Outrage: Money Matters in Gulfport

Ten months before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Louis Finkle moved into a brand-new three-bedroom home in Gulfport, Miss. The retired professor was happy—until the storm obliterated the structure.

Finkle, 67, now lives in a Katrina cottage—a trailer alternative—provided by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. But he wants to rebuild his $88,000 home or find a new one before his two-year stay in the cottage is up. Trouble is, he can’t afford to. Construction estimates are roughly three times pre-Katrina prices.

"The days of getting something along the coast for $100,000 are over unless we move to another state, and I don’t know where to go,” he says.

Finkle is among about 9,000 Mississippians still living in trailers, hotels or cottages three years after Katrina. Yet state officials, claiming that they’ve met the housing needs on the Gulf Coast, are diverting $600 million in federal funds allocated for housing to restoration and expansion of the Port of Gulfport.

Now a dozen members of Congress are working to prevent the state from using the funds for the port. In a letter to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, the representatives charge that Mississippi has neglected renters and low-income families in the rebuilding effort.

But state officials show no sign of backing down. “We’re pleased in terms of our budget and how we’ve allocated in terms of our housing needs,” says Lee Youngblood of the Mississippi Development Authority, which is responsible for distributing funds.