Survivors deserve fair treatment

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 14, 2008

For rent: Two-bedroom, one-bathroom mobile home, $667/month, perfect for any family.

Well, the fewer family members the better.

Three might be best, in fact. As long as one of them isn't full grown.

As you might have heard, FEMA has announced it plans to start charging rent to Greensburg residents still living in trailers provided by the agency after the May 2007 tornado.

The rental rate strikes Steve Hewitt, Greensburg's city administrator, as too high -- so much so, in fact, that he thinks people might move away rather than remain in the mobile homes as they rebuild.

"I just don't want to lose citizens,'' he said in a story distributed by The Associated Press.

The issue here is whether some residents are freeloading on American taxpayers. FEMA provided the trailers as temporary dwellings for people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the tornado, not as a means of permanent cost-free living.

Are some people taking advantage of the system? Maybe.

But after watching a video tour of one of the homes, it's clear not every family would choose to live in a FEMA trailer -- even for free.

The tour is available on YouTube. The tour guide is identified as Shane Engelken, a high school junior.

The video is only about a minute and a half long, because there's not much to show. Take Engelken's bedroom.

"It's about the size of my bathroom before the tornado, but it gets the job done, I guess,'' he says.

Engelken lies on his bed. His feet nearly hit the dresser.

Then he gets up and goes down the hall.

"I'll show you this bathroom, which I can reach all the way across,'' he says. "It gets prettty chaotic in the mornings.''

There's more of the same, with Engelken essentially saying the trailer meets the family's basic housing needs but is snug.

"Between me and my mom and my dad, it's pretty close quarters,'' he says.

Even though the trailer isn't ideal for Engelken and his family, there's no doubt people residing in dwellings more ratty, more cramped, older and less attractive than the FEMA trailers in Greensburg.

Ostensibly, though, the people still living in the trailers are those who need them the most -- either because they're having difficulty rebuilding or because the trailers are a step up from their previous dwellings.

Either way, some compassion is called for in this situation.

It's not unfair to ask for rent after 18 months, but let's just make sure the amount is fair.

Ric Anderson can be reached

at (785) 295-1282

or ric.anderson@cjonline.com.