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It has been almost four years now since Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coastal areas in Louisiana and Mississippi. The tragedy unfolded daily on televisions and radios around the world. Thousands were homeless after first Rita then Katrina slammed into the coast, topping levies and flooding homes. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest storm in US history with estimates of damage over $100 billion dollars. Over 2,000 Americans lost their lives in the catastrophe making Katrina one of the five top deadly storms to ever hit the United States.

Those who lost their homes in Katrina relied on federal aid to house and feed them. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stepped in and purchased 145,000 trailers at an average cost of just over $18,000 each to provide temporary shelter to those affected- a total cost of $2.7 billion. While the trailers did provide the necessary “roof over the head” for affected families and reduced reliance on mass shelters, there is still debate about whether it was a good use of federal funds.

It is estimated that around 8,400 of the trailers were never used. They remain sitting empty, unable by Congressional law to be used for anything less than a national disaster. Some of the trailers that did provide housing are still in use but over 40,000 of them have become surplus in the past three years and have been sold off at about 40% of their cost.

Was there a better way to provide shelter to those in need after Hurricane Katrina? Most likely. Companies like Wynne Residential Corporate Housing specialize in temporary housing. Under normal circumstances, they provide temporary to long-term housing to business travelers, the military, and those relocating to new locations. The corporate residences are fully furnished and provide a more comfortable and relaxed atmosphere than a hotel room.

Corporate housing exists in almost every major city in the country. FEMA could have booked the displaced into corporate residences in the surrounding cities and states almost immediately after the disaster. The residences are furnished with everything from washers and dryers to cutlery and cookware to linens and towels. The experience for those who had lost everything would have been far better than the cramped and sparse conditions they endured in the trailers.

While the lives of those who lost their homes in Katrina would have been improved had they been put up in corporate residential housing, it likely would have saved FEMA millions of dollars. The agency would not have been left with excess trailers after the event which either have to be sold off or stored. The victims would have been able to cook for themselves therefore the costs of providing prepared food would have been far less.

Like any other federal agency, FEMA should look towards those who provide similar services on a daily basis to provide a solution that works for everyone, including the taxpayers who ultimately have to pay for government excess.