By Sheila Stogsdill
news@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — To help alleviate the housing problems facing some of the Tar Creek residents who are taking part in a federal buyout, officials staged an open house Thursday displaying a Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home.
“We wanted to host an open house so the Picher residents could see if they wanted a mobile home as alternative housing,” said Jean Cooper, director of the Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency.
The FEMA mobile home is about 14 feet wide and 60 feet long.
“We bought one trailer thinking we could show it as an alternative housing for folks in the buyout,” Cooper said.
The three bedroom, one-bathroom mobile homes are equipped with basic furnishings from beds, a table, end tables, chairs and a couch to a refrigerator, stove and microwave oven.
The mobile homes have washer-dryer hookups and also disabled-accessible, Cooper said.
The federal Tar Creek buyout was enacted after a 2006 report showed that hundreds of homes, businesses and churches in the former mining area of Picher, Cardin and Hockerville could potentially cave in.
“As far as we know, the FEMA mobile homes do not have the formaldehyde problems the travel trailers have,” Cooper said.
The agency announced Wednesday that it had stopped donating and selling travel trailers while it studies reports that people living in them after hurricanes Katrina and Rita got sick from formaldehyde exposure.
Cooper said the state of Oklahoma purchased some FEMA mobile homes, and the community action agency bought the mobile home for $1,500 from the state.
The local agency was responsible for moving the mobile home to Miami, setting it up and skirting it, which cost about $1,000, she said.
Cooper said because the agency is nonprofit, it would not be providing mobile homes for the Picher residents, but it would be encouraging the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust to work with FEMA in providing these mobile homes for residents who cannot find traditional housing after selling their current properties to the buyout trust.
