Dan DaranciangAlphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, spoke to Washington University students and faculty in a surprise visit to the Swamp Saturday. Student Life conducted an interview with Secretary Jackson on the subject of his department’s response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
STUDENT LIFE: What’s the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s #1 priority in the immediate aftermath for the victims of the disaster?
SECRETARY JACKSON: It’s three phases. The first phase right now is with Homeland Security. That is to safely evacuate as many people as we can to put them in stabilized shelters for the next zero to three weeks. During the second phase-during that period of time-is to give them transitional housing, because they can only stay in shelters for really no more than three weeks at the most and try to find churches, faith-based organizations, someone’s homes that are willing to take them. At the end of that period, we have an agreement with the U.S. Conference of American, the National County Association that on Wednesday I will announce with the Secretary of Homeland Security at the request of President Bush that we have 20,000 units within the 500 mile radius that are willing to take families that want to relocate. Now, it’s important to understand-this is the most difficult thing to understand-families are not going back to New Orleans any time soon. At best, maybe a year for those areas that are affected. And that’s important to understand, because there are a number of things that have happened. First of all, the flood came-but that’s not the devastating part. The devastating part is that animals died-human beings died, mosquitoes have become a problem. We’re going to have infectious disease. So even when the water recedes, it’s going to take us 60-90 days to go in and clear everything to make sure we desanitize, disinfect so no diseases will spread.
SL: How will the relief funds be distributed, physically distributed?
JACKSON: First of all, the relief funds are going directly to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. We have phenomenal people who are working. We don’t necessarily need people; we need funds.
SL: Okay. How are people going to be matched up with temporary housing in the future? Right now the government Web site-FEMA says to use Craig’s List. Will the government be setting up their own program for matching people with temporary housing?
JACKSON: We will. Those people in the shelters-those people that we move. Now we have a problem in some sense. The Web site there is called 1-800-LOVE-17-I think that’s what it is right now for the Red Cross for people to call in. So we will know what their housing needs are. At that point in time, we will try to work with them. First to get them stabilized to make sure that they have furnishing, make sure they have clothing. Now, the one point that we’re still working on is jobs. And this is the critical point that we are facing right now. Many of the persons in the shelter around the country right now think that they will be able to go back to their homes in 60, 70, 80 days. And I don’t think that it is likely that that is going to occur.
SL: Sir, will there be some sort of Habitat for Humanity-type reconstruction plan where people are given funds to help rebuild homes elsewhere and given living wages, things like that?
JACKSON: We will have living wages, but we will have Habitat for Humanity involved but the federal government, the President is committed that we are going to rebuild the coastal Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. And yesterday we had the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran, and the Chairman of the Housing Committee, Chairman Shelby, with the President, and we made, we began to make that commitment that the President last night at 9:00-we were all in the room-would sign $10.5 billion… that’s only the beginning. We’re looking at a $100-billion disaster that has happened to this country. And the President is committed that we are going to rebuild those communities.
SL: People have been talking about the racial issue-is it the fact that many of the affected, that many are minorities, is that affecting the relief effort, where the money’s going and how it’s, and how it’s —
JACKSON: I would tell you absolutely no. The President, Chairman Chertoff, myself-I wouldn’t care if the people were green. The most important issue is that we evacuate people. And I think that it is misleading and it is disingenuous on the press to press that. There are a number of people both Asian…. the largest community hit in Bay St. Louis, Missis., were Asians… no one has said that they were totally wiped out. But to zero in just on black Americans when there are a lot of white Americans in New Orleans, it’s strictly the same problem. They [are] enhancing the racial issue. It is not a racial issue. It’s an issue of having the resources to wade through the waters. The biggest problem that we face is that had we not had the flooding, we wouldn’t have a problem today. You could not anticipate the flooding… that’s the biggest problem. We couldn’t get to the people; that’s the biggest problem.
SL: In the immediate aftermath, are you going to encourage mortgage companies to relax standards for loan documentation? Many have lost their proofs of income and identification. How is that going to be handled?
JACKSON: That is already happening. What we have said-anyone who has a standard mortgage, anyone who has an FHA mortgage, Ginny Mae mortgage, a Fannie Mae or a Freddie Mac-we have insisted that first of all they not be charged their monthly note. Second of all that until the President assures that they are back on their feet, they should not be charged.
SL: Just one last question. Since the price of building materials is going to go up so high-is that going to be taken into account in the amount of relief funds that are going to be spent?
JACKSON: The President said yesterday when he was in New Orleans-New Orleans will rise again and Alabama, Mississippi-it doesn’t matter how much it costs. Money is not the issue. The issue is to put the people’s lives back in order. So that they can leave in decent, safe-an environmental free life.