For sale: Trashed FEMA trailers
Hurricane-relief homes in disrepair up for auction
By Melanie Payne
mpayne@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on May 5, 2005
A government auction is giving new meaning to the term "trailer trash."
Numerous travel trailers provided to hurricane victims that are up for auction are just that — trashed.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency bought 18,647 late-model trailers to provide emergency housing for people displaced by the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year.
Hurricane victims used the trailers for only a few weeks or months, but by the time they moved out, damage includes graffiti on the walls, shredded mattresses, missing fixtures, broken appliances and carpets ruined by pet stains.
Trailers were uninhabitable in the short term and their resale value was reduced.
FEMA had paid $316,908,319 for the trailers. And many consumers, assuming they are getting late-model trailers at a bargain price, are buying lemons that will take hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to make habitable.
"They're in a condition that you wouldn't let your dog sleep in," Al Blackwell, president of Camper Depot in Charlotte County said of many of the units.
When the FEMA sales started in Punta Gorda, Blackwell said, "We thought it would kill our sales."
But it's had little effect, he said because the trailers are in such bad shape many people don't want them.
"And the ones that are in decent shape, they're selling for top dollar," he said.
The U.S. Government Services Administration has been holding an online auction for the trailers since Feb. 18, with more expected every week for 18 more months, FEMA officials say.
The trailers are available for inspection in Milton, Fort Pierce and Punta Gorda.
FEMA spokesman Marty Bahamonde said people who damage the homes can be evicted.
"We certainly work with the people in the units and ask them not to damage the units," Bahamonde said. "But we don't control the actions of those folks."
Of the units, 63 have been identified as beyond repair, FEMA spokesman Eugene Brezany said.
"We're not putting up trailers that are absolutely perfect, but we're trying to offer a good product," he said.
One camper on the auction site is described as a 2005 Coachman travel trailer.
The 8-by-25 foot camper is described this way: "missing bathroom door knob, graffitti on bedroom and door slide walls, mirror and roof vent broken, radio wires pulled out, cigarette burns on floor."
The high bid Wednesday afternoon was $6,442. The wholesale price for a similar model is $16,900, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association price guide.
In earlier auctions, people overpaid, said Joe Fendick, sales manager at North Trails RV Center in Fort Myers. The bidding was too high.
"It wasn't a good deal with all the damage (to) the trailer," Fendick said.
The mattresses were ruined, awnings torn and the carpets were filthy, Fendick said.
"Some were pretty disgusting," he said.
Chris Morse, general manager of Marks RV Sales in Fort Myers agreed.
"Some of these are pretty well abused," Morse said.
Marks RV sold 150 travel trailers to FEMA after the hurricane, and he knows they were in good condition when people moved into them.
But he witnessed maintenance problems when he did warranty work on one of the trailers.
"There were five children and a single mom living in a unit, and it was almost destroyed at that point," Morse said. "It's not the way I would let my family treat something of value."
The way most landlords protect their property from tenant damage is to require a security deposit, Boca Raton attorney David P. Slater said.
"That is a guarantee that if anything is damaged, the landlord will use the security against the expense of rehabilitating the (home)," he said.
But FEMA didn't charge security deposits.
It was an emergency situation and taxpayers put up the money for the homes.
That misuse of taxpayer property irked Wayne Sallade, emergency management director for Charlotte County.
"It's unfortunate that people did not have more regard for something given them to use," Sallade said.
And it's taxpayers who foot the bill.
"We're paying for it," he said. "You and I are paying for it."
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 50465/1075
http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/gsaauctions/
Paul
