Mississippi Cottages for Katrina people - could they also serve MCS folks???

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*Mississippi Cottages* for Katrina people - could they also serve MCS

folks???

One of these had a *green* version that had better materials. Check out the

photos below.

 

Agency Is Under Pressure to Develop Disaster Housing [

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Lori Waselchuk for The New York Times

 

Mississippi Cottages, awaiting delivery at a staging area in Gulfport,

Miss., are the state's solution to the need for temporary emergency housing.

_http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/us/13trailers.html?_r=1 & hp & oref=slogin_

(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/us/13trailers.html?_r=1 & hp & oref=slogin)

 

By LESLIE EATON

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Published: April 13, 2008

 

GULFPORT, Miss. — After the federal government announced in February that it

would no longer use travel trailers to house the victims of future

disasters, there was an initial sense of relief along the hurricane-scarred

Gulf

Coast.

 

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Lori Waselchuk for The New York Times

Vicki Ladner Meshell and her husband, Rickey, who lost their home in Long

Beach, Miss., in Hurricane Katrina's storm surge.

 

The flimsy little white boxes are unpleasant to live in and tainted with

toxic formaldehyde fumes. And they cost the federal government billions of

dollars. But that relief quickly turned to exasperation when it became clear

that

the government did not have an immediate backup plan. Without the trailers,

the Federal Emergency Management Agency

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has no reliable way to rush immediate shelter to thousands of victims of an

earthquake, or a wildfire, or another catastrophic hurricane.

 

Though FEMA is considering several new ideas, including a so-called

panelized home partially built at a factory, the agency's effort to develop a

trailer

replacement has not impressed many housing experts.

 

" FEMA seems like a babe in the woods on this stuff, " said John Henneberger,

co-director of the Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service, which is

working on trailer alternatives. " They seem to be clueless. "

 

The view in Washington

_http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/w\

ashingtondc/index.html?inline=nyt-geo_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/w\

ashingtondc

/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) is not much different.

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandposse\) *It

just sounds like

they still don*t know what they*re talking about, to be frank,* said Ronald D.

Utt, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. *To

say, O.K., we didn't get it right with trailers so we'll move on to something

more exotic like prefab housing is a bizarre suggestion.*

 

There are several proposals that FEMA may try in future disasters, including

houses made of shipping containers and one that can be shipped flat and

unfolded upon delivery. Here in Gulfport, the state has designed and built what

are known as the Mississippi Cottages

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— skinny but sturdy little houses that can be seen lined up by the hundreds

in a staging area here.

 

But while the cottages are the only alternative that has been fully tested

and appear popular with those who live in them, they have proved hard to place

because of local government resistance. And they were produced through an

effort that FEMA may have a hard time replicating.

 

FEMA is under increasing pressure from Congress to develop disaster housing.

Senator Mary L. Landrieu

_http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/mary_landr\_

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, the Louisiana

_http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandposse\_

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louisiana/index.html?inline=nyt-geo)

ssions/louisiana/index.html?inline=nyt-geo Democrat who leads a subcommittee on

disaster recovery, has

begun an investigation into the agency's policies, and, at a hearing this

month, castigated agency officials for failing to develop a strategic plan.

Congress had set a deadline for the plan of July 1, 2007; the agency now says

it

hopes to have one by June 1.

 

Her goal, Ms. Landrieu said in an e-mail message, is to " make sure the next

time a disaster strikes, housing — a basic human need — will be safe for

all

our families. "

 

FEMA officials say they are pushing hard to move the last 30,000 families

out of temporary housing, most of which is made up of trailers. (There were

almost 119,000 trailers in use at the peak.) As the trailers are emptied, they

will probably be sold for scrap, said David Garratt, acting assistant

administrator for disaster assistance at FEMA.

 

As for the pace of the hunt for a replacement, " we recognize, to some

extent, this is an urgent need, " Mr. Garratt said. " But we don't want to treat

disaster victims as guinea pigs. "

 

In the meantime, FEMA is planning to order formaldehyde-free mobile homes

and a little-used mini-mobile home, called a " park model, " to house disaster

victims. But it is far harder to find sites for the bigger units; last fall,

for example, the agency had more than 57,000 trailers in use along the Gulf

Coast, but fewer than 7,000 mobile homes, and only 1,600 park units.

