[News] New Orleans - Half the City's Poor Now Permanently Displaced

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley03042008.html

March 4, 2008


Half the City's Poor Now Permanently Displaced


The Cleansing of New Orleans

By BILL QUIGLEY

Government reports confirm that half of the working poor, elderly and 
disabled who lived in New Orleans before Katrina have not returned. 
Because of critical shortages in low cost housing, few now expect 
tens of thousands of poor and working people to ever be able to return home.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) reports 
Medicaid, medical assistance for aged, blind, disabled and low-wage 
working families, is down 46% from pre-Katrina levels. DHH reports 
before Katrina there were 134,249 people in New Orleans on Medicaid. 
February 2008 reports show participation down to 72,211 (a loss of 
62,038 since Katrina). Medicaid is down dramatically in every 
category: by 50% for the aged, 53% for blind, 48% for the disabled 
and 52% for children.

The Social Security Administration documents that fewer than half the 
elderly are back. New Orleans was home to 37,805 retired workers who 
received Social Security before Katrina, now there are 18,940--a 50% 
reduction. Before Katrina, there were 12,870 disabled workers 
receiving Social Security Disability in New Orleans, now there are 
5350--59% less. Before there were 9425 widowers in New Orleans 
receiving Social Security survivor's benefits, now there are less 
than half, 4140.

Children of working class families have not returned. Public school 
enrollment in New Orleans was 66,372 before Katrina. Latest figures 
are 32,149--a 52% reduction.

Public transit numbers are down 75% since Katrina. Prior to Katrina 
there were frequently over 3 million rides per month. In January 
2008, there were 732,000 rides. The Regional Transit Authority says 
the reduction reflects that New Orleans has far fewer poorer, transit 
dependent residents.

Figures from the Louisiana Department of Social Services show the 
number of families receiving food stamps in New Orleans has dropped 
from 46,551 in June of 2005 to 22,768 in January 2008. Welfare 
numbers are also down. The Louisiana Families Independence Temporary 
Assistance Program was down from 5764 recipients (mostly children) in 
July 2005 to 1412 in the latest report.

While there are no precise figures on the racial breakdown of the 
poor and working people still displaced, indications strongly suggest 
they are overwhelmingly African American. The black population of New 
Orleans has plummeted by 57 percent, while white population fell 36 
percent, according to census data. The areas which are fully 
recovering are more affluent and predominately white. New Orleans, 
which was 67 percent black before Katrina, is estimated to be no 
higher than 58 percent black now.

The reduction in poor and low-wage workers in New Orleans is no 
surprise to social workers. Don Everard, director of social service 
agency Hope House, says New Orleans is a much tougher town for poor 
people than before Katrina. "Housing costs a lot more and there is 
much less of it," says Everard. "The job market is also very 
unstable. The rise in wages after Katrina has mostly fallen backwards 
and people are not getting enough hours of work on a regular basis."

The displacement of tens of thousands of people is now expected to be 
permanent because there is both a current shortage of affordable 
housing and no plan to create affordable rental housing for tens of 
thousands of the displaced.

In the most blatant sign of government action to reduce the numbers 
of poor people in New Orleans, the U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development (HUD) is demolishing thousands of intact public 
housing apartments. HUD is spending nearly a billion dollars with 
questionable developers to end up with much less affordable housing. 
Right after Katrina, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson predicted New 
Orleans was "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if 
ever again." He then worked to make that prediction true.

According to Policy Link, a national research institute, the crisis 
in affordable housing means barely 2 in 5 renters in Louisiana can 
return to affordable homes. In New Orleans, all the funds currently 
approved by HUD and other government agencies (not spent, only 
approved) for housing for low-income renters will only rebuild 
one-third of the pre-Katrina affordable rental housing stock.

Hope House sees four to five hundred needy people a month. "Most of 
the people we see are working people facing eviction, utility 
cutoffs, or they are already homeless" reports Everard. The New 
Orleans homeless population has already doubled from pre-Katrina 
numbers to approximately 12,000 people.

Everard noted that because of FEMA's recent announcement that it was 
closing 35,000 still occupied trailers across the gulf, homelessness 
is likely to get a lot worse.

United Nations officials recently called for an immediate halt to the 
demolitions of public housing in New Orleans saying demolition is a 
violation of human rights and will force predominately black 
residents into homelessness. "The spiraling costs of private housing 
and rental units, and in particular the demolition of public housing, 
puts these communities in further distress, increasing poverty and 
homelessness," said a joint statement by UN experts in housing and 
minority issues. "We therefore call on the Federal Government and 
State and local authorities to immediately halt the demolitions of 
public housing in New Orleans." Similar calls have been made by 
Senators Clinton and Obama. Despite these calls, the demolitions continue.

The rebuilding has gone as many planned. Right after Katrina, one 
wealthy businessman told the Wall Street Journal, "Those who want to 
see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different 
way: demographically, geographically and politically." Elected 
officials, from national officials like President Bush and HUD 
Secretary Jackson to local city council members, who are presumably 
sleeping in their own beds, apparently concur. Policies put in place 
so far