Renters have trouble in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Many New Orleans residents who lived in subsidized housing remain in limbo three years after Hurricane Katrina, officials say.

Some property-owners have opted out of subsidies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development , the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. HUD officials recently reported to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., that six properties with a total of 395 units had been removed from the program.

Another 4,000 units still need repairs to make them habitable.

That leaves Keiajuana Tate with no home of her own. Before Katrina, Tate paid one-third of her income as rent for an apartment in a HUD-subsidized building. Now, she sleeps on relatives' couches, shuttling between two of her aunts.

Tate, who works part-time at the Superdome while she studies for a GED, does not have the income to pay market rate rent in New Orleans, where housing is more expensive and scarcer than it was before the hurricane. She told the newspaper she has looked at some low-rent apartments and found them "horrible," with problems like non-functioning plumbing and exposed wiring.