems like a rather foolish concern under such circumstances.