On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the southern coast of the United States, causing the most damage of any disaster in the country’s history. Faced with a need for housing relief that overwhelmed all expectations, and failures and criticisms surrounding FEMA’s use of trailers as temporary housing, the Alternative Housing Pilot Project (AHPP) was created to explore better options. Designed as a temporary-topermanent post disaster housing solution, the Mississippi Cottages were created though theMississippi Alternative Housing Project (MAHP), 1 of the 5 AHPP projects, as replacement temporary housing for residents of FEMA trailers several years after Katrina. Due to strong local resistance to the Cottages, along with issues of affordability, few temporary Cottage residents were able to keep them for permanent housing, and the implementation of the program failed to provide long term affordable housing to a large group of disaster survivors who most needed it. However, the Mississippi Cottages have high levels of resident satisfaction, represent significant potential as a temporaryto-permanent housing form and demonstrate flexibility in the way they have been reused as affordable housing by a number of different organizations and individuals.

1. [1] Office of Inspector General (OIG), “FEMA’s Sheltering and Transitional Housing Activities after Hurricane Katrina.” p. 3, 2008.
2. [2] Office of Inspector General (OIG), “FEMA’s Sheltering and Transitional Housing Activities after Hurricane Katrina.” p. 3, 2008.
3. [3] Office of Governor Haley Barbour, “Five Years After Katrina: Progress Report of Recovery Rebuilding, and Renewal,” 2010.
4. [4] Department of Homeland Security, “Future Directions of FEMA’s Temporary Housing Assistance Program,” 2011.
5. [5] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMAs Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” p. iii, 2009.
6. [6] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMAs Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” p. v, 2009.
7. [7] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMAs Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” p. ii, 2009.
8. [8] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMA’s Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” 2009.
9. [9] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMA’s Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” 2009.
10. [10] Abt Associates, “Assessing the Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim report on FEMA’s Alternative Housing Pilot Program,” 2009.
11. [11] Office of Inspector General (OIG), “Future Directions of FEMA’s Temporary Housing Assistance Program,” 2011.
12. [12] Ibid.
13. [13] FEMA, “Six Years After Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Continues to Recover and Rebuild,” FEMA website, 2011,
    http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2011/08/29/six-years-afterhurricane-katrina-mississippi-continues-recover-and-rebuild [accessed Jan. 9, 2013]
14. [14] Abt Associates, Assessing Quality of Life in the Mississippi Cottage: Interim Report on FEMA’s Alternative Housing Pilot Program, 2009a.
15. [15] Ibid.
16. [16] Ibid.
17. [17] Evans-Cowley, Jennifer, and J. Kitchen, “Planning for “Temporaryto-Permanent Housing Solution in Post Katrina Mississippi: The Story of the Mississippi Cottage,” International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Vol.29, No.2, Aug. 2011.
18. [18] Ibid.
19. [19] Ibid.