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| link: http://www.sunherald.com/business/story/1410780.html
Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 VIETNAMESE ENTERPRISE By MARY PEREZ - meperez@sunherald.com
Biloxi — She had a successful retail store in Vietnam that combined pottery with flower arrangement and although the creativity of her work translates to any language, Thu-Hong Nguyen is starting over again in Biloxi speaking broken English. Despite the significant language challenge, Nguyen has a dream to share her work plus help with everything from designing a logo to securing financing. Peter Nguyen, an outreach manager for the National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies, said he doesn’t know anything about art, but he speaks English and Vietnamese and is helping Thu-Hong start her home-based business.
AMANDA McCOY/SUN HERALD Joanne Vo rings up an order of fresh seafood at Martin’s Seafood Market in Pascagoula. Vo says business has slowed from the recession. “After Katrina she lost everything,” said Nguyen. Now she is taking pottery classes at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community Colleges to learn new techniques and hoping to borrow money to buy a kiln to fire her pottery and has worked for some of the casinos. The majority of their clients are in the seafood industry, said Ginni Tran, the operational community builder at NAVASA’s Biloxi office. “We try to help the small people,” she said, who need help to wade through the sea of documents required to get assistance through federal programs. Since Hurricane Katrina, jobs are the biggest challenge for the Vietnamese on the Coast, said Daniel Le, who works in the Biloxi office of Boat People SOS. Most of those who stayed in Biloxi after the storm are still in the seafood industry. “It’s not like they had a choice,” Le said, since fishermen don’t have job skills that are transferable and most don’t speak English well. Some Vietnamese have opened gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and hair and nail salons, although the economic recession has hurt business. There are many empty stores around Oak Street in East Biloxi, where Vietnamese businesses thrived before the storm. Among the notable successes, Le Bakery is back after Hurricane Katrina and serving French, Vietnamese and American pastries and po-boys. On the same street, Hong Ngoc Jewelers soon will move into a much larger building that is under construction across from the current store. The small Hong Kong grocery on the corner is empty but the business has moved to 917 Division Street into a large store renamed Lee’s Supermarket that now sells a variety of American, Chinese and Vietnamese food. At the New Orleans Style Seafood Po-Boys restaurant in D’Iberville, the combined American and Vietnamese menu draws a mixed clientele. Assistant cook Michelle Vo said Americans like the Pho Vietnamese soup, “and Vietnamese order the po-boys, too.”
Owner Huu Dao said the shrimpers who tie up in Biloxi come for his Vietnamese food. “It’s so good,” he said, that he recently opened a second restaurant in Petal. Kaitlin Truong, who leads the local group Asian Americans for Change, said many of the Asian employees lost their jobs at the casinos because of the recession. The skyrocketing insurance rates make it hard to open a business in East Biloxi. “Many of the small businesses on the Point have not come back and may never come back because of the obstacles in rebuilding there,” said Trinh Le, community empowerment coordinator at the Hope Community Development Agency, a group that has helped rebuild East Biloxi since Katrina. “Many of the Vietnamese shrimpers are struggling.” Tung Banh, who works for the Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Center in Biloxi, said a large percentage of the young Vietnamese men are forgoing working in the seafood industry that employed their parents in Vietnam and now in Biloxi, Instead they are training to become welders and finding higher wages in shipbuilding on the Coast. Peter Nguyen worked in the seafood industry for 15 years and still helps the fishermen. NAVASA is looking into ways to reduce the insurance costs on shrimp boats and testing nets made of a lighter material that save on fuel costs. The price for these new nets is double the cost of what the fishermen are using now, so Nguyen said they are testing them on one boat to see how it pays off. Felicia Hillard grew up on Crawford Street in East Biloxi and now is working at the Hope CDA and partnering with NAVASA to revitalize the community. She focuses on small business development and is exploring ways to reopen or expand business, including community gardens where the Vietnamese could grow and sell vegetables. “We have resources for them,” said Hillard, who thinks the Vietnamese know to come to them or one of the other agencies in Biloxi for help, The future of business in East Biloxi is still a blank slate with so much open land since Katrina. Groups of designers came to the Coast after the storm and left behind their visions of a new East Biloxi. “I personally think the Living Cities plan really scared some Vietnamese folks off,” said Trinh Le. “They saw condos, high rises, casinos and hotels on their property in those pictures and didn’t understand fully what it meant due to the language barrier. Now folks are waiting to sell their land, or they don’t want to rebuild because they don’t want the casinos to buy them out later down the line.” She along with residents, business owners and property owners in East Biloxi envision an international marketplace. After two town meetings last year, “It seemed like people, Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, are genuinely interested in an International District on Oak Street,” she said. Combine that international marketplace with other businesses that will open and Hillard said, “The end product is just going to be phenomenal.” | | |
| Biloxi votes to extend deadline for FEMA trailers
