FEMA trailers for katrina and Rita victims coming back vanalized and stripped

It is unbelievable. I know that some people are mad at the slow response but man this really pisses me off to give people a home and shelter and to destroy it strip it of all its stuff so no one else can use the home for help.
This is why people see the poor is such a bad light because they do stuff like this.
FEMA trailers trashed by users, used as meth labs | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
Nov. 2, 2006, 10:13PM
HURRICANE AFTERMATH
FEMA trailers trashed by users
400 of the temporary units have been so badly damaged that they need major repairs


By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

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Note to Hurricane Rita survivors: Please don't beat up the FEMA trailers, use them as meth labs or cart them off to your deer lease during hunting season.

More than 400 of the one-bedroom travel trailers issued to people displaced by Rita have been torn up so badly that serious repairs have been necessary, according to a statement Tuesday from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"They're certainly not for long-term living, and we at FEMA better understand that better than anybody," said Don Jacks, an agency spokesman in Austin.


4,600 trailers issued
In Texas, more than 4,600 of the one-bedroom trailers were issued free of charge to those made homeless by the Category 3 hurricane when it hit Sabine Pass on Sept. 24, 2005.

Today, about 3,000 of the trailers ? which cost federal taxpayers $20,000 each ? remain in use in Texas. So far, about 400 have suffered so much vandalism they had to be sent to FEMA repair centers in Texas and Arkansas, Jacks said.

One trailer had more than 300 cigarette burns. Another was burned to the ground. Hundreds of others have torn cushions, broken doors, torn-up refrigerators and myriad problems.


Used as drug labs
Then there's the illegal use issue.

Some of the trailers issued to Hurricane Rita and Katrina evacuees have been used as drug labs. One Texas man trucked his to Louisiana and sold it. A few other tenants have hooked them up to vehicles and even taken their trailers to deer leases to have a place to stay while hunting.

"They are rare instances," Jacks said of the hunters. "You shake your head and wonder, 'What are they thinking?'"

Jacks said residents need to understand that vandalizing or removing the trailers could violate their written agreements with FEMA.

That said, only five Rita victims have been removed from trailers for violating those agreements, according to FEMA.