Housing relief news from HUD

A press release from HUD today is reporting:

Initially, the Department identified nearly 3,200 vacant single-family HUD-owned properties in five states near the affected areas. In addition, public housing authorities within a 500-mile radius of New Orleans estimate they have approximately 5,600 vacant units that could be made available to public housing residents forced to evacuate their homes.

So it's not the 20,000 units within 500 miles that Secretary Jackson was apparently hoping for on Saturday, but it's progress. And the press release announces other offers of units from cities elsewhere in the U.S.

The HUD press release list is also now newly showing an item dated yesterday and captioned, "HUD establishes single toll-free number (1-888-297-8685) to help disaster victims who have FHA-insured mortgages," but the link to that press release doesn't work as of this writing.

[UPDATE 9/7, 4:38 p.m.: Odd, the link to the item about the toll-free number is completely gone from the list of press releases now.]