By Damon Hewitt

In selecting Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his pick to serve as the next Supreme Court Justice, President Barack Obama noted the importance of having a justice who displayed empathy. His administration displayed just that this week-the start of the Atlantic Hurricane season-when it heeded the calls of civil rights and housing advocates to abandon plans to evict thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors from FEMA temporary trailers.

Today, nearly four years later, almost 3,500 Gulf Coast families that survived the storm are still living in these trailers. According to most estimates, the vast majority of them are homeowners living in trailers outside of their storm-damaged homes because they do not have enough money to rebuild. (Some of these families are class members in a lawsuit filed by LDF alleging discrimination in Louisiana’s “Road Home” program, which tends to shortchange African-American homeowners).

Others were renters who did not qualify for the assistance restricted to homeowners. In either case, many of these people are elderly, poor or disabled. So they were understandably terrified when they received notices ordering them to vacate their temporary trailers by the end of May. Ironically, hurricane season began the next day, on June 1st, again threatening a fragile existence along the Gulf Coast and placing the plight of the Katrina survivors, and the misstep of various levels of government, in stark relief.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) joined local, regional and national organizations in calling upon FEMA and the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to extend the then-pending deadlines for both homeowners and renters and provide other forms of relief to avert disaster for these families. In a letter (PDF) joined by LDF, these advocates noted the lack of alternatives for these families in light of the slow pace of recovery on the Gulf Coast and called for increased assistance in moving families into permanent housing.

Heeding these calls for immediate change, FEMA showed a measure of empathy in announcing that instead of being evicted, trailer residents will be permitted to purchase their trailers for five dollars or, in some cases, even less. And none of the residents will face evictions while this plan is being implemented. In addition, HUD announced that it will offer priority access to families still in trailers or temporary housing seeking to tap into a pool of $50 million in permanent housing vouchers approved by Congress last year.

FEMA and HUD are to be applauded for what is clearly a step in the right direction. Civil rights and housing advocates are cautiously optimistic that the new policies will provide relief for the affected families.  However, these agencies have a long way to go in terms of exercising empathy for Gulf Coast storm survivors. Ensuring that displaced people are not placed in such unnecessary peril again is just the start.

Damon Hewitt is Director of the Katrina Project for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.