KATRINA KOTTAGES

Raised Cottage, Baton Rouge , LA 4/2007 from Baton Rouge Blues

all reproduction rights reserved Wm. Greiner

Financing feud mires Katrina Cottages

BATON ROUGE -- Eight months after FEMA announced plans to distribute $388 million for alternative housing along the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast, Louisiana's $74.5 million share stands untapped because of bureaucratic haggling and, more recently, a dispute between the state housing board and a group of private contractors slated to build the structures.

Those circumstances leave the state several months away from handing any storm victims the keys to the so-called Katrina Cottages named for the killer hurricane of two summers ago.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007
By Bill Barrow

The Times-Picayune