katrina’s impact 18 months later. displaced housing healthcare education infrastructure criminal...

Katrina’s Impact

18 Months Later

• Displaced

• Housing

• Healthcare

• Education

• Infrastructure

• Criminal Justice

• Signs of Hope

25% of New Orleans Do Not Own Car

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

280,000 Still Displaced New Orleans Alone

• Pre-K 484,000 people• Post-K 200,000 people• African-American pop dropped from 325,000 to

89,000 (73% decrease)• White pop dropped from 136,000 to 81,000 (41

% decrease)• Children decreased from 145,000 to 40,000 • Metro Area dropped from 1 million to 666k

Source: LRA 11.27.06

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

Housing

DAMAGED HOMES IN LOUISIANA

• 112,000 Owner occupied homes

• 84,000

Rental homes

90,000 Families in LA in 240 sq ft. Trailers – January 07

Good News – LA gets $10 billion

Bad News: Little Federal Housing Rehab $ Yet

February 2007 – 532 people out of 105,000 applicants

Estimated 5% of the 100,000 LA Applications

forFederal Housing Assistance

have Title Problems

Source: LRA RFP Legal Services October 25, 2006

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

Refusal to Reopen Public Hospital –that saw 350,000 a year

Blue Cross: “3/4 of physicians in New Orleans gone.”

Half the 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 80

Suicide Rate Triples

• Lost Half Psychiatrists• Lost Half

Psychologists• Lost Half Social

Workers

Education

Pre-K - 56,000 students in over 100 public schools

Katrina hits -public schools put in receivership-Best schools converted into charters

2006-2007 - 25,000 students -69% 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 Losing

More Water Than Using

Lower 9th Ward No Drinkable Water For One Full

Year

Half Homes in NO Still Not Hooked Up to Electricity

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!

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

Superdome is Opened

- $180 Million

Public Hospitals?

Public Schools?

Public Housing?

Criminal Justice

6000 – 8000 Prisoners Left Behind

Evidence Room: Chest-deep Water

2000 criminal case backlog – Dec 2006

• Insufficient #s Public Defenders

• Problems with Jail Facilities

• Absent retired or quit NOPD officers

• Evidence problems

• District Attorney problems

• Displaced victims, witnesses

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

St. Augustine’s Church

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

http://law.loyno.edu/~quigley/