Coast housing a major concern

By HENRY S. ACKERMAN
Associated Press Writer

BILOXI, Miss. June 24, 2006 07:23 pm

— Gov. Haley Barbour and members of his recovery commission gave a positive face Friday to the efforts of government, faith-based organizations, businesses and individuals in rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf Coast but spotlighted housing as the region’s most pressing need.
“Housing. Housing. Housing. Housing is such an integral factor,” said Joe Cloyd of the Mississippi Development Authority as he joined others on a panel at the Mississippi Press Association’s annual meeting in identifying housing as the major constraint to the recovery effort on the coast.
Barbour told the meeting of newspaper editors and publishers at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Biloxi that “housing is going to be the long pole in the tent of recovery.”
Hurricane Katrina destroyed 70,000 homes and left 65,000 others with significant damage in the six counties that make up the state’s coastal region, said Anthony Topazi, president and CEO of Mississippi Power Co., who also was a vice chairman of the recovery commission.
Those losses are significant, Barbour said, because 2,800 is the maximum number of houses ever built in Mississippi in one year.
“Even if we triple that it would take 10 years,” Barbour said. “We want to do it in five years.”
Panel member Ricky R. Mathews, president and publisher of south Mississippi’s biggest newspaper, the Sun Herald, also stressed the importance of housing in the recovery effort.
And Jerry St. Pe’, former head of the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula and now chairman the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said that while “fundamental pieces of recovery are here, we have huge problems to overcome.”
There is “not a more important issue on the coast than affordable housing,” St. Pe’ said.
Barbour said more than 100,000 people are now living in some 38,000 units of temporary housing.
He said 82 percent of the temporary trailers sit on the lots where family homes were destroyed. This is significant, Barbour said, because it is a sign that people intend to stay and rebuild.
Mississippi’s six coast region counties now have 98 percent of their pre-Katrina population, the governor said, compared with the 40 percent who have returned to the city of New Orleans.
But the region is going to need even more people, if it is to rebuild, he said.
The governor and St. Pe’ highlighted the role casinos will play in the rebuilding effort. Katrina destroyed or heavily damaged the 12 casinos.
St. Pe’ said it’s forecast by year’s end that eight to 10 casinos will be back in operation, with employment more than doubling the current 7,000 work force.
Barbour predicted phenomenal growth ahead for the coast, saying before its over federal contributions alone would be more than $30 billion.
But he said the housing must be addressed in order to bring in more workers and ease the continuing labor shortage.
Asked about the role of migrant immigrant labor, Barbour said the labor shortage on the coast “would be much worse if it were not for Hispanics. It’s totally against Mississippi’s interest if these workers were not here.”
Mathews, in response to a question, said estimates were there were 2,000 Hispanics alone in the region pre-Katrina. He said there may be as many as 30,000 to 40,000 in the area now.
Among the yardsticks of recovery mentioned by the governor and commission members:
—Mississippi K-12 schools on the coast are operating at 90 percent of pre-Katrina enrollment, 10 months after the area’s 80,000 children were recessed by the storm.
—As of May 1, some 92 percent of more than 45 million cubic yards of debris has been removed and disposed of.
— In a few days the logjam in getting checks to the 16,000 applicants for homeowners grants should be cleared up.
—Nearly 3,500 businesses and 20,000 homeowners in Mississippi have been approved for $1.9 billion in Small Business Administration loans, added to $450 million in FEMA assistance for individuals.
The governor said the federal government and faith-based organizations have been significant in the rebuilding effort.
“The federal government is complained about a lot, but all along the federal government did a lot more right than wrong,” the governor said.
“We’ve had tens of thousands of volunteers,” Barbour said. “Most are faith based. But it’s not just church groups. They have been phenomenal — they just keep coming.”
“The federal government, volunteers, but at the end of the day the private sector is going to rebuild the coast,” he said.
Mathews said that in the rebuilding effort “the leadership of the public and private sector is coming together.”
Barbour, a Republican, also gave high marks to Sen. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both R-Miss.
“It helps when you have the best pair, the most respected pair and the most influential pair in the U.S. Senate,” Barbour said.