Federal officials have bought thousands of temporary housing trailers in recent years despite repeated warnings from government and private industry inspectors that hundreds of the units were shoddily built, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The trailers were built by TL Industries, one of two related Indiana firms from which FEMA officials have bought a large share of the government's supply of temporary housing units for disaster victims since 2007.
Agency officials say they keep at least 2,000 trailers available at all times.
The problems were so widespread that FEMA spent at least $1.3 million in October 2011 to fix warped exteriors on 581 TL trailers at FEMA's Selma, Ala., facility, according to the agency's public contracting records.
Warped exteriors were only one of many problems identified by the inspectors, but a FEMA spokesman refused to discuss the Selma units, or whether repairs were needed on any of the other trailers in the inventory.
TL Industries has been paid at least $189 million by FEMA since 2007 for an unspecified number of trailers. A $289 million contract was awarded in September 2012 to TL's sister company, Recreation by Design, of Elkhart, also for an unspecified number of units.
