Hundreds of hurricane victims scramble to find housing as Ida Sheltering Program nears end

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - One week from Tuesday (April 23), hundreds of people who lost everything in Hurricane Ida will be forced out of their travel trailers.

The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) said the state’s Ida Sheltering Program is coming to a close, after it was extended by almost a year.

State leaders said the trailers have slowly been returned and auctioned off as the number of units in use dwindles down to nearly 600. The families in those trailers have until next Tuesday (April 30) to move out.

“I don’t know how anything is still standing,” said Wayde Bonvillain. “She said, ‘daddy,’ she said, ‘you’ve got nothing left.’”

Two and a half years later and those feelings from Ida came flooding back for Wayde Bonvillain.

“I’ve got one week until the 30th and that’s it. I’m going to be on the road, and I’m not the only one,” Bonvillain said.

Bonvillain of Montegut is on a breathing machine and worries where he will go.

“Oh Lord, my whole life changed,” Bonvillain said.

For over a year, the cost of the state operated “Ida Sheltering Program” which was initially federally supported, has been absorbed entirely by the state.

The state installed thousands of travel trailers across 7 impacted parishes before other traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) temporary housing programs became available, involving nearly 5,400 units at the programs peak, sheltering more than 15,000 people.

Bonvillain said he’ll either live in his truck which is in the shop or sleep inside his uninhabitable home damaged by Ida.

“I don’t know if I can connect the water there because the pipes are broken. The electricity, there’s wires all over,” Bonvillain said.

He’s working with Restore Louisiana and picked out a new trailer, but because of a backlog, Bonvillain won’t get one until August or September.

Bonvillain said there’s no apartments left to rent in the area, and even if there was, he can’t afford it.

“What are you going to do? You know, you’ve got two dogs and it’s hard already to get something to rent cause I didn’t rent in years. I paid cash for my place,” Bonvillain said.

State officials said they’ve been notifying shelter program participants of the April 30th deadline for the past couple months; it’s a deadline previously extended by nearly 11 months as the state cited unique challenges those in the program faced.

“The state was fortunate to have FEMA approve and support this first-of-its kind program to areas devastated by Ida,” said GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux. “Through the hard work of staff here at GOHSEP, the first units were purchased and in place within a month of the storm. That is much faster than most emergency housing units can be rolled out after an event.”

Eva Cutting said since moving into the trailer, she’s dealt with surgeries, a contractor who quit, loss of a job, and starting a new one.

“I had a series of unfortunate events that extended out, so like I said, I was overly grateful to the moon that they had allowed me to have housing at this time,” Cutting said.

She’d arranged for people to help her move out of the trailer next week; however, she told Fox 8 someone from the state’s program came to collect the trailer two weeks early claiming she’d emailed saying her home was complete, which she said never happened.

Meanwhile, her mold-infested home is still being put back together, part by part.

“Sometimes you just have some bad luck, you know, and sometimes you have bad luck all in a row,” Cutting said.

Officials said the travel trailers have temporary utility lines, and it could take contractors several days from the deadline to get the units decommissioned.

This does not impact Ida survivors currently housed in FEMA’s Direct Housing Units or other programs.

GOHSEP said it is important folks keep in contact with their Disaster Case Manager as the program winds down and call the Ida Sheltering Program at 844-268-0301 once they’ve transitioned from the trailer.

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