Mississippi: Future Trends

Look closely, there is a still a Katrina Cottage there


Rebuilding a bit differently. A whole new aesthetic is developing.....

I also spoke with Ben Brown, who works with Placemakers, an urban design/planning firm who has been engaged in the process in Mississippi. He described some of the challenges that are now being exposed on the gulf coast. As they have had a severe housing crisis there for the last three years, they have a jump on what the rest of the country is experiencing now. The strange thing is that while most would consider that the Katrina Cottages were only temporary housing, and then envisioned to be used as storage sheds detached from the new main house, they are now marketing them as middle class housing. Their premise is that if people still want high quality housing that has a sense of scale and style, they will have to downsize bigtime, and they think the Katrina Cottage is just the way to do that. This whole endeavor has shifted from some emergency solutions on the Gulf Coast to a new type of housing to be marketed across the country. And it just may have a chance.

But, the resistance to such solutions are very strong. Communities like to have control, but there are many things that are out of their control such as labor, material costs, financing, and insurance costs. So, they exercise control by setting minimum sizes of homes. But, it will be interesting to see how attitudes are to such small low cost options after all the people living beyond their means in large houses weather this economic crisis. They may very well be needing such a place to live.