Backcountry residents who live outside Indian reservations will get about 30 mobile homes, a FEMA spokesman said, adding that the number might change.

The mobile homes are intended as free, temporary housing until permanent homes are built.

The delay in placing the temporary homes has some tribal leaders complaining that bureaucracy has overtaken common sense. FEMA officials said they have procedures they must follow to ensure that the people they help remain safe.

“I’ve never dealt with such an unorganized outfit ever,” said Rincon Vice Chairman Bo Mazzetti. “All the stuff you hear about Katrina, it’s not much better.”

Mazzetti and other Rincon leaders are working on behalf of 11 tribal members whose homes were among the 65 houses, trailers and other buildings that burned down.

He said that FEMA’s procedures are confusing, that workers inspect the same home sites over and over, and that the agency won’t give homes to people who rely on generators for their electricity.

Because of their remote locations, some reservation residents have never had power poles linked to their homes, Mazzetti said.

Mike Parker, who heads the agency’s efforts on tribal land, said the procedures are in place to ensure that only people who qualify for homes get them.

Parker said the inspections are required because the agency only can give the mobile homes to people who have cleared fire debris, have access to water, sewage and electricity, and live where a truck can deliver the large units.

“Getting those five pieces together has been a challenge,” Parker said, with electricity and road access the big problems. “We moved as fast as we could.”

It’s unclear when the next mobile home will come to the county.

La Jolla tribal Treasurer Fred Nelson said he expects more tribal members to qualify for the mobile homes.

“We’ll see how it goes from here,” Nelson said.

Nelson also said it will be up to residents to decide whether to test for formaldehyde, a chemical that some FEMA housing recipients in the Gulf Coast said made them sick after Hurricane Katrina.

Tribal leaders also plan to put some mobile homes on fields because some people lived on hillsides with no extra space.

Onell Soto: (619) 593-4958; onell.soto@uniontrib.com© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. • A Copley Newspaper