2,000 Families are Living in Mississippi Cottages

(JACKSON, Mississippi) — Governor Haley Barbour reports that 2,000 Mississippi families have moved out of their FEMA provided travel trailers and mobile homes and into Mississippi Cottages.

“By moving these families into Mississippi Cottages, we’re successfully providing many coastal residents with a more comfortable and certainly safer housing alternative while they work to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Katrina,” Governor Barbour said.  “This is a milestone for the state’s ongoing recovery efforts.”

The 2,000th unit was placed in Gulfport, making this the 667th family in Harrison County to receive a cottage.   Hancock County has 848 families living in Mississippi Cottages, Jackson County has 480 families living in Mississippi Cottages and Pearl River County, which was recently added to the program, has five families living in units. 

“We are extremely pleased with the progress our program has made,” said Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.  “It is our goal to move at least an additional 1,000 families out of their travel trailers and mobile homes and into one of our units.”

The Mississippi Alternative Housing Program is the result of a $280 million federal grant awarded to Mississippi. The goals of the program are to develop and evaluate safer and more comfortable alternatives to current disaster housing units for future disasters. MEMA is administering the 24-month long program.

The first Mississippi Cottage unit was occupied on June 21, 2007.

As of March 21st, there are still 8,948 people still living in FEMA-supplied trailers in south Mississippi.

To learn more about the Mississippi Alternative Housing Program, visit mscottage.org or call 866-726-MAHP (6247).