"Among the lessons learned from Katrina and Rita are those that taught us that we need to be better prepared to house large numbers of individuals and families safely, securely and quickly after catastrophic disasters like the 2005 hurricanes," said Carlos J. Castillo, assistant administrator for disaster assistance. "Our goal is to identify and be able to deliver such housing in the future."
The members of the JHSG include housing specialists from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); building science experts from the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS); and specialists from FEMA housing, policy, Individual Assistance, Long-Term Recovery and Public Assistance divisions. The group is exploring the latest in factory-built contemporary housing, modular homes based on universal design, housing built from recyclable materials, and innovative work by schools of architecture and design at universities across the country.
Field teams composed of FEMA, HUD, NIBS and other specialists have been conducting site visits to evaluate models and prototypes for further consideration. To date, they have evaluated 40 different types of units located across the country. They have looked at modular
