New Orleans ? The city’s police officers and other first responders will continue to have federally sponsored housing after they vacate the cruise ships they’ve called home since Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Sunday.

Tony Robinson, deputy federal coordinating officer for the FEMA area field office in New Orleans, talks during a new conference in front of the ship Ecstasy in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006. To the left in the background is Bill Croft with the governors' housing task force. Robinson said that Police officers and other first-responders who've been living on cruise ships since Hurricane Katrina are being warned that they must be off by March 1. Unlike many of the people evicted from hotels, however, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will have alternative housing for all those aboard the ships.

About 1,500 families have been living and eating for free on two ships FEMA rented after the storm devastated the city Aug. 29. It’s time for the ships to return to private service and the residents must leave by March 1 – the same cutoff for civilian evacuees still living in FEMA-sponsored hotels.

FEMA said it would provide trailers or pay for them to stay at a 117-unit apartment complex in the eastern part of the city for up to 18 months.

Tracie Washington, an attorney who has been working with evacuees being evicted from hotels, said the agency should do the same for all storm victims, many who have been left to live in shelters or even in their automobiles. “If you can provide for first responders, I’m happy,” she said. “But what about the city’s residents, who have been waiting as long or longer than the people on the ships for housing and are still without it? This is just another sign of FEMA’s inefficiency.”

Lt. Tony Robinson, deputy federal coordinating officer for FEMA, defended the different assistance for housing, saying it’s “because the folks on the cruise ships provide critical services to the city.”

Police Supt. Warren Riley said that FEMA trailers, which provide about 250 square feet of space, will be inadequate for the workers – and could result in many officers taking positions with other departments.