Thread: Press Briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cherto

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Press Briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson

Secretary Chertoff: Good afternoon, everybody. I have with me Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who, as you know, is the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who will speak immediately after I do. Also here is Donna Dannels, who is the chief processing operations person at FEMA, who is going to be a subject matter expert that will be available to answer some of the very detailed questions about the housing program that we are announcing today.

Let me, before I turn to the issue of this new housing program -- which is designed to get transitional housing benefits in the hands of people quickly, with a minimum of red tape, while preserving accountability -- let me talk about some of the steps we've taken, working in support of our state and local partners, to prepare for Hurricane Rita, which, as you know, has now entered the area of the northwest Gulf Coast.

The hurricane remains a category 4 storm, which is a very strong storm, and the current path projects landfall will be along the upper Texas coast in the vicinity of Port Arthur, Texas, at around 7:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday morning. I caution, however, the storm can still move a little bit one way or the other, so people should not take to the bank the idea that they know exactly where it's going to land.

Well more than 1.5 million citizens have been evacuated from projected impact areas along Texas and the Louisiana Gulf Coast, including Galveston, Houston, and New Orleans. The Department of Defense, along with the United States Coast Guard and other emergency personnel have been working in advance of this storm with state and local officials to airlift those who cannot evacuate themselves, including the elderly, disabled, and hospital patients.

At this time, Admiral Larry Hereth from the United States Coast Guard is on the scene as principal federal officer overseeing the federal response activities in Texas. Admiral Thad Allen will continue managing response and recovery efforts in New Orleans and will continue to serve as principal federal officer with respect to Hurricane Rita.

We urge all citizens in the path of the hurricane to heed the instructions of state and local officials and take necessary precautions to ensure safety before the storm hits. And I want to emphasize, this applies not only to people at the coast, this storm is going to go inland, there's going to be a lot of rain, the storm may be slow and that means a lot of rain will continue to fall in the same place. There could be flooding, either flash flooding, or flooding when rivers overflow. So it's important for everybody who could be impacted by the storm to take the instructions and the recommendations of state and local officials to either get out of harm's way, or make necessary precautions.

What I can say is that federal, state and local resources have been fully mobilized and working hard to assist with evacuations and to prepare for recovery and relief operations, once the storm has passed.

Let me give you just some idea of what we've done. FEMA has pre-positioned approximately 45 truckloads of water and ice. That's about 800,000 liters of water and 1.8 million pounds of ice, as well as 25 truckloads of meals ready to eat. There are additional provisions that have been made for feeding people based on locations which they may be sheltering in.

Over 400 medical team personnel and 14 urban search and rescue task forces, which is approximately 800 personnel have also been pre-deployed.

FEMA and the Department of Transportation have mobilized 650 buses that are currently assisting with evacuations, including ambulances to support medical evacuations. We also had airlift capabilities and used DOD and other air assets in order to move people quickly who had medical conditions that required them to be removed from the area of impact.

The United States Coast Guard has positioned 40 aircraft and nine major cutters around the region to conduct search and rescue operations, and more than 400 additional Coast Guard personnel are surging to support the response, and hundreds more are on alert and ready to respond after the hurricane makes landfall.

Additionally, more than 5,000 Texas National Guard soldiers and airmen have been activated by Governor Perry and are standing by, and the Department of Defense has ordered 26 helicopters in the region with more troops and aircraft available as needed.

All these personnel, assets and commodities and will begin moving into the impact zone as soon as it is safe to do so, and as soon as conditions allow.

Now, we may not know the full scope of the damage for hours, or even days, particularly if this storm is very slow moving and pours a lot of rain into some of the areas of Texas and Louisiana.

Until the storm has passed, I urge you to keep in your thoughts and prayers those whose lives and livelihoods will be affected by this storm, as well as those whose lives have already been changed forever by the continuing affects of Hurricane Katrina.

We will do whatever it takes to help all these citizens get back on their feet, to repair the damage from these twin disasters and to rebuild their lives and their communities.

Now, to that end, I'm pleased to join here with Secretary Jackson today to announce an important housing initiative that's designed to aid Katrina victims in rebuilding their lives and obtaining some much needed stability while they await the opportunity to return home and begin rebuilding.

