The FEMA Trailer: A Suitable Sheltering Option?

           The most widely used temporary sheltering option used within the United States is the trailers that are provided by FEMA.  These 150 square foot trailers began to be used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August or 2005.  Due the United States lack of preparedness in natural disaster situations, they purchased hundreds of thousands of mobile trailers for the displaced individuals of the Southeast.  Once these trailers were used and returned to FEMA, due to their lack in construction quality, were stored and sold for pennies on the dollar.  The following blog is the information I gathered from users of the FEMA trailers.
 

Image 1: A FEMA trailer outside of a ravaged house 

 

In a video entitled “FEMA Trailer Worker Speaks OUT,” CBS investigative correspondent, Armen Keteyran, interviewed former FEMA trailer inspector, Lynda Esperza, on the pressure to produce these trailers.  She described that the pressure to get the trailers out the door caused ambulances to be required for pressure-related health issues.  The faster FEMA could ship the trailers, the faster they could shift the problem from them to quality control. 

She described an event that repeatedly occurred.  On the day the trailers were tested for formaldehyde, FEMA officials instructed Esperza and others, two hours before the inspection, to open the doors and windows to let the trailer air out.  By doing this, the trailers passed inspections.  In addition, once a problem occurred, quality control would repair the problem. However, they would not check to see if the problem was fixed, fixed correctly, or remained fixed.  Esperza also stated that FEMA started doing the right thing, for the right reasons, using the right procedures, but a few months later, due to the growing urgency, the goal shifted to be focused on how much money could be produced for Gulf Stream.  In the end, FEMA and Gulf Stream made money off pressuring and demoralizing their workers, as well as putting the inhabitants’ health and well-being in danger (Keteyran, 2008).

 Image 2: A family playing outside of their temporary "home"

In a video by Lillyanna Wiley, she described the atmosphere inside her poorly made FEMA trailer.  During the tour, she revealed there was mold growing under her bed.  In addition, after staying in a trailer for two years, she would suggest that the maximum time an inhabitant would stay inside a FEMA trailer, comfortably, would be four to six months.  Therefore, from the perspective of a FEMA trailer inhabitant, the word “temporary” would mean lasting between four to six months (2 Years, n.d.).

 Image 3: An image of a FEMA trailer in a FEMA trailer park

In a video posted by Ray Bradley, he, his wife, and his two daughters explain their lives in a FEMA trailer, as well as some of their wants and needs.  During the video, he describes the lack of privacy, interior space, and storage.  He then asked both of his daughters what they wanted the most.  Oldest daughter Nasjae, due to sleeping on a foldout kitchen bed answered, “a room with a door and a little privacy.”  However, Daisjah answered, “all I want is a place to call home” (Bradley, 2007).

In a video posted by Greg Young, he described the time it took to receive his trailer, as well as the problems he faced while living in his FEMA trailer.  On the FEMA website, it states that once a person fills out the required paperwork, it would take a maximum of two months to receive a trailer.  However, in Young’s case, it took four months after filling the paperwork in June of 2006.  Once he received his trailer, he immediately realized the lack of storage, the lack of space to do laundry, and the need to use the same space for multiple things (Life in a, 2007).

 Image 4: A mother and daughter inside of their FEMA trailer

In an extensive interview, Lindsay Huckabee described the health problems her five children have experienced in their thirty months in a FEMA trailer.  In the thirty months, they have had three different trailers because the first two, when tested for formaldehyde, which both resulted in eight times the recommended levels.  Due to this, her children have experienced a laundry list of health complications including: daily nose bleeds, conjunctivitis of the eyes, asthma, migraines, and upper and lower respiratory problems.  Her seven year old daughter, Lela, has had three surgeries during the thirty months.  The surgeries included widening her sinus passages and having tubes put in her ears due to the inflammation, the formaldehyde caused, that blocked her hearing and air passages.  In addition, when Lindsay moved into the trailer, she was pregnant.  A few months later, she gave birth to a baby girl four weeks premature.  Doctors later revealed that her exposure to formaldehyde could have caused her premature pregnancy (Huckabee, 2008).

