BILOXI, Miss. -- Elderly, disabled and handicapped residents are the hardest to relocate, say government employees working to end FEMA’s longest temporary housing program, 44 months of assistance following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

The Disaster Housing Assistance Program is scheduled to end May 1. In Mississippi, 77 residents remain in hotels, while 1,960 are in FEMA travel-trailers or mobile homes. Most of those residents are in the three Coast counties.

“I feel pretty confident that we won’t see anybody who’s put out on the street,” said FEMA’s Mike Miller of Mississippi’s Transitional Recovery Office. “We’re all working very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Miller expects some residents to qualify for HUD vouchers. The Mississippi Case Management Consortium and FEMA are providing case managers to help other residents find housing alternatives. The cost of rent remains an issue, Miller said, for the elderly, disabled and handicapped on fixed incomes.

He said sales of mobile homes are picking up. FEMA has 300 mobile sales pending, with more inquiries coming in. He said residents in rural areas are particularly interested in buying their mobile homes.

Prices have ranged from $300 to around $11,000. Travel-trailers are being sold for salvage only, not as dwellings, primarily because of formaldehyde issues.

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