(Editor’s Note: This is the second story in a two-part series looking at residents in the FEMA trailer parks, who are being evicted by next year, and their stories of why they are still there and what their future holds.)

BY KYLE BARNETT

Staff Reporter

EDGARD — The grounds of the Lionel Bailey FEMA trailer site in Edgard are close to deserted, although two or three security guards are constantly on patrol.

The trailers are in a single row alongside a gravel road abutted by a chain link fence. Behind the fence, pieces of litter have been errantly thrown into the forestland.

At its height the site held 35 households, yet only six trailers are occupied now and more of the unoccupied trailers are being removed every week. By March 31, 2008 the date FEMA has mandated the park closed, no one should be left.

The majority of the trailers are travel trailers, originally meant to be pulled behind pickup trucks and used for recreational outings.

FEMA spokesman Mike Wiener said the trailers were only meant to be stayed in for three months, however, some of them have been inhabited for close to two years.

“We all knew it wasn’t going to be open for a long period of time,” said Michelle Brown, a resident of the site.

Brown and her daughter have been living in their 200 square foot trailer for a little over a year.

At first they had symptoms commonly linked to exposure to high levels of formaldehyde. She said they felt nauseated and sometimes had problems breathing, but when she called the maintenance department about the problem they were told to “air the trailer out.” Despite the health risks she had nowhere else to go.

Brown said that much of their delay of moving into a permanent home is largely due to lingering damage in New Orleans and the increase in post-Katrina rental and living costs.

“If you’ve got a job that pays $8.50 an hour how are you going to pay $1200 rent a month?” Brown asked. “Everything is astronomical. As far as I’m concerned I am moving away from New Orleans after this is done.”

If Brown cannot find a place to stay close to Edgard her daughter will have to transfer for the remaining month of the spring semester into her fourth school in two years.

“I think FEMA is doing what they can do besides the red tape they put up,” Brown said. However, she said FEMA did not tell her she would have to be gone in spring.

“They haven’t said anything about the park closing,” Brown said. “I heard it on the news.”

Despite problems with the trailer and communication with FEMA, Brown said she is happy to have been able to stay there and has been able to save money in preparation for the move.

“Truly, truly, I appreciate the FEMA trailer,” Brown said. “There was no place to come home to.”

Brown expresses a sentiment felt by other residents there.

At the end of the gravel road, Virgie Talley’s convertible Mazda Mx5 is parked out in front of her trailer.

“I got that car last year for the gas mileage,” she said.

For 20 years she rented a home in Metairie. It was destroyed in the hurricane. Ever since the storm, she has been living in a trailer, however she only moved to the Lionel Bailey site in spring this year.

Talley holds a Juris Doctorate in Law and a bachelor’s degree in accounting, yet she does not have a CPA license nor is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, making her ineligible to practice either discipline professionally.

She worked for a law firm giving legal and financial advice to clients who were in financial trouble. After the storm her position was eliminated.

“I was in kind of a niche,” she said.

Now that the site is closing she thinks she will go back to Jefferson Parish, however finding a new job has not been easy for her.

“I need to find somewhere I can put my skills to work,” Talley said.

Her plan is to take a 140-hour CPA certification course in preparation for the move.

In defense of staying in the FEMA trailer for as long as she has Talley said, “I think I’ve paid my taxes for long enough.”

For others, taxes paid earlier in life are the means by which to live now. Retired Reverend Alton Reed’s sole income comes from Social Security payments.

“I really don’t know what I am going to do,” Reed said. “My mother died and my brother and sister died. I am just here all alone.”

A native of the 9th Ward in New Orleans he was living in an apartment building for senior citizens before the storm.

“Where I lived, there is nothing there,” Reed said.

Reed lives in one of the few full-size trailers on the site. He was the first resident there.

His trailer is roach infested and in disrepair. The walls are stained from leaks in the roof and the flooring underneath the linoleum inside his doorway has fallen through. He said despite repeated calls to the maintenance department no one has come to make repairs.

“Generally speaking, maintenance issues are taken care of as they arise,” said Wiener.

According to FEMA records, maintenance men were sent to Reed’s trailer, however Wiener was unable to say when and which maintenance company was contracted to complete the repairs.

As far as moving Reed and others into permanent housing, Wiener said FEMA has been networking with numerous non-profit and faith based organizations in their effort to find sustainable housing for residents, including housing for those that do not qualify for the HUD program and in dwellings in the area that will allow children to stay in school.

“We are doing our best to assist families to locate permanent housing,” Wiener said. “Bottom line we are not going to kick anyone out onto the street.”

FEMA trailer residents seeking permanent housing can call the Disaster Housing Assistance Program referral line at 1-866-373-9509 for help.