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