FEMA trailer substitute

Wherein I predict Las Vegas will get very crowded


Interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle about "Katrina Cottages." They're a 308-square-foot house that can hold a family of four. The idea being that it's more attractive than the FEMA trailer and people will feel better about living in one.

From there, the article branches off into, the economics of building small homes, insane real estate prices in California, and what happens when the BIG ONE finally hits:

If the federal government knows how it's going to house all of the Californians who will be displaced by the Big One, it's not saying yet. The Chronicle reported just last month that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff several times to show her the Federal Emergency Management Agency's earthquake relief plan and been put off.

According to the latest report from the Association of Bay Area Governments, a plus-7.0 quake on the Hayward Fault will render 155,000 housing units uninhabitable, displacing 360,000 people and putting 110,000 in need of publicly provided housing. Loma Prieta, by comparison, made 16,000 homes unlivable; Northridge, 46,000.