With the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we're going to expedite housing assistance and provide transitional housing to all evacuees who are unable to meet their immediate housing needs.

As of today, more than 747,000 households have qualified for some kind of assistance through FEMA on an immediate basis. More than 648,000 of these households have already received over $1.5 billion in expedited funds.

DHS, through FEMA, will now provide an additional lump sum of $2,358 per household. That's basically $786 per month to cover a three-month time frame for homeowners and renters whose housing was destroyed or is uninhabitable to go and find temporary transitional housing. We estimate that several hundred thousand households will qualify for this assistance under the law.

While the initial payment is for three months, if participants remain eligible, assistance will be available for up to 18 months depending on the circumstances. But this initial lump sum payment is designed to reduce the paperwork before the money gets into the hands of those who need it, and to provide enough aid up front to facilitate the relocation process and let people get on with their lives.

In addition, to help those evacuees who were previously receiving public housing assistance, or who were homeless, HUD will work with FEMA and local authorities to provide housing vouchers that will address their immediate housing needs.

Secretary Jackson will discuss this portion of the programs in a few minutes. But the bottom line is, we're going to make sure that victims of this disaster, whatever their economic circumstances, get the necessary financial assistance to ensure that they can obtain a temporary residence for the time being.

These programs have been designed to give families the maximum amount of flexibility and freedom to decide where they want to relocate and what they want to do over the next few months. At the same time, we are going to continue to preserve the principle of accountability and responsible stewardship of these funds, and there will be requirements that people be able to account for the proper use of the money.

The basic principles here are these: freedom for people to take control of their lives, cutting through the red tape, and preserving accountability. For the thousands of families who have lost their homes and their communities as a result of Hurricane Katrina, we want to do everything we can as a federal government to ease the burdens and the challenges of their ordeal. This announcement is a big step forward in achieving that goal. Together, we're going to cut through the government red tape that too often slows and clogs the process, and we're going to make sure that help is on the way immediately for those who need it most.

At this time, I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, Secretary Jackson.

Secretary Jackson: Thank you very much, Michael. But today we're offering those persons who were displaced more than just a roof over their head. This is an opportunity for the victims of Katrina to get back on their feet and to pick up the pieces and start all over again.

The President remains very much committed to finding housing to fill the void in the Gulf Coast region. And we will continue to work with the governors and the mayors to make sure that we reunite families and give hope and healing. That is why today we are announcing a series of measures to expedite the delivery of housing to those victims. The President's plan requires that the public housing authorities work very closely with HUD and FEMA.

As Secretary Chertoff said, we will cut through the red tape and bureaucracy in order to provide the evacuees the help that they have been asking for, the choice and the portability of being able to live where they please. The evacuees are eligible for assistance, as we outlined today, to those who previously owned a home, for renters within the area and for individuals who lived in public housing.

We will work hand-in-hand very quickly with Secretary Chertoff and FEMA. However, we will also work with the public housing agencies in this country to house these persons. That is very, very important that we work with them. They have been asking and we're responding to their request. People with the portability will be able to find housing up to 18 months, as the Secretary said, if they qualify. The rental assistance that we're doing today will be based on the fair market rent of those respective communities.

As Secretary Chertoff said, he gave you a round figure. Some communities will charge more; some will be less. But that is an average figure of about $785 a month. Again, we are doing this to make sure that the evacuees have accessibility to quality, decent and safe housing.

We're open for any questions you might have.

Secretary Chertoff: Actually, before we take questions, let me just make sure so those who are the intended recipients of the program understand the way it works.

To make a couple points clearer, as Secretary Jackson said, you have to be registered with FEMA. That is what is required in order to trigger these benefits as a matter of law. Many, many people are registered; those who are not, though, will have to register. There are two ways to do that. One is on the Internet; one is, of course, by telephone, calling the FEMA telephone number, 1-800-621-FEMA.

Let me suggest that as far as the Internet goes, a lot of people have asked how can they help evacuees. One thing I think some communities could do is take evacuees who don't have access to the Internet, don't have access to computers or don't know how to use them and have volunteers actually help them log in on the Internet -- which I think proves to be a more efficient way to register than any other.

