Katrina Housing Fiasco

I'm glad somebody finally wrote the story of the Bush administration's failure to deal effectively with post-Katrina housing for the half million displaced persons. Instead of giving housing vouchers for the 300,000 vacant apartments in Texas (his home state!), FEMA and the Red Cross are spending billions of dollars to put people up in hotels.

I was personally offended by this approach when I first heard about it about a week after the hurricane. The Red Cross was pulling in millions and my wife and I were about to donate. But when I heard that much of the money would go to put people up in hotels, I wondered: And at what rates? What were the hotel chains contributing in exchange for guaranteed full occupancy? We decided to donate in other ways.

The irony in all this is that when it comes to housing, liberals are the main support for voucher programs to house low income people. But over the years, while the Republicans have occasionally given housing voucher programs like Section 8 lip service, they usually are the first programs on the chopping block. Why? Effective housing voucher programs are also effective income and race integration programs, and many landlords in suburban areas would rather see their apartments stay empty that rent to people who are not the same class or race as those already living there.