Posted: June 16, 2009 03:38 PM Updated: June 17, 2009 09:51 AM By Krystal Allan - bio | email BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - Community activists took their fight for FEMA trailer residents from the streets of Biloxi to the council chambers Tuesday. "People are in a situation where they are trying to fight for whatever home they have," said Charmel Goulden with Gulf Coast Fair Housing. Activists representing more than 30 organizations held a news conference Tuesday morning protesting an ordinance being pushed by the Biloxi's Community Development office. The ordinance would give people 60 days to either find new housing, or move their current FEMA trailer or camper into a RV park. "You are fighting your community, your property and your lives," said Roberta Avila, Executive Director for Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force. The activists brought their protest to the front steps of 83-year-old Chuck Rogers FEMA trailer. He's one of just 41 Biloxi residents still living in the temporary housing provided by the government after Katrina. "I'm not snowballing anybody. I'm just trying to live here on this thing until I can get a little house built," Rodgers said. The housing advocates said Rodgers represents those likely to be adversely impacted if they were to lose their temporary permit housing permits in 60 days - the elderly, disabled and those with limited incomes. During the conference, the activists addressed an issue that continues to come up, people taking advantage of free housing nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina. "There might be some people who might be taking advantage of the system. But the real question is how many people are being left out of the benefits because of Hurricane Katrina," Goulden said. To prove he wasn't trying to milk the system, Rodgers bought his own trailer and put it on his property along with the FEMA trailer, in case it was taken away. Under the proposed ordinance, both would have had to go into an RV park in 60 days. But, the Biloxi City Council decided to give Rodgers, and others like him, more time. In a unanimous vote, the council decided to give FEMA trailer residents six more months. But city leaders want to know what residents are doing to get out of their temporary housing units. Residents will have to share their recovery plans with case managers in the city's Community Development office. "With the inclusion of these recovery plans, it will make it very clear what the plans are for these individuals," Ward 2 Councilman Bill Stallworth said. Councilman Stallworth said some of the FEMA residents are waiting on Section 8 vouchers, or working with organizations like Stallworth's East Biloxi Hope Coordination Center to build their new homes. One of the reasons for the proposal, according to Community Development Director Jerry Creel, is hurricane season. Creel said the temporary housing units are not rated to withstand hurricane force winds and city officials are concerned about the safety of the people in those trailers. But, activists countered saying RV parks wouldn't make residents any safer. Councilman Stallworth said he would work with FEMA to get the trailers put on safer ground should a major storm hit the coast. ©2009 WLOX. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. link: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=10543356
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| Associated Press Proposed deadline for FEMA trailers draws protestsBy SHELIA BYRD , 06.16.09, 02:22 PM EDT JACKSON, Miss. -- The Biloxi City Council was set to vote Tuesday on setting a deadline for 41 households to move out of trailers FEMA supplied after Hurricane Katrina, despite opposition from human rights organizations and the ACLU. If the ordinance is approved, Biloxi would become one of the last cities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to require the removal of FEMA trailers, said Jerry Creel, the city's community development director. Creel said the proposal is about public safety. Hurricane season has begun, and the FEMA trailers do not meet city requirements that the structures be designed to withstand 140-mph winds. The proposed ordinance would end the temporary permits issued for trailers and campers in the wake of the 2005 storm. Creel said the ordinance would go into effect in 30 days. Residents would then have 30 more days to move. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced plans to let residents purchase their homes for as little as $1. Creel said residents who keep their trailers will have to move them to a lot for mobile homes or recreational vehicles, where they'll be charged a fee. rtsUtil.addRtsBox('rateStoryP2',{source_type:"story",source_id:"/feeds/ap/2009/06/16/ap6550587.html"}); He said the city would work with trailer dwellers who are close to moving into permanent housing. However, he said about 20 households "have taken no action whatsoever." "Without a deadline, there is no sense of urgency," Creel said. Trinh Le of the Hope Community Development Agency said advocacy groups are urging council members to vote against the ordinance. She said some residents have nowhere else to live. For others, it creates another barrier to rebuilding their homes four years after the storm. Residents like Chuck Rogers live in the trailers on the same property where their homes are being renovated. "I'm just going to have to move, too. It's a shame you have to move off your property," Rogers said. Le said her agency and other organizations, including Oxford America, Mississippi NAACP, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the U.S. Human Rights Network, want city officials to push for more resources for storm victims. "We want them to help them rebuild their homes so they no longer need the FEMA trailers," Le said. Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed link: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/16/ap6550587.html
