Foreclosed, vacant houses as storm refuges for hurricane survivors?

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Why not put hurricane survivors in foreclosed homes?

But it soon created its own storm as bankers warned of massive legal and financial complications.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Wednesday called it a "theoretical option" that came up during hurricane exercises. It is not current policy, he said.

"I credit FEMA for thinking outside the box," said Alex Sanchez, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association. "Who doesn't want to help Florida families after a hurricane? It's an idea worth examining. But there are just a lot of legal obstacles in the process."

FEMA took part in a statewide exercise that ran through Wednesday, simulating a replay of the 1926 Miami hurricane. As many as 500,000 people could be left without a place to live after such a disaster.

One of the ideas that emerged during the drill: Why not put some people who need housing into the roughly 278,000 Florida homes in some stage of foreclosure? FEMA officials chewed on it. News reports picked it up. Banks and other mortgage holders would get some temporary rent from vacant properties.

A win-win, right?

It's not that simple, bankers say. The issue of ownership is tricky. Foreclosures can take nine to 12 months. A resident not paying his mortgage may still be living in the home. A bank may not assume formal possession of the home until the end of the process.

Some homes are abandoned with appliances and other furnishings removed. Who's legally responsible if a home proves unsafe to hurricane survivors?

Then there is the issue of having a disaster diaspora occupying homes that banks want to resell. The intent may be for hurricane victims to live there for a few months, but thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims are still living in temporary housing four years after that disaster.

About 3,450 families still need long-term housing in the Gulf Coast region, according to FEMA. Among other options, the agency has proposed selling the trailers to their occupants for as little as $1.

Selling foreclosed homes to new owners is the best thing for the state's economy, Sanchez said.

"What everyone wants is for that home to be resold to a family and put to productive use," he said.

Nothing to get exercised about, FEMA officials said - just one idea among many that have been discussed.

"The state of Florida has just completed a large-scale emergency management training exercise where they discussed the challenges that the state and its partners would face as the result of a catastrophic hurricane striking Florida," FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens said. "During this exercise, a large number of theoretical options were discussed for housing displaced survivors after such a storm, a number that could feasibly include hundreds of thousands of families.

"This was one of the many 'what ifs.' There is no policy in place to house disaster victims in foreclosed homes."

To view the online article, please click here.