Image 5: A small child covering his face within a FEMA trailer park

            Before being able to design a successful shelter, it is imperative to discover what inhabitants thought during their stay within a FEMA trailer.  In 2006, the International Medical Corps (IMC) conducted a survey on thirty FEMA trailers in New Orleans.  Before they conducted the surveys, IMC discovered two important pieces of information: the average cost of a FEMA trailer is $70,000 and the trailers are only rated for winds up to 40 miles per hour.  Over an eight week period, their surveys were conducted to fifteen trailers on private property and fifteen trailers located in FEMA parks. 

These surveys gathered the users’ demographic background and the occupant assessment of the FEMA trailer.  The demographic background they discovered is as follows: an average age of 27.6 years, 12.8% of which were 65 years of age or older, an average occupant per trailer of 2.6 persons, 48% of the occupants were male, and the average length of post-Katrina occupancy was 4.1 months.  In terms of ethnicity, 75% were African Americans, 19% were Caucasian, and the remaining 6% were other. 

The occupant assessments were answered responding to a five-point scale, one being low and five being high.  During the surveys, the users answered fourteen categories of questions.  Areas that ranked the lowest, between 1.0 and 1.5, were personalization amenities, quality of construction, amount of storage space, ability to reconfigure furnishings, and the ability to control interior temperatures.  Areas that ranked in the middle, between 2.05 and 2.57, were interest in purchasing the trailer, ingress and egress, interior size of the trailer, and acoustical control.  The areas that ranked as the most problematic, between 3.44 and 3.59, were safety of the immediate environment and the trailer as a source of personal stress. 

The private and multi-use FEMA trailer sites ranked all the items relatively the same (within 0.25) except for three areas.  The multi-use trailer sites ranked the trailer size and acoustical control 0.75 points lower than that of the private users.  In addition, inhabitants of the multi-use trailers ranked the safety of the immediate environment 1.25 points lower than that of a private owner.  IMC also discovered, due to a lack of security, that 49% of those living within a FEMA trailer park did not feel safe walking alone at night.  In addition, 50% of the inhabitants met criteria for a depressive disorder, 62% disliked the small usable interior space, and 54% disliked the inability to modify characteristics of the trailers interior and/or exterior (Singlemann, 2010).



The next blog entry will provide you with the shelter design considerations, as well as the users wants and needs that I found during researching my thesis topic.



Text
2 Years in a FEMA Trailer. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com
Bradley, R. (2007, September 7). Life in a FEMA Trailer. Retrieved October 15, 2010, from
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2SDyGfsgQ8
Huckabee, L. (2008, November 8). Lindsay Huckabee: One Family's Formaldehyde Story.
      Retrieved October 15, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR4z8vdbDpY
Keteyran, A. (2008, July 28). FEMA Trailer Workers Speak Out. Retrieved October 15, 2010,
      from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQcToTgpp4.
Life in a FEMA Trailer. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch
      ?v=_2SDyGfsgQ8,
Singlemann, J. (2010). Dislocation and Depression: Social Consequences of Hurricane Katrina
      and Rita. Society and National Resources. London: Taylor and Francis Group.

Images
Image 1 - http://www.uvsconsole.com/clients/cmpo/storage/photos/128320172392143.jpg
Image 2 - http://www.uvsconsole.com/clients/cmpo/storage/photos/128319130758624.jpg
Image 3 - http://www.zimbo.com/pictures/z9AWOeFXsO/FEMA+Trailer+Park+Residents+
               Facing+June+1/EGUqu0iJHyJ/Catherine+Dean
Image 4 - http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/090708-
               FEMA-trailer-hmed-3p.grid-6x2.jpg
Image 5 - http://www.zimbo.com/pictures/ZS/Louisiana+FEMA+Trailer+Park+Still+Inhabited