The miles and miles of mobile homes lined up in Hope, Ark., and other locations around the country may be the cause of criticism for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But soon, some of those trailers will be a blessing for some Northeast Oklahoma residents.

Cookson Hills Community Action recently acquired 35 of the trailers to use in its “Bridges Out of Poverty” program, and plans to get another 49. The program provides eligible participants with training in basic life skills, as well as housing – in the form of FEMA trailers.

The trailers, intended to provide housing for displaced Hurricane Katrina victims along the Gulf Coast, were stockpiled in Hope and other locations after the disaster. While FEMA has received a great deal of criticism over the agency’s distribution of the trailers - a year after the hurricane, some victims were still awaiting trailers - at least some of the trailers will be put to good use in Northeast Oklahoma.

“About a year and a half ago, I tried to get us some FEMA trailers,” said CHCA Executive Director Cleon Harrell. “So I went to Hope, Ark., and was basically told to get out of town. They told me it was a 'top-secret military program.’ There were 22,000 trailers in Hope – trailers as far as the eye could see – but we couldn’t have any of them.”

After some discussions with members of Oklahoma’s Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., Harrell hooked up with the Oklahoma Department of Central Services to acquire some of the trailers.

FEMA will only give the trailers, Harrell said, to other government agencies – which Cookson Hills is not. But the state’s central services department can get the trailers from FEMA, and then Cookson Hills can purchase them from the state at a nominal cost.

The only hitch, though, is the location of the trailers FEMA will give to the state. They’re not in Hope - they’re in Selma, Ala.

“We took pickup trucks to Selma and brought back the first five,” said Harrell. “I was told by board that we had 30 more to go, and they said, ‘Hire somebody to bring them back!’”

In addition to the 35 travel trailers already here, CHCA will also acquire 20 more, along with 29 three-bedroom mobile homes.

The “Bridges Out of Poverty” program provides the trailers to participants who also take part in a training program that teaches basic survival skills, as well as more complicated life skills like managing finances and supporting a family.

“It’s a four-year program,” said Harrell. “And at the end of that four years, [participants] get the trailer. If they have land, that’s preferable, but as long as we have the right of ingress and egress, we’ll put it where they want. They just can’t move it around from place to place.”

Participants are charged a nominal fee for the training, but they will also have access to computers and other educational material provided by CHCA.

Harrell said CHCA staff find some potential participants (like one fellow who is living in a house with a dirt floor and no indoor toilet) while they’re out in the field taking part in some of the agency’s other programs.

“I had six calls yesterday, two from elderly people who’d lost their spouses,” said Harrell. “We’ve had students from NSU call about the program.”