Poor housing in Katrina's wake

OPTING FOR mobile homes, or, as they have been called recently, ''manufactured homes," to secure housing for those displaced by Katrina must proceed with caution. They are built throughout the South yet are often poorly constructed. They should not become a mainstay in the Gulf region. They deteriorate quickly and depreciate immediately -- not to mention the tendency for destruction during tornado season.

I grew up in Alabama, where we used to say that trailer parks seem to attract tornados. Policymakers must ensure that these are only transitional houses and not permanent homes, especially for the poor, who may not have the resources to build anew.

CASSIUS O. JOHNSON
Boston