Following Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) distributed over 120,000 trailers for emergency housing. Produced from engineered wood containing toxic amounts of formaldehyde, these shelters were vectors of illness and death. Although they were subsequently banned, FEMA trailers were resold and again used for housing, scattering their harm to other people and areas. In Homesick, Nicholas Shapiro draws on almost fifteen years working with impacted community members to trace how the story of toxic emergency housing units expands into a story of how all of our shelters became a seat of exposure and how we can collectively struggle for cleaner indoor air. Throughout, Shapiro questions the efficacy of the fundamental tools used to cultivate accountability, repair, and change, arguing for their reimagining. Detailing health effects as well as community and individual efforts to achieve better life, health, and justice, Shapiro highlights how homesickness for an otherwise future can herald meaningful change.
Preface ix
Introduction: Homesick, Otherwise 1
1. At Home in the Surreal 27
2. From Chemical Fetishes to the Late Industrial Sublime 55
3. Un-knowing Exposure 79
4. Environmental Litigation and the Fantasy of Accountability 99
5. Working the Stopgap 125
6. From Policymaking to Alter-Engineered Worlds 149
Acknowledgments 173
Appendix 1 179
Appendix 2 181
Notes 183
References 199
Index
