Thursday disaster recovery mix

- The National Multi Housing Council and the National Apartment Association are especially upset (more here) about the decision to keep housing disaster victims in hotel rooms at $8.3 million per day, per yesterday's Washington Post. As they have for the past month, the NMHC folks are sounding frustrated and mystified, saying vacant conventional apartments are available and FEMA hasn't tried hard enough to get these same displaced households into them:

We continue to work alongside officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify available apartments in and around the impacted areas and submit this information into the DHS/FEMA sponsored national housing registry, www.hurricanehousing.net. In addition, at the request of FEMA, housing providers continue to submit information on 'blocks' of apartments that owners would be willing to rent directly to FEMA. Despite daily conference calls with DHS and meetings with government officials, we have yet to receive any assurances that these housing units are being considered for use by evacuees. Further, FEMA has done little to promote the registry of units as a housing resource...

- The freshest items in the new HAC News are the two legislative briefs at the top of the page: housing spending reduced in the continuing resolution, H.J. Res. 68, and the introduction of a Rural Housing Hurricane Relief Act, H.R. 3895.

- USA Today looks at the New Orleans rebuilding task, with quoted parties ranging from local builder Carl Hamilton to NLIHC president Sheila Crowley. Meanwhile views from the perspective of New Orleanians who aren't going back.

- Here's local coverage of glitches affecting a FEMA trailer home project in Baker, La., including mentions of two officials possibly worth remembering as contacts: "Jimmy Screen of the Shaw Group, which has contracted with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop temporary housing sites..." and "Ron Sherman, FEMA's housing area command leader..." (Oddly, Sherman's title was given as "Federal Coordinating Officer" in a FEMA press release two weeks ago.)

- A new estimate puts likely Katrina insurance claims somewhere around $34.4 billion.