November 2 , 2005— This small town just to the north of Baton Rouge has become home to over 2,000 people forced from New Orleans by the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided temporary housing in the form of trailers, evacuees, like any new residents, need access to services and information. That’s where NeighborWorks comes in.

This month, NeighborWorks America gave a $50,000 grant to Affordable Housing Resources, Inc. (AHR) of Nashville, Tennessee, for its work in the Gulf Region related to hurricane recovery efforts. Along with The Resource Foundation, Inc. (TRF), a Baton Rouge-based sister organization, AHR has been working with FEMA subcontractors to settle more than 2,000 evacuees in over 570 trailers in Baker. These evacuees had previously spent as many as six weeks in temporary shelters.

TRF’s job is not so much physical as personal. They work directly with evacuees, overseeing registration, locating temporary homes, helping them get settled, keeping them informed and reporting back to others and the government on status and needs. They do this through a staff of over 100 trained volunteers, who are helping evacuees adjust to their new community by coordinating transportation, locating services and being on site to answer questions and address concerns. With an anticipated stay of six to 18 months, these services are just as vital to evacuees as the roof over their heads.

Baker is the first trailer park in the state to be operational, but three more parks are planned for Louisiana. Because of their work in Baker, AHR and TRF have been asked to provide the same services for these newer parks as well.

AHR and TRF are also working with local officials, including the Mayor’s Office in Baton Rouge, to move some of the families in trailers to more permanent housing. Coincidentally, TRF had officially moved its headquarters to Baton Rouge in July of this year in order to implement AHR’s Full Cycle Lending model in the region. TRF currently has a contract for over 60 single family lots and an option to develop several other tracts of land to begin immediate construction of new affordable single family homes in Baton Rouge.