The second thing I'd like to make clear is that we anticipate that we're going to start sending the checks out or making deposits beginning next week, in the early part of the week. However, as with anything else involving hundreds of thousands of people, it's not going to happen in one hour or overnight. Therefore, although the program is going to be launched, in terms of the actual sending the checks out beginning at the early part of next week, I anticipate that it will be a matter of a couple of days or maybe more before checks actually get in people's hands. Obviously, direct deposit works more quickly, and those who have registered with us for direct deposit will get the money that way.

I say this because if a lot of people wake up on Monday and the money is not there, they should not be surprised, nor do I suggest that they call and start to ask where the money is. It is coming; it is on the way if you are registered and if you qualify. And it's going to take just a couple of days to get it out there. I think that basically lays out the program. We have a fact sheet on the particulars and we'll be happy to take some questions.

Question: What is the overall cost of the program, anticipated?

Secretary Chertoff: Of course, it depends a little bit on who enrolls, but I think we're estimating at this point, for this three-month period, we're in the neighborhood of a couple billion dollars, is what we project.

Question: And where are those funds coming from? From the supplemental?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, of course, Congress has appropriated a significant amount of money under the supplemental precisely for disaster relief under programs like this. And that's where this money comes from.

Question: Do you think that you will have to go back and ask for more, a larger supplemental and more money from Congress in order to fund this? And, also, will some of the programs be open to victims of Rita, if people from the current storm are also left homeless?

Secretary Chertoff: Of course, Congress has just given us a supplemental; I don't want to anticipate now whether it will be necessary to go back. Certainly this money is included within the scope of the supplemental, current supplemental.

As far as Rita is concerned, obviously, we need to see how Rita plays out. But I want to emphasize, the basic program here is the program that has always been the FEMA program of individual assistance. In this instance, based on the scale of the disaster and the number of homes that were rendered uninhabitable or destroyed, it was really, I think, a good idea to expedite the assistance in the way we've done here. Depending on what the circumstances of Rita are, how many homes wind up getting destroyed, we'll have to make determinations at that time about exactly what the mechanics will be.

But the key thing is, this is the basic program. This is what the law provides. And what we are simply doing is expediting it, cutting through the red tape, but preserving the accountability.

Question: A question about Rita. Given that there's been such horrible gridlock trying to get out of Houston and other areas, are people overreacting? Is this what you had wanted, people to leave? And if so, why are there 100-mile backups? How could that have been --

Secretary Chertoff: According to reports I saw this morning, I think, in fact, I saw the Mayor indicate that the traffic had thinned out. There's no question that we -- that the authorities, the local authorities, made it very clear people should leave. And we don't know exactly where the storm will land. I think it has moved a little bit to the east over time, and it may be because of that move that Houston will be spared some of the worst of what might have happened. But anybody who, after Katrina, plays around with a hurricane or decides to gamble on where it's going to land is playing a very foolish game.

As difficult as the traffic is -- and moving 1.5 million people in a day or so is a huge task under any circumstances -- the fact of the matter is people are better off heeding the instructions of their state and local officials and being safe than they are trying to take a chance otherwise. So I think the instructions were appropriate; people behaved appropriately. If it turns out the greatest population centers are spared tremendous damage, people will be able to move back. But you only have one life and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Question: Also on Rita, one of the problems in New Orleans was that people who were too poor to evacuate couldn't be evacuated. Is there anything that's helping those people evacuate in this case?

Secretary Chertoff: What a number of communities did is they had buses, school buses that they had planned in advance were going to be used for the purpose of evacuation. I know some of them had school buses pick people up locally and take them to staging areas, and then there were longer-haul buses, like Greyhound-type buses, that were used to get them elsewhere. We also did some airlifting and things of that sort. So there was specific attention paid in the planning in Texas to the need to be able to move people who cannot move themselves. In this case, given the scale of the evacuation, Department of Defense and Coast Guard and other federal assets were put into the mix to provide additional resources for purposes of those evacuations.

Question: Excuse me, how are you going to screen out possible illegal immigrants that might want to apply for this program? I assume they're not eligible. And in general, how are you proceeding when you identify illegal immigrants in this process of giving relief to these affected people?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, the purpose of the program is not to identify illegal immigrants, but of course we'll comply with the law and we expect those who apply to be in compliance with the law and those who have to give out the benefits to comply with the law. The Congress has passed the law; we obey the law.

