Mississippi got nearly four times the funding for Katrina cottages than Louisiana, and right now, they have 2,700 people living in them.

Almost three years after the storm, Louisiana hasn't built a single cottage because of problems hammering out a contract with the builder, but according to the new head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, or LRA, the state may soon see some progress.

 Jackson Barracks, a training facility for the Louisiana National Guard, is one of several sites planned for Louisiana's 500 Katrina cottages. They’re easy-to-build, non-modular homes, which were funded through a FEMA pilot project.

“Mississippi has been able to move forward very quickly because they used a different structure,” said LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater.

According to Rainwater, Louisiana doesn't want the portable cottages that Mississippi has, rather, cottages that could be more permanent homes for people.

He said full "neighborhoods" of the cottages are in the planning stages in Lake Charles and at the former site of Renaissance Village in Baker, however, he said the LRA wants to move away from having mass sites.

“New Orleans Redevelopment Authority has picked 22 sites,” Rainwater continued, “So, we're doing a pilot program to see if we can put Katrina cottages on individual sites.”

St. Bernard Parish turned down the cottages saying they would change the entire landscape of the parish, according to Parish President Craig Taffaro.

“We have to figure out how those will fit into our permitting process and how they would fit in to the permanent housing of our residents,” Taffaro said.

Up until this spring, a different state agency handled the Katrina cottage project, and the contract with the builder. When the Louisiana Recovery Authority took over the project this spring, they started renegotiating that contract.

“The contractor feels that there is some risk in this because it is a pilot project and I understand that. But I cannot, and I will not allow, or put the state in a position, that it can't manage the contract,” Rainwater said.

He said a deal should be signed by the end of the week, with permitting work starting next week.

“I wanted to have a cottage built by this month, but obviously we missed that deadline. But by the Batrina anniversary, we hope to have cottages built," said Rainwater.

By aiming to put the cottages on scattered sites, some of which were sold to the Road Home Program, an LRA spokesperson says the cottages may be able to help fill in the jack-o-lantern effect in some neighborhoods, depending on the wishes of local governments.

After more than two years of having nearly $75 million dollars sitting idle for the program, and still not a single cottage, Rainwater said he and FEMA both want to see progress.