katrina\'s impact three years after
TRANSCRIPT
Katrina’s ImpactThree Years After
• Displaced• Housing• Healthcare• Education• Infrastructure• Criminal Justice• Signs of Hope
25% of New Orleans Do Not Own Car
Before Katrina
After Katrina
Not Just New Orleans
City Hall, Long Beach, MS
Katrina Damaged
90,000 Square Miles
Area from Boston to Baltimore
Inland hundreds of miles
Size of Oregon
Still Displaced
80% of New Orleans Flooded
One Million Displaced
September 10, 2005 in Shelters• 64% Renters• 55% Did Not Have a Car• 93% African-American• 67% Employed• 76% Had Children under 18 In Shelter Too• 57% incomes of Less than $20,000/year
Overall Population Down
• In 2000, was 484,000• Census says NOLA now 239,000 - loss
of 240,000+• NOLA says 321,000 – loss of 160,000
But WHO is Still Displaced?
• 55,000 homes in NOLA receive no mail• 66,000 pre-K public school students
dropped to 32,149 – 50%• 34,805 retired SS residents pre-K dropped
to 18,940 – 50%; SSD down 59%• Public transit – 3m riders/month pre-k,
dropped to 700,000 – 75% drop• Black pop down 57%; white – 36%• Medicaid down 46% as food stamps, tanf
Housing
SEVERELY DAMAGED HOMES IN LOUISIANA
• 112,000 Owner occupied homes
• 84,000 Rental homes
Noose Around New Orleans for African-American and Moderate Income Renters
St. Bernard Parish: Post-K Rent Only to Blood Relatives
Jefferson Parish Council Passes Resolution Opposing
Tax Credits for Housing. Member
Chris Roberts: "With the number of jobs out there,
nobody should be on public housing
unless you're ignorant or lazy."
We do not want “thugs” and “trash” from New Orleans
public housing projects.
Everyone with dreadlocks or che-wee
hairstyles will be stopped by law enforcement.”
Sheriff Jack StrainSt. Tammany Parish
57.5%of Landlords in Metro AreaDiscriminate
Against African-
Americans
April 2007Greater N.O. Fair Housing Action Center
Homeowners in New OrleansOppose Rebuilding Section 8
Apartments
81,000 Families in Gulf in 240 sq ft. Trailers – April 07
Good News – LA gets $10 billion
Bad News: Housing Rehab $ SlowJune 6, 2007 – 24,910 people out of 142,000 applicants
July 08 – 115,000 out of 155,000 applicants
Estimated at least 5-10% of the 100,000 LA Applications
forFederal Housing Assistance
have Title Problems
51,000 Rental Units Seriously Damaged in New Orleans
CDBG – Tiny % Going to Renters
84,000 rental units were destroyed or suffered major damage (41% of the total housing) only 15% of the $10 billion program is to be spent on rental units.
Of those funds only 15,000 apartments are scheduled to be affordable housing – about 18% of the pre-disaster rental housing market.
Rents Soar
70-80%
Pre-Katrina, 5000 families lived in public housing
Post-Katrina, 1040 families allowed to return to
public housing
HUD Announces Demolition of 5000 Apartments
Healthcare
How can you respond to a disaster in a country that does not believe in universal
health care?
Refusal to Reopen Public Hospital –that saw 350,000 a year
10 of 23 Hospitals in New Orleans Remain Closed
People Have Lost Jobs, Health Insurance, Hospital, Doctor, Dentist,
Pharmacy, Records
Impact on Children?
Pre-Katrina 450 Psych Beds in Metro Area – Now 200
Suicide Rate Triples
• Lost Half Psychiatrists• Lost Half
Psychologists• Lost Half Social
Workers
Education
Pre-K - 60,000 in 100+ public schools
Katrina hits -public schools put in receivership-Best schools converted into charters
2006-2007 - 25,000 students -69% in Charter Schools
-2007-2008 – 32,000 students-Over half in charter schools
Largest Union in LouisianaUnited Teachers of New Orleans
DECERTIFIED
7500 people lose jobs
Problems in Public Schools
• February 2007 – 300+ no room in schools• Long delays in textbooks• Unreliable transportation system• Vacant teaching jobs• Little IDEA education• One high school has more security guards
than teachers
High School Entrance
In Houston, 41% of high school sophomores
and 52% juniors of evacuees were held back.
Infrastructure
City of New Orleans
Near Bankruptcy
Environmental Impact?
Major Water
Problems
New Orleans LosingMore Water Than Using
Lower 9th Ward No Drinkable Water For One Full
Year
Dramatic Reduction in Public Transportation
“I am back and I want to work, but the jobs are 3 to 11
and the bus doesn’t run at night!”
Still Unfixed Traffic Lights!
Over one-third of the grocery stores in NOLA still closed
Dramatic Reduction in Day Care
Pre-K 600,000 Jobs in Metro NO;Post – K 400,000 jobs
Recruitment and Abuse of Immigrant Workers
Workers Living in Tents
Dramatic Reduction in Public Education, Healthcare, Housing,
Transportation, & Childcare Equals
Reduction in African American Women Workers - From 51,000 to 17,000
Privatization of New Orleans
• Public Schools to Charter Schools
• Public Housing to Private Developers
• Public Healthcare to Private Providers
• Public Oversight to• Private Oversight
Superdome is Opened
- $180 Million
Public Hospitals?Public Schools?Public Housing?
Criminal Justice
6000 – 8000 Prisoners Left Behind
Evidence Room: Chest-deep Water
November 29, 2006
Inmate lost in system resurfaces:After 13 months he gets day in court
After spending 13 months in three different state prisons without speaking to a single defense attorney, prosecutor or judge, Pedro Parra-Sanchez pleaded innocent Tuesday to an assault
charge levied against him six days after he moved to New Orleans to work in the battered city’s recovery.”
Seven Police Officers Charged with Murder
Meanwhile, Crime Increases
Signs of Hope
Our Hearts Must BeTotally Open
to Injustice and Painand
Totally Opento Hope and Love
Rockie Charles, Blues
St. Augustine’s Church
Radical Revolution of
Values
We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.
We must shift from a “thing oriented” society to a “person oriented” society.
When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are
considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, militarism [and sexism] are incapable of
being conquered.
Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967
the giant quadruplets of racism, materialism, militarism and sexism
Demands for Change
InternationalConnections
Human RightsAnalysis
The Right to Return
Five Weeks After KatrinaSoutheast Asia Earthquake
- 73,000 People DiedMillions Homeless
October 5, 2005 – Kashmir
Response?
Guest Workers Protest Passport Confiscation – Sulphur, LA
Advancement Project
Small Business Assistance
Kevin J. Curnin, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan; David Goldberg, associate general counsel of Citigroup;
Tricia Jefferson, Lawyers Comm. Civil Rights
Justice Challenge? Never Again!
http://law.loyno.edu/~quigley/