Business compelled Puddy and I to travel to Atlanta this past week. Since it is under my 600-mile-no-fly zone, we drove there. I refuse to fly and deal with the airport gestapo unless it is over 600+ miles. The stress and elevated blood pressure is simply not worth it.
While traveling east on I-20, we noticed a few Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) trailers, but as soon as we passed Jackson, we saw a non-stop parade of these trailers for hours. We could not drive more than a few miles without seeing another group of two or three trailers headed for the Gulf Coast. In just four or five hours, we must have seen more than a hundred trailers pulled by trucks with FEMA stickers on the tow vehicles. The press reports that FEMA is placing 400 trailers a day into service.
All these trailers made us think about the long-term consequences of potentially mis-allocated capital. How long were people going to live in these trailers? Will they remain the property of FEMA? If so, will FEMA pay for the maintenance? While riding, I also happened to read an article about a RV Park in Mansfield, Louisiana that was charging FEMA $450 a month per trailer for ground rent on just twelve trailers. While I suppose they were including water, sewage and electricity, it seemed a little high, but then, FEMA is renting every space they can, so I guess they are having trouble negotiating the best rate. Just looking at the trailers, I would suppose they are paying about $15,000 each (probably more). If they are paying for the upkeep, transportation and ground rent, it could add up to a tidy sum pretty quick. How long do you suppose the average person will occupy these trailers? I would guess perhaps two years maybe? What happens then? If the trailers remain the property of FEMA, they will then have to transport them to a storage area and pay rent to keep them there until they are needed again. Will they be usable after they are lived in for a couple of years and then stored unattended for a couple more? Probably not. The bill on each of these temporary trailers could easily wind up costing $30,000 or more.
When we were traveling in Costa Rica a few years ago, our guide told us that the poor could apply for a once in a lifetime grant of $1,500 to buy building materials to build their own home. He had to own a small lot, and he had to build the home himself. The person now was a homeowner who cared for his home and added onto it if his fortunes improved later. It was a one time expense for the government with no long tail.
What could we do in this country along those same lines to really help displaced citizens, instead of putting them in temporary solutions until government housing can be built for them (another very poor option). Perhaps, the government could loan displaced persons $30,000 interest free for 30 years? For less than $85 a month plus utilities, they could become homeowners. Even if they were very modest homes, such as one- bedroom A-frame homes, where the parents slept in the den and the children slept upstairs in the loft, they would be solid homes that would last. Architecture students could compete to design small square footage homes that were energy efficient and inexpensive to build. Murphy beds could make a comeback. Local building codes could be relaxed to allow the homeowners to do some of the work themselves.
I am not sure what the long-term solution is going to be, but I feel all these trailers going down the road are only the first phase of the government's unformulated and unending plan for these poor unfortunate people. The federal debt grows larger as we squander our national treasure and the end draws nearer.
Larry LaBorde, Silver Trading Company
