The Lens

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, almost 120,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers were deployed to displaced Gulf Coast residents. Trailer inhabitants reported health problems and suspected the high formaldehyde content of the trailers’ particleboard walls as the cause. Eventually, lawyers began to file class-action lawsuits against trailer manufacturers and FEMA, which procured and paid for the contaminated units. FEMA vowed never to use the same model of trailer, and the issue all but faded from national scrutiny.

Now, more than six years after FEMA provided displaced Hurricane Katrina victims with trailers that were later revealed to be toxic, early tests suggest that dangerously high levels of formaldehyde linger in the more than 130,000 units still in use. These same units are being sold on the open market as people become desperate for cheap housing amidst numerous natural disasters and a pervasive housing crisis.

An air quality test done last month in a FEMA trailer housing Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi showed levels of the carcinogen that exceeded levels deemed safe by the federal government. The test, done by University of Oxford researcher Nick Shapiro, indicated a level of exposure of 105.6 parts per billion within the trailer, which was sold by FEMA in 2008 to a retired Mississippi couple who had lost their home to Katrina and could not afford to rebuild.

The Lens has teamed up with the University of Oxford to locate these trailers and test their air quality to determine whether or not they are dangerous to those living in them.  We are also interested in the experiences of those living in FEMA trailers and the nature of the market for this kind of temporary housing.

If you’ve seen FEMA trailers in or around your community or know someone who has lived in, bought, or sold a FEMA trailer, please click the link below and tell us about it. If you or someone you know owns a FEMA trailer, our partners at the University of Oxford may be able to provide a free air quality test.

Have you seen, heard about, sold, or lived in a FEMA trailer? Please tell us your story.