 

After the California wildfires last fall, FEMA was able to install only 50

mobile homes; it found them hard to transport on winding roads and hard to

install on steep sites, said Jack Schuback, who runs the agency's joint housing

solutions group.

 

Many experts have long urged FEMA to work closely with federal housing

officials to find existing apartments for disaster victims, rather than focus

on

trailers. The agency insists that it does so whenever possible, although its

efforts along those lines in New Orleans and Mississippi have been roundly

criticized. But after a disaster like Hurricane Katrina

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assifier) e_katrina/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

> , there was no existing housing nearby.

 

Relocating families might mean sending them far from their jobs and the

houses they hope to rebuild.

 

One of FEMA's criteria in evaluating trailer alternatives is that they have

a smaller footprint than mobile homes, Mr. Schuback said.

 

The agency is also looking for housing that can accommodate families and

people with disabilities, that can be delivered quickly, that can be installed

in different environments, and that will not be too costly. The travel

trailers cost as little as $11,000 apiece, but installing and maintaining them

averaged $30,000, and sometimes far more, according to the Government

Accountability Office

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..

 

Using a lengthy checklist, FEMA has evaluated about 66 proposals, Mr.

Schuback said, and visited 37 sites. But only half a dozen have been deemed

promising enough to try during a disaster.

 

" I want to emphasize that we have not yet found the golden unit that will

solve all disaster housing, " he said. " The process has ruled out far more units

than it has yielded. "

 

The agency is being cagey about which proposals made the cut, but it did say

that it is evaluating two that are being tried by states under a $400

million pilot project that Congress required FEMA to undertake in June 2006.

 

Texas is supposed to try the panelized home. It has signed a contract with

an international company called Heston, but none of the houses have been

built.

 

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.

 

" We love it — except when all four of us are trying to get ready at once, "

Ms. Meshell said of the little aqua-colored cottage, which her family

eventually hopes to buy. The cottage is rent-free, although they pay $210 a

month for

the trailer site, plus utilities.

 

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. "

_http://www.mississippirenewal.com/info/dayJan-11-06.html_

(http://www.mississippirenewal.com/info/dayJan-11-06.html)

 

[Katrina Cottage Unveiled] By Ben Brown

 

ORLANDO, FLORIDA, January 11, 2006 -- There's a little bit of Mississippi

attracting a crowd in the Orange County Convention Center parking lot.

 

It's Katrina Cottage 1, a 308 square-foot tribute to coastal Mississippi

style designed by Marianne Cusato _http://www.cusatocottages.com/_

(http://www.cusatocottages.com/) during the October Mississippi Renewal Forum

in Biloxi.

At a built-out cost somewhere south of $35,000, it was a huge hit when it

debuted as a two-dimensional drawing during the forum. Now it's going national.

 

Construction crew puts finishing touches on Katrina Cottage 1.

Photos by Sandy Sorlien.

Cusato is a New York designer. But just about everything else connected with

the house is pure Mississippi. Jackson architect Michael Barranco fine-tuned

the plan so that Jackson builder Jason Spelling and his crew could construct

the prototype in a barn on the Mississippi State Fair Grounds. They

completed it in 20 days, then hauled it to Florida to display for an estimated

100,000 attendees at the International Builders Show here through Saturday.

 

" People are loving it, " Spelling said Wednesday. " I can't tell you how many

people have come by already and said they personally want one. I even talked

to a guy who wants to make it his deer-hunting cabin. " Developers who've

toured the cottage have told Spelling and Cusato they're considering the design

for high-end beach communities on other coasts.

 

That's not exactly what Cusato has in mind, but she takes it as affirmation

that she achieved her purpose: To prove that affordable emergency housing in

the wake of Hurricane Katrina didn't have to be a trailer that ends up in a

landfill in 18 months. She downsized a perfectly scaled Mississippi-style

coastal cottage, complete with an inviting porch. She created clever built-in

storage under porch benches and beneath bunk beds. And she gave the sparse

interior space a roomy feel with oversized windows.

 

Above: The front living/dining room.

Below: Two of the cottage's four bunks.

Photos by Sandy Sorlien.

*People can't believe it's only 300 square-feet,* said Cusato. " Just about

everybody who's come by says it feels so much bigger. "

 

This particular model is one of a set of Katrina Cottages created by the

local and international designers at the Mississippi Renewal Forum. They are

collected as plans, soon to be available at a discounted rate to South

Mississippians in a series of plan books published by the New Urban Guild

_http://www.newurbanguild.com/_ (http://www.newurbanguild.com/) .

