Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005

For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Kim Alton
(202) 662-8600
August 29, 2007

Coastal Mississippians Face A Perfect Storm - Two Years Later

(Gulf Coast, MS) - The Lawyers' Committee, Mississippi Center for
Justice, and the Steps Coalition are hosting a free Katrina legal clinic
to help Mississippians deal with the bureaucratic threats to housing
security.  The workshop will be held at the Good Deeds Community Center
from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 15101 Madison St. in Gulfport, MS.

On the second anniversary of Katrina, thousands of Mississippians face a
continuing storm of governmental failure to properly maintain and
administer several crucial safety nets: rebuilding assistance grants,
subsidized housing, and FEMA assistance.

In Mississippi alone, 70,000 homes were destroyed and 160,000 were
damaged by the storm.  Low- and moderate-income families occupied the
majority of the homes affected by the hurricane. Affordable housing is
desperately needed to help families rebuild their lives, but the state
and federal governments have failed to deliver assistance to those most
in need.  Although Mississippi has received $5.4 billion in federal
Community Development Block Grants, the Mississippi Development
Authority has so far paid only $55 million to 787 lower-income
households under the only income-targeted program for homeowners.

Mississippi has strayed far from Congress's goal to spend half this
money on lower-income storm victims' needs. A recently released report
authored by Mississippi Center for Justice for the Steps Coalition
details how Mississippi has underfunded the lower-income population's
recovery by $1 billion and what it would take to restore balance. See
http://www.stepscoalition.org/news/article/steps_coalition_cdbg_report
<http://www.stepscoalition.org/news/article/steps_coalition_cdbg_report>

More than 2,500 public housing units were damaged or destroyed on the
Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Two years later, HUD and the Mississippi
Regional Housing Authority have not replaced the damaged public housing
or provided a sufficient number of Section 8 vouchers.

16,000 FEMA trailers still serve as homes for many Mississippi families,
and even this temporary housing may soon disappear.  Local governments
have begun the process of prohibiting FEMA trailers without offering
housing alternatives to families living on the verge of homelessness.

The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.

For more information on the Lawyers' Committee, visit us at www.lawyerscommittee.org



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