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GALVESTON -- Finding housing for the thousands of Texans displaced by Hurricane Ike remains the government's top priority, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday.
"Our top three priorities are housing, housing and housing. We are going to stick with it until we are done," FEMA Administrator David Paulison told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Southeast Texas officials.
FEMA has been heavily criticized by local, state and county officials as too slow in its efforts to provide housing -- particularly mobile homes -- for Southeast Texas residents whose homes and apartments were destroyed or severely damaged after Ike roared ashore near Galveston on Sept. 13.
Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia, one of the officials who met with Paulison on Friday, said it had taken seven weeks to get federal approval for an 88-acre site that can accommodate 600 mobile homes in his county.
"They've dropped the ball as far as I'm concerned. It's just been too slow," Sylvia said. "There is no reason it should take seven weeks to put the first FEMA trailer in the hardest-hit area in Chambers County. To me that is unacceptable, and it should be to FEMA also."
Paulison said the agency would streamline the process to make it easier to get mobile homes in Texas communities devastated by Ike.
About 1,000 mobile homes have been sent to Texas; 600 are already occupied.
"We have plenty of units. That is not an issue. The problem is finding the spots," Paulison said.
Mobile-home sites must meet zoning rules and have the necessary utility hookups before they can be occupied.
"We are opening up more sites. We are being more flexible in where we are going to put up these sites," Paulison said.
Federal regulations prevented FEMA from putting mobile homes on floodplains. But the agency has waived that rule at the urging of some Texas counties.
Paulison estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 mobile homes would be needed in Texas. But some local and county officials say twice that many are needed.
Besides mobile homes, FEMA officials say, the agency is helping in other ways.
Nearly $266 million has gone to homeowners and renters for rental assistance and emergency repairs. FEMA has also spent $60 million to help about 22,000 applicants stay temporarily in hotels, including more than 5,000 who are still in such facilities.
The agency referred another 19,000 applicants to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Housing Assistance Program. HUD uses its public housing authorities to place eligible families and individuals in rental units. The program will be available for 17 months.
In addition, Texas homeowners have received more than $143 million in low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The money covers uncompensated losses for physical damage to homes.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of several federal lawmakers who requested the meeting, said he believed FEMA was working diligently to fix the housing problem but wanted Paulison to learn of the situation firsthand.
"It's important he hear the frustration with the excruciatingly slow response to the housing need for the people of this part of the state," Cornyn said.
Sylvia said he was positive about the meeting.
"I feel Paulison will go back and try to correct things," he said.
