Rebuilding Lakeshore Mississippi

Hurricane Katrina seems long past to most of us but for the people in Lakeshore, Mississippi the aftermath of Katrina is still an everyday challenge. I ran across the story of Lakeshore Baptist Church the other day because they began 2009 by beginning to build two tiny houses for people made homeless by Katrina. For example one man, Samuel, lost his rented home in Katrina and car(home) in Gustav. He’s been living in a tent since then.

But as I read through their blog I realized this was a much bigger story. They are rebuilding a lot of people’s homes as well as their own church. Some homes were totally destroyed, others had solid frames and could be rebuilt. But recently they’ve run into a snag with their local planning and zoning board. Here’s a quote from their blog:

This past Thursday the Hancock County Planning and Zoning Board passed a resolution that mandates that we remove all temporary structures from our church property by May 31st. This eviction includes all volunteer housing, our volunteer dining hall, our distribution center, and even our temporary metal church building – everything except the church office. Losing these facilities would bring our relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts to a screeching halt and leave Lakeshore Baptist Church without a gathering place for corporate worship.

Luckily they’ve been making some good friends with the local media and board of supervisors who may have the ability to delay the eviction.

But it still amazes me how some communities, even ones so badly in need of help, can still find time to pass resolutions and impeed the good work the people of the community are doing to rebuild their own community.

I know this post is a bit off topic, but it seemed like an interesting story for those of us interested in seeing tiny house communities grow. I suspect we’ll see more progress posted and hurdles overcome. As you read through their blog I think you’ll agree that this is an amazing bunch of people.

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