Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Renters face tough road

While homeowners have received much of the coverage since the storm, renters are having a tough time as well.

Not only did renters lose their abode, but many are in dire financial straits even before the storm. For instance WLOX considers Brandi Moran.
"Before the hurricane, she rented a house for five years in East Biloxi. Her rent was $500 a month."
Now the cost of living and rent has gone up to much for her family to afford to buy or to rent:
"...the rest of them were $1,000 a month and say $1,000 deposit. People on a fixed income can't afford that."

Moran says she and her husband can't work, so their disability money is their only income. That's about $900 a month....but with food, medicine, utilities and other expenses, it takes everything they get just to live.

"Since the storm, everything has gone up and everything has gone crazy. The disability has stayed the same, but everything else has went up.""

This is the type of person that Dr. Bob and others on the "street teams" deal with every day and why their work is so important. Without them, many of these people would fall through the cracks.



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