In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster, People throughout the Bay Area Rected immediately, offering support in any way they could.One of these people was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who offered, among other things, temporary housing in various housing projects throughout the city.

But, many of the residents in these units that are undeer the direction of the San Francisco housing authority say they have been living in disastrous conditions that rival those of the hurricane and want their problems addressed first.

JoAnn Abernathy, 38, has been a resident of the Palou housing projects in Hunters Point for nearly 20 years and said before the maor starts taking on new problems he needs to address the problems already plaguing their community.

"There’s a saying “fix home first.” I feel so sorry for them people the Katrina victims. Anybody who has a heart has to feel sorry for them. But then you’re moving them from a disaster to another disaster," She said.

According to her, the disaster is the poor living conditions caused by an inefficient system of fixing the maintenance problems that arise. In one instance, the pipes underneath her bathroom floor leaked for months before anyone came out to do anything about it.

"The whole floor underneath the tile was leaking for like six months so that wood under there is mildewed," She said "When they came and replaced it, they never replaced that wood. They just came and put tile over that wood. The mold and germs and bacteria is still in the wood."

Any human being would have a problem with living around mold and mildew, but it is especially troubling to JoAnn because of the severe asthma that her 6-year-old daughter, Katrina, suffers from.

"In the past six months, her results were very high. and when I just took her back like two weeks ago it dropped from 90 to 50 so that’s a concern. Something is bothering her lungs," Abernathy said.

Although she has had to vacate three seperate units in the past because of the same issues, she thinks the best thing for her and her daughter is to move immediately, which she requested to do over a month ago.

"There is a lot of exposed mold and bacteria in my house and I think that if I moved then my daughter wouldn’t have to go back to using a nebulizer," She said.

"The concern of the San Francisco Housing Authority should be the children’s welfare," Abernathy said, "If it was something that I was doing if I was neglecting the kids then somebody would step in. But, now that I’m asking somebody to step in nobody is stepping in. They’re pushing it to the side."

Resident Stephanie Johnson has problems of a different kind.

"I have an icebox that doesn’t work. I had to go out and get a little something to try and keep my food fresh. I have mice, which they did bring me some stickers that’s okay," Johnson said, "My gas and hot water is off now. Thank God the lights are still on but that’s just a matter of time. And I’m not getting any answers why all of this is happening to me. Nobody is assisting me, no kind of way."

A problem that affects all of the residents is the sewage. Because of a break in the pipe, when anyone flushes their toilet raw sewage bubbles up out of a hole onto the walkway, seaps down the grassy hillside and into the street.

"This is human sewage over here and it runs 24 hours a day," She said, "This is our clothesline. I don’t even want to hang our clothes anymore because of that."

They've been to various meetings at city hall and have even met with an Aide for District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell but nothing has come of it. So, for now, they continue to live in their own disaster area.

"This is what we live around every single day," Johnson said, "And nobody comes out here to do nothing."