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Thousands of Alabamians remain in formaldehyde-infused FEMA travel trailers, temporary housing or doubled up with relatives well into the third year after a dozen Alabama counties were declared disasters in Katrina’s wake. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars have come to Alabama, and many more millions in donated time and materials continue to help rebuild the state’s Gulf coast. Surprisingly, of $16.9 million in federal housing rebuilding funds earmarked for Mobile County, not a cent has yet been spent to repair or rebuild a home.
Over one-quarter of these households are occupied by a person with a disability, a third are headed by a single woman, often elderly, and 39% have household incomes of $15,000 or less. Appleseed’s commitment to systemic change to assist these survivors continues to be the focus of Alabama Appleseed’s Katrina Advocacy Fellow, Craig H. Baab. Appleseed works in partnership with other public and private groups to assist the Mobile County Commission, the state’s Department of Economic and Community Affairs and others to advocate for immediate action to get these homes rebuilt and families moved into safe, healthy and secure homes. Appleseed’s ongoing state and national Katrina advocacy on behalf of elderly and other survivors was begun with a major report conducted in 2006 through the pro bono efforts of seven national law firms working in tandem with the National Appleseed office and the Appleseed staffs in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama. This report looked into how evacuees’ needs were addressed in the areas of housing, health care, employment, education and the delivery of legal services in five selected cities across the Gulf Coast region: Houston, San Antonio, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, and Atlanta. The Appleseed report - A CONTINUING STORM: The On-Going Struggles of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees – A Review of Needs, Best Practices, and Recommendations, can be read here.
Alabama’s congressional delegation has been urged by Alabama Appleseed to obtain nearly $300 million in additional federal funds for home repairs, and to support the Gulf Coast Rebuilding legislation, S. 1668. This legislation is still pending.
In our work in Mobile County we learned that many Katrina victims who had applied for rebuilding assistance did not have clear title for their property, as their property had been acquired through inheritance and not properly recorded. This discovery lead us to learn that these “heir property” issues are a much larger problem affecting rural and low-income communities, irrespective of whether there has been a hurricane. These issues often lead to petitioning of jointly owned lands that results in significant land loss by rural, low-income and minority homeowners. In conjunction with our pro bono partners, Baker Donelson in Birmingham, we have developed educational and training materials that can be used by pro bono lawyers to help clear title. Our involvement in this issue may lead to a broader Appleseed collaborative project on these related issues of heir property and land loss.
This project is supported by pro bono law firms: Adams and Reese LLP, Baker Donelson Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, Beasley Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. and Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP, and the State Bar of Alabama and Mobile Bar’s Volunteer Lawyer Programs. It is underwritten by: AARP Foundation, AT&T Alabama, Alabama Civil Justice Foundation, Alabama Law Foundation and the Alabama Power Foundation. The project is also assisted by students and faculty of Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Faulkner University.
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