Since World War II, Galveston has had increasing numbers of federally funded housing projects for the poor.  One reason is that the city has a huge state medical school and hospital known to Galvestonians as UTMB but that stands for University of Texas Medical Branch.

Loads of charity patients are treated there every year, in fact they move there from all over Texas for free treatment.  And it's now to the point that the hospital is continually finding itself in the red and looking for more money.

WELL HERE'S WHAT THIS BLOG POST IS REALLY ALL ABOUT:  You are probably aware that when the Federal Government passed building safety requirements, handicap service provisions, and that new buildings must be built above the 100 year floodplain, that it has excluded itself.

What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander in "Federal Government speak."

Consequently there are federal buildings all over the US that would not meet the specifications required of private sector owners.

Soooooo, most of the federally funded housing projects in Galveston were built at grade, and grade is slightly above sea level.  And rather than tear them down and rebuild them above the floodplain when they've become functionally obsolete, they have just remodeled them. 

So after Ike, all of those poor people came home to find all of their possessions destroyed and no place to go.  And to get federal assistance (FEMA), you must have an address.  But wait. they no longer have addresses!

No one was there to help them...many are elderly and disabled.

Congratulations to the U.S. Government.  This is one more example of why government's involvement in our lives must be reduced and not expanded.