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Press Room

NAHRO, LISC, Fannie Mae Participate in Mississippi Public Housing Rebuild

Contact: Mary Barron, 202-289-3500 ext. 7223

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 -- From January 29 through February 2, sixty-five volunteers from Fannie Mae and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), along with members of the National Assocation of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), will help re-roof 13 public housing homes and a maintenance building in Long Beach, Miss. that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Twenty-nine of the LBHA's 75 homes remain unoccupied, including the 13 that volunteers will re-roof.

Many LBHA residents have relocated since the hurricane; this volunteer effort aims to make homes habitable for new residents in need of affordable, safe housing. January 29 also marks the 515th day since the hurricane.

The three organizations have been actively engaged in Gulf redevelopment since shortly after Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. NAHRO called on Congress to authorize and fund at least 50,000 emergency tenant assistance vouchers, as well as emergency funding for the repair of public housing units damaged in the storm. In December 2005, Congress approved the use of Community Development Block Grants as the primary recovery mechanism in the Gulf. Since the early weeks after the storm, and continuing through today, volunteers from organizations across the country have supplemented the federal response by traveling to the region and working diligently to clean up and rebuild.

On Tuesday, January 30, HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Orlando Cabrera is scheduled to visit the Long Beach Housing Authority and make a "funding announcement" regarding five Mississippi housing authorities. "We appreciate the department's funding announcement, as well as their recognition of our efforts to shore up a gap in the repair and replacement of affordable housing - particularly public housing - damaged during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," said NAHRO president Donald J. Cameron. "We hope that by the second anniversary of the hurricanes, families will be able to occupy these units again."

Lanelle Davis, Executive Director of the LBHA, says that all of the recovery work for the authority so far has been a result of insurance money and volunteers. "We're making progress, just slowly but surely," she said. "We appreciate all the volunteers and all the help that has been extended to us."