 

The designers have been encouraged by the response of state builders,

developers and even manufactured housing executives who want to use the cottage

designs to help replace the 65,000-plus homes lost to the hurricane in

Mississippi.

 

*And it could catch on nationally,* says Cusato. In fact, if the reception

this first version has received in Orlando is any indication, says Cusato,

Mississippi *can lead the nation in what could be a revolution in affordable

housing.*

 

Completed cottage at dawn awaits visitors.

Photos by Sandy Sorlien.

 

_http://www.mscottage.org/_ (http://www.mscottage.org/)

(http://www.mscottage.org/) Mississippi Alternative Housing Program

 

Please use the links provided to learn more about MAHP, including the latest

news and the answers to our most frequently asked questions.

 

If you have further questions please call our call center:

 

1-866-726-MAHP(6247)

 

Photos & Details:

 

Park Model <_http://www.mscottage.org/park_ (http://www.mscottage.org/park) >

 

Mississippi Cottage <_http://www.mscottage.org/cottage_

(http://www.mscottage.org/cottage) >

 

Green Mobile <_http://www.mscottage.org/mobile_

(http://www.mscottage.org/mobile) >

 

About:

 

The Mississippi Alternative Housing Program is funded by a $281 million

federal grant and is administered by the Mississippi Emergency Management

Agency.

The purpose of the program is to develop and produce a safer and more

comfortable temporary housing unit for use after a disaster. The program will

also

address additional goals such as new approaches to management of units and

the option of allowing units to go from temporary to permanent.

 

Mississippi will build three different units as part of the program. The

Park Model is a one-bedroom unit that will replace the current FEMA travel

trailer. It will be safer and more comfortable than the travel trailer. The

Mississippi Cottage, in both two- and three-bedroom styles, will replace the

current FEMA mobile home. The Mississippi Cottage unit will also be available in

an

ADA-compliant model. The Green Mobile unit will be produced in one- and

two-bedroom models and will be both ADA-compliant and energy efficient. All of

these units are modular, stick-built homes that can be converted into permanent

dwellings.

 

Expectations are that between 4,000 and 6,000 units will be built. The total

number of units produced will depend on applicants' needs for specific units

and the actual cost of production, maintenance and management of the units.

 

The program is strictly voluntary for both applicants and local

jurisdictions. Eligible applicants within the official FEMA database will be

awarded

housing units by random proportional selection . Applicants whose names are

selected will be notified and given an opportunity to accept or decline the

offer

to receive an alternative housing unit.

 

Questions about the program can be emailed to: _memainfo_

(memainfo)

 

_http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/28/Homes/The_house_that_Katrin.shtml_

(http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/28/Homes/The_house_that_Katrin.shtml)

The house that Katrina built A little yellow cottage with a tin roof - a hit

at the recent International Builders' Show - may be the future of emergency

housing.

By JUDY STARK

Published January 28, 2006 [photo] [Photos: Sandy Sorlien]

 

The Katrina Cottage is 14 by 22 feet plus an 8-foot-deep porch with bench

seating. It's the same size and price as a temporary FEMA trailer but offers

permanent housing, dignity and the possibility of adding on later.

 

[ _http://www.sptimes.com/trans.gif_ (http://www.sptimes.com/trans.gif) ]

[photo]

The home's main living area offers seating and dining space. The kitchen is

to the right just inside the entrance. [photo] The bunk-bed mattresses hide

storage space.

 

ORLANDO - The show house everyone was talking about at the recent

International Builders' Show wasn't the biggest, fanciest or most expensive.

But the

308-square-foot house may change the way the United States deals with emergency

housing and affordable housing.

 

The yellow cottage with a tin roof is exactly the size of the temporary

trailers the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides to victims of

hurricanes and other disasters, and it costs about the same: less than $35,000.

 

But where a FEMA trailer looks grim and dispiriting - who wants to live next

to one, let alone in one? - this house, known as the Katrina Cottage, is

airy, bright and charming.

 

" I'm designing affordable housing, " said Marianne Cusato, 31, the architect

who designed the cottage. But developers who toured it, she said, were

telling her they want to use the plans for upscale beach cottages or mountain

resorts.

