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Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544
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| Lessons to learn (Boston Globe Letter to
the Editor) |
Author(s):
Donna Haig Friedman, Director, Center for Social Policy, UMass-Boston
Source(s):
Boston Globe
Date: September 17, 2005
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HOPE GROWS as stories of evacuees' and rescuers' courage and resilience come to light, and as national
leaders begin to hold themselves responsible and take action to save people and restore the viability
of the Gulf Coast area.
Specifically, the massive effort of federal authorities to put up temporary trailer housing for
thousands of evacuee households is extraordinary. As the effort unfolds, I hope that federal
authorities will draw upon past experience in providing shelter to homeless persons. We have
witnessed housing, designed to be temporary, becoming permanent.
Housing is more than shelter; communities do not spring up on their own. Planning is needed to build
not only the temporary physical structures, but also the social structures that will lead to
neighborhoods with vitality for however long families live in these spaces.
DONNA HAIG FRIEDMAN, Director
Center for Social Policy, UMass-Boston
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