From Deseret News archives:
FEMA trailers to help Ute Tribe
Tribal Business Committee Chairman Curtis Cesspooch said the tribe initially requested 20 of the FEMA trailers, assuming that realistically they had a chance of obtaining only four of the units. He said tribal leaders were pleasantly surprised, when after a lengthy waiting period, they learned that 13 of the trailers were earmarked for their community.
"They said not to get your hopes up too high. They were making the rounds and giving everybody one who asked for one, and making a second round and doing the same thing," Cesspooch said.
"They kept going that way until they were all depleted."
The trailers must still be tested before they will be officially released to the tribe, he said.
The lack of affordable housing on the reservation is not a dilemma that is new to the tribe, but the shortage of homes throughout the Uintah Basin as a result of the energy boom has exacerbated the problem. Within the Ute Tribe, many of those without housing are sharing single-family homes with relatives.
"They do double up, there are three or four or possibly more families living together now," Cesspooch said.
Late last year the federal government announced that 1,000 FEMA trailers would be available to Indian tribes throughout the United States. The trailers were originally made available to families displaced two years ago when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. Not all of the trailers were used for that purpose.
Cesspooch said the trailers given to Indian tribes are not part of a group of FEMA trailers that were reportedly contaminated with high levels of formaldehyde.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted tests on 35,000 FEMA trailers being used in Louisiana and Mississippi and learned that more than 500 of those tested had high levels of formaldehyde. In some cases, the fumes were five- to 50-times higher than the levels found in most homes.
"The talk of formaldehyde applies to the camper trailers and not these big units — it applies to the small trailers," Cesspooch said.
The office of Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, helped move the Ute Tribe's application along in the process.
"Congressman Matheson is aware of the critical housing shortage on the reservation," said Allyson Heyrend, communications director for Matheson.
According to Heyrend, many of the FEMA units made available to the tribes are new.
"Some of them had not even been used," she said. "They have not been lived in."