 

The design is one of the products of a one-week session, the Mississippi

Renewal Forum, held on that state's coast in October. About 110 architects,

planners and designers converged with 80 of their local counterparts at the

request of Gov. Haley Barbour to come up with ideas to redevelop 11 small

coastal

communities that were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Fifty-thousand

homes were obliterated and 80,000 were damaged along a 120-mile stretch of the

Mississippi coast.

 

The team produced a foot-high stack of reports and a pattern book of designs

to guide the rebuilding of communities, neighborhoods and individual homes.

The pattern book draws on the original architecture and design detail of the

area.

 

Here was the governor's challenge, said Andres Duany, the Miami architect

who is a leader in traditional neighborhood design: " Bring it back better. " He

explained: " If these communities are ever going to be spiritually whole, they

can't be pining about their past, always saying, " It was better before

Katrina.' The only way to renew these communities is for them to be better than

before. "

 

So the idea is to rebuild communities where high-rises don't wall off the

beach and where major highways don't slash through downtown. Make them

walkable. Provide public transportation. Encourage local retail but find a way

to

accommodate the big-box chains. Support economic diversity.

 

And build community, with little touches like the front porch on the Katrina

Cottage, where people sat and talked virtually nonstop during the four-day

builders' convention.

 

The Katrina Cottage was built in just 20 days and trucked to the site,

Cusato said. This one was frame construction, but it could be built as a

modular

home or with panelized construction. The idea was to offer something

versatile, flexible and affordable and to interest manufacturers in reproducing

the

house.

 

" The only reason not to do this is that it's not the current conventional

practice, " said Cusato, a Notre Dame graduate who has just opened her own

practice in New York. " But we can do this. Sometimes it takes a major event to

change things, make us recalibrate. "

 

At first, she acknowledged, " I didn't get it. Then I realized: Hurricane

season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, this year and every year. " There will

always

be a need for emergency housing somewhere, for some reason.

 

The cottage, which draws on the design of a Mississippi coastal cottage, is

14 by 22 feet plus an 8-foot-deep porch. Inside the front door is a

living/dining area; to the right, a small kitchen with a four-burner range and

a

full-size refrigerator, sink, and cabinets. Beside it is a full bath. At the

back

of the house is a bedroom with two sets of bunk beds. There's storage space

under the mattresses, and there is one closet. The house has central air and

heat. It is sided in Hardieboard, a fiber-cement product, and topped with a

metal roof.

 

" Design matters, " Cusato said, pointing to the well-proportioned

six-over-six windows, the slope of the roof, the size of the porch.

 

Architects' sketches on the wall show how the cottage can be expanded and

enlarged as need and money permit. The session generated a dozen or more plans

for modestly priced housing in addition to Cusato's design.

 

Beyond speed of construction and permanence, Cusato said, is the dignity

factor: giving disaster victims a permanent, attractive place to live that

respects them and supports their desire to get back to a normal life.

 

Pushing that envelope will take some work. FEMA, for example, is not

chartered to provide permanent housing, so its mandate would have to be

changed.

 

Duany hopes to encourage good design in Mississippi according to the

principles developed by the forum by telling developers and builders: " We'll

give

you a straight pipeline " - hand-carry you through codes, insurance, FEMA,

mortgages - " if you do it well and follow our plans. " But understand that

" everything has to be this nice, " he said, gesturing to the Katrina Cottage.

Come in

planning to throw up cheap, ugly housing, and the way will be a lot tougher.

 

" This is 120 miles of really valuable real estate, " Duany said of the

Mississippi gulf coast. " It's hard to keep people out. You can't say, " You

can't

build there.' But we don't have to build back as badly as we have in the last

20 years, with neighborhoods dismantled or the DOT building highways that ream

out neighborhoods. "

 

The Katrina Cottage lends itself to a variety of uses: housing for emergency

workers, Habitat for Humanity housing, student housing, guest or in-law

quarters. The design team said it got good feedback and interest from builders

and the manufactured-home industry at the builders' show, but the proof will

come if anyone wants to put the cottage into large-scale production.

 

Said Cusato: *The story here isn't that a few people built a cute house that

a lot of people want to hug, but that we're going to change the way we deal

with emergency and affordable housing throughout the United States.*

 

- For more images of the Katrina Cottage and information about the

Mississippi Renewal Forum, visit _www.mississippirenewal.com_

(http://www.mississippirenewal.com)

 

 

 

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