BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) — The State of Louisiana has launched a new program to help house Hurricane Ida victims displaced by the storm.
On Monday, Governor John Bel Edwards announced the opening of the Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program, a plan to provide temporary housing to areas heavily impacted by the storm.
As soon as the end of this week, free temporary housing will roll into parishes impacted by Hurricane Ida where other sheltering options are unavailable. The program is available to Ida survivors whose homes were destroyed or deemed uninhabitable following the storm.
Candidates can register for the program and view available housing options by either visiting www.Idashelteringla.com or calling (844) 268-0301. For TTY services, call (844) 458-1806.
Additionally, residents can check the availability of shelters in their areas by dialing 211, texting “LAShelter” to 898211, or by visiting www.getagameplan.org.
State officials say the goal of the program is to provide non-congregate shelter to give impacted families a sense of privacy while helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 as recovery efforts continue. Housing options include travel trailers, hotel lodging, base camps, crew barges, and mobile homes.
As teams continue to assess group and private location sites, the hope is to have the first set of trailers arrive in the designated parishes by the end of this week.
In a statement announcing the program, Governor Edwards said:
“There is no doubt that there are people currently living in unsafe or unsanitary housing because of Hurricane Ida, which is not acceptable. Housing is the biggest challenge facing those affected by this devastating storm, and our state-run sheltering program is a safe, creative, temporary solution to get more people closer to their homes as they rebuild. I’m grateful to FEMA’s flexibility in working with us to purchase travel trailers as an interim solution to help survivors while other efforts, including work by FEMA, are ongoing. Last week, Congress and the White House approved billions in federal Community Development Block Grant funding for Louisiana and other states to address damage caused by recent storms. In Louisiana, we intend to direct much of our share of the funding to housing recovery for people affected by Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida.”
Louisana Governor John Bel Edwards, October 4, 2021
The state reports the Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program will be funded 90% by FEMA, however, the program will be run entirely by the State of Louisana.