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| Here’s another article: Link: http://www.sunherald.com/pageone/story/1395707.html Coast Vietnamese have become a culture dispersed Saturday, Jun. 06, 2009 meperez@sunherald.com Biloxi — They left everything in Vietnam and came to Biloxi, where the climate and work were familiar. In 30 years the Vietnamese who settled on The Point built homes, churches, businesses and a community. In about eight hours Katrina annihilated their new homeland. Cathy Nguyen huddled with her family in the attic while 8 feet of water flooded their home. “We fixed our house after the hurricane,” she said. “We’re back in the same house,” but not in the same East Biloxi. PHOTOS BY William Colgin/Sun Herald Xi Truong, a Vietnamese shrimper who works on the Captain John in Biloxi, repairs damaged sections of shrimping nets. Truong said shrimpers who have recovered from Hurricane Katrina are now being hurt by imported supplies driving down the price of shrimp. “It’s really strange, boring. There’s people moving out. It’s like a desert,” she said. Nguyen was born in Vietnam; she moved to the U.S. when she was 7. She’s 16 now and most of her friends have relocated to D’Iberville and Ocean Springs. There were 473 Asians attending Biloxi schools before Katrina and 269 now. The 2010 census will tell where Katrina’s winds have scattered the Vietnamese who lived in Biloxi. The 2000 census counted 2,590 Asians in the city and the 1980 census showed the Asian/Pacific Islander population was the fastest growing in the city. “Vietnamese families who used to live on Point Cadet are now everywhere,” said Trinh Le, community empowerment coordinator at Hope Community Development Agency. “After the storm, many had to move in with family or friends temporarily until they could find more permanent housing.” Some stayed in Texas, California or other states where they evacuated. On the Coast, the Vietnamese no longer are concentrated in East Biloxi, Le said. “We’ve been scattered everywhere, which makes it more difficult for us to disperse information and also for us to be united as a community.” Daniel Le, who works with the Coast Vietnamese through Boat People SOS, said Daniel Le, who works with the Coast Vietnamese through Boat People SOS, said about 65 percent of the pre-Katrina Vietnamese population has returned to East Biloxi. Many of the others took advantage of the high prices offered right after the hurricane and sold their properties to casinos and developers. He said they either wanted to move away from the water or they didn’t have insurance and couldn’t rebuild. The Vietnamese community faces the same challenges as others trying to return to the Coast — the high cost of housing and insurance, the elevation requirements to rebuild, the bad economy. Some Vietnamese have the added challenge of a language barrier. The first generation of Vietnamese in America worked so hard for their families they didn’t have time to learn English, said Kaitlin Truong, who organized a new group, Asian Americans for Change. “They risked everything to come here for their children’s future,” she said. Truong graduated from The University of Mississippi and came back to the Coast to work as a pharmacist. She said education is one of the most important things to the Vietnamese community. For Vietnamese parents who had the opportunity to rebuild their lives in America after the fall of Saigon, and have their children educated and giving back to the community, “it’s just a dream come true for them,” said Truong, “Some college students are coming back, but most aren’t,” said Trinh Le. “Many have moved to New Orleans, Mobile, Houston and even Atlanta because there’s more opportunity for jobs over there. Some people would call it a ‘brain drain.’ However, everyone usually comes back around the holidays because of the importance of family. And some do move back, should there be opportunity for them.” Jennifer Le just graduated from Biloxi High School, where she was named the most outstanding lieutenant governor for the Key Club district that includes Louisiana, Mississippi and West Tennessee. She also was in the National Honor Society and the school’s technology association. After competing for Biloxi Shrimp Queen, she will fly to Albany, N.Y., to decide if she wants to go to college there or start the first two years on the Coast. “I was born and raised in Biloxi. I want snow,” she said, along with the opportunity to study anthropology or go into a medical field. She doesn’t know where life will take her, but she said Biloxi will always be home, and her family has a crab-processing business here. “Seafood has always been a big, strong mainstay,” said Vy Thuc Dao, a graduate student at Tulane University who is researching how Katrina affected the Vietnamese community on the Coast. Many Vietnamese parents pushed their children away from the seafood industry, she said. “They think it’s hard work.” Van Ngo, the owner of the Captain Sen shrimp boat, speaks little English. Through an interpreter he said he’s paid too little for the shrimp he catches. “Some fishermen are selling their boats and getting out of the business,” said Royal Spragio, harbor master at the Lighthouse Dock in Biloxi. It’s a hard life, he said, with the smaller boats gone about two weeks and the large freezer shrimp boats out for four to six weeks. They return for groceries and fuel and head back out again. “They’ll go all the way to Christmas like that,” Spragio said. Magda Leleaux, program director for the Catholic Charities Migration & Refugee Center in Biloxi, said the Vietnamese contribute greatly to the community, from their work ethic to their cuisine. “I’m very proud of being a Vietnamese-American on the Coast,” said Truong. “I guess we need to raise the awareness of our community and what we are facing,” she said, so the Vietnamese can continue to be a valuable community in East Biloxi. | | |
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