Question: Are you -- is this program being announced to address the concerns with finding available trailers? There are published reports saying that there was a hard time finding available housing units on the ground in the Katrina-affected areas. Is this in addition to that, or is it --

Secretary Chertoff: Let me explain. This is -- obviously, there's a certain fixed number of trailers. They're making trailers as quickly as they can; we're trying to acquire them. I understand a lot of the communities want to get trailers because jobs are coming back. There's going to be a lot of work, obviously, in the rebuilding process in Mississippi and Louisiana, and people are going to need housing there. We've done some things with ships, other things with trailers.

Those people who are going to be living in FEMA trailers or other kinds of FEMA-owned housing, they will get that instead of this three months. The one exception to that is for first responders who have come in specifically in order to do some kind of rebuilding and activity in the city, but whose families live elsewhere; their families may continue to get the benefit, and they will get some temporary housing.

The idea is not double dip. There may be some people who, as trailers become available, will want to leave the rental housing and go into the trailers. And then, of course, at that point they'll no longer be getting rental assistance, they'll be getting the trailers.

So it's not meant to substitute for the trailers, but it's meant to recognize the fact that as we speak not everybody can or necessarily wants to get into trailers. So we want to give people the maximum amount of choice.

Question: Follow-up on the trailers?

Secretary Chertoff: One -- I'll just do the follow-up on the trailers.

Question: It's just -- one of the mistakes in the past that the White House was trying to avoid is that the trailers have become slums and long-term housing for people. How will you avoid that?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, I think, first of all, what we're doing is -- and it's a good question -- the whole point is that we want to give people a choice. We're not making people do anything. People are going to have the money that they need, whatever their means, under these programs. They're going to be treated identically, given the resources they need to find themselves some temporary housing.

Then they're going to have options available. It may be some people will voluntarily choose to go where there are jobs, and for the time being get some temporary housing. Maybe they'll want to rebuild on their lots and they'll want to put a trailer there. That's their choice. We're not going to make them do it, but we're going to enable them to do it.

Others may choose never to go into a trailer, and that's what we're talking about is giving them the means to do otherwise. The whole point of this program is let people decide the fate of their own lives, and I think that avoids the whole issue of someone coming from outside and saying you must do this or you must do that.

Thank you.

Question: -- the flooding, sir, and the levees?

Secretary Chertoff: This is really the last question. (Laughter.) It's been reported that there was some overtopping, and it looks like at least two breaches of levees in certain parts of New Orleans. These appear to be because the water level between the tide and the surge has topped, I think, seven feet. This has resulted in some water entering previously flooded areas -- actually still flooded areas of New Orleans.

Our understanding is that those areas were already evacuated. There should not be any people there. And they've certainly been warned over and over again to get out.

We're in a storm situation now, so the ability to actually fix the levees has to wait until the storm subsides a little bit. We certainly want to be sure we don't put our own personnel at risk. It's being monitored very, very closely. I spoke to Admiral Allen about it briefly. I know the President -- I've spoken to the President about it. He's following it very closely, as he is all of this. And as soon as we can do so, we will resume the process of draining New Orleans of all this flood water.

Question: Is it that the water is going over the levee, or going through?

Secretary Chertoff: Some has gone over, but there appear to be at least two breaches of some size -- I don't know how big they are -- that have occurred in a couple of those.

Question: Thank you, sir.

Question: Excuse me, how are you going to screen out possible illegal immigrants that might want to apply for this program? I assume they're not eligible. And in general, how are you proceeding when you identify illegal immigrants in this process of giving relief to these affected people?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, the purpose of the program is not to identify illegal immigrants, but of course we'll comply with the law and we expect those who apply to be in compliance with the law and those who have to give out the benefits to comply with the law. The Congress has passed the law; we obey the law

I am surprised someone asked this question. I bet he had his press pass taken away.

Chertoff's answer doesn't make me feel any more secure that illegals are going to be denied FEMA benefits. It looks like the government is using a don't ask and don't tell policy for illegals. As long as they don't tell their immigration status you'll get something.