For Immediate Release

SECOND ROUND OF HOMELESSNESS FOR KATRINA VICTIMS AS FEMA PREPARES TO ENFORCE JUNE 1 EVICTION DATE

US Human Rights Network Condemns Federal Government's Move to Repossess
Trailers and Leave Thousands Homeless

Atlanta, May 29, 2009 - In response to the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's decision to repossess temporary housing from survivors of
Hurricane Katrina on June 1, the US Human Rights Network issued the
following statement:

The move by FEMA to enforce the June 1st eviction date for Gulf Region
residents who live in temporary trailers not only lacks basic compassion
but is also a derogation of the government's responsibilities to uphold
fundamental human rights. If FEMA moves forward with the Bush
administration's plan to forcefully evict people living in temporary
housing, it will make a mockery of the Gulf Region recovery promised by
President Obama and Congress.

Earnest Hammond is a 70 year-old retired truck driver who received no
assistance after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home. He took matters
into his own hands and by collecting aluminum cans, raised thousands of
dollars to repair his badly damaged house. He is eager to move back but
can't restore his home by the June 1st deadline, and is facing eviction.
"I have nowhere to go if they take my trailer. It's hard to believe I
have to go through this again."

Instead of carrying out the former administration's callous plan for
eviction, the Obama administration and Congress should apply the United
Nations' Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a human rights
policy that, for several years, has guided our government in providing
temporary and permanent homes for people in foreign countries who become
displaced by earthquakes, typhoons, and flooding.

Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network, said:
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that our
government will be applying the human rights policy that governs
internally displaced people to the homeless in Afghanistan. It is
unconscionable to hold our own population to a lower standard and
subject displaced Americans to evictions before permanent housing has
been secured."

Hurricane Katrina displaced over a million people, many of whom have yet
to fully recover as a result of the government's failure to honor the UN
Guiding Principles and human rights treaties ratified in the US. Gulf
Region residents, both renters and homeowners, have worked tirelessly to
access safe, permanent housing and should have the support that our
government provides under basic standards of human rights law.

The US Human Rights Network is made up of more than 250 organizations
and over a thousand individuals working to bring the United States into
compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other
internationally recognized human rights instruments by applying the
standards and principles within those instruments to domestic and
foreign policy priorities. To learn more about USHRN, please visit:
here and here.