Mayor Shirley Franklin, while on business in Washington, D.C., learned of the new federal government proposal to give evacuees approximately $2350 ($786/month) to pay rent and utilities for the next three months. The mayor decried the new policy as “shamefully and tragically inadequate”. She noted that the City of Atlanta has been working with regional service providers, Atlanta Housing Authority, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Corporation, and other experts including the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Quality Growth Task Force to determine the cost of adequately stabilizing families displaced by Katrina. These community and organization experts have estimated the required cost to house one family for six months would be approximately $11,000.
“Our numbers are the result of thorough research and a genuine concern for the well-being of the evacuees. We simply cannot pretend that a mere $2300 for three months will allow a family to afford housing in the City of Atlanta or the metro area. I cannot imagine how any family will be able to find adequate housing here or across the country for that amount”.
American Red Cross in Metropolitan Atlanta estimates that there are approximately 39,000 evacuee families in Georgia. To adequately house half of those families in affordable apartments in Atlanta will cost almost $400 million for six months. “The federal government ought to be ashamed – they are building a house of cards and systematically undermining any real chance for these survivors to recover their lives and move on”.