Mississippi NAACP State Conference President Derrick Johnson testified before the United States House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on May 8th. Chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the subcommittee held a hearing themed "Emergency Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funds in the Gulf Coast: Uses, Challenges, and Lessons for the Future."
Johnson's testimony addressed the challenges and problems that continue to plague Mississippi coastal residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi received $5.481 billion in federal CDBG funds for disaster recovery. Congress required Mississippi to spend at least 50 percent of the funds received on persons of low and moderate income. However, Mississippi is the only state that has requested and received waivers from this requirement totaling $4 billion.
"It is outrageous that the poorest state in the country would request and receive waivers not to assist the most vulnerable citizens impacted by Hurricane Katrina," Johnson said. "Over 10,000 households representing 27,000 Mississippians are still living in FEMA trailers—56 percent of which were home renters before the storm. To date, the Governor's office has not implemented a single plan to assist home renters. A majority of the families who are still living in FEMA trailers work every day, but are the working poor."
Last August, on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi NAACP released a report titled: "The Accountability Gap: Unanswered Questions Two Years Later" (http://www.NAACPms.org/files/The_Accountability_Gap.pdf). The report examines Mississippi's hurricane recovery accountability gap and highlights how recovery allocations have been disproportionately skewed toward homeowners and away from programs aimed at rebuilding affordable rental options.
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