katrina\'s impact three years after

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

Not This Revolution

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/