NAACP Legal Defense Fund -- News
"As we commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and anxiously await the arrival of yet another storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, the news from the Gulf Coast remains discouraging. Despite some notable individual success stories, meaningful relief and stability have not reached the masses through what has been a largely market-driven recovery effort. For every pocket of hope, there are much larger pockets of despair. Seriously misplaced priorities of federal, state and local officials have stalled progress and provided precious little justice for the people of the Gulf Coast. And all the while, people who have returned to the Gulf Coast and storm survivors who are scattered throughout the country (collectively, the Katrina Diaspora) still struggle, many in disbelief that this nation's leaders would permit their continuing suffering.
Three years after the storm, critical housing issues still affect the Katrina Diaspora. Many of us know families who have rebuilt their homes. Yet, for every family that has returned, we see new policies being implemented that virtually guarantee that others will never make it back. Thousands of homeowners who were promised funds to help them to rebuild have been left with sizable financial gaps, with black and poor homeowners having the largest gaps of all thanks to funding formulas that reward those who had greater financial means before the storm. And some residents in forgotten coastal communities in Mississippi and Alabama have been altogether left out of funding considerations. Meanwhile, renters – who comprised the majority of the pre-Katrina population in New Orleans – have not received a dime of direct assistance from the state-run Community Development Block Grant disaster relief program. People living in FEMA trailers faced the double sucker-punch of first learning that the trailers contained toxic levels of formaldehyde and then being ordered to move out of the trailers by local officials seemingly more concerned with the aesthetics of neighborhoods than the plight of the people living there. Since the hurricanes, rental rates have nearly doubled in some areas as affordable housing has become increasingly scarce and the city's homeless population has risen to an all-time high of nearly 12,000 people. Yet, a miniscule number of new housing units are primed for construction and over 4,500 structurally sound public housing units have been demolished. "
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