Evans-Cowley: Post-Katrina Housing International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters August 2011, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 95–131. Planning for a Temporary-to-Permanent Housing Solution in Post-Katrina Mississippi: The Story of the Mississippi Cottage Jennifer Evans-Cowley Joseph Kitchen Department of City and Regional Planning Ohio State University Email:
[email protected] Abstract Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Governor’s Commission for Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal collaborated with the Congress for the New Urbanism to generate rebuilding proposals for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. One of the ideas generated from this partnership was the Katrina Cottage—a small home that could serve as an alternative to the FEMA Trailer. The State of Mississippi participated in the Pilot Alternative Temporary Housing (PATH) program, which was funded by the U.S. Congress. This study examines how local governments and residents responded to the Mississippi Cottage Program. This study finds that while the Mississippi Cottage program did provide citizens with needed housing following Hurricane Katrina, there are significant policy and implementation challenges that should be addressed before future disasters. The paper concludes by offering recommendations on how communities across can prepare to provide temporary housing in their communities. Keywords: disaster housing, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, Mississippi Cottage, post- disaster planning Introduction Hurricane Katrina brought Category Three winds and Category Five storm surge to the Gulf Coast. After the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deployed trailers and manufactured homes, the typical forms of temporary housing deployed by the agency after disasters (Garratt 2008). After Hurricane Katrina, 95 Evans-Cowley: Post-Katrina Housing FEMA had to deploy 140,000 different temporary housing units in the form of travel trailers, mobile homes, and manufactured housing (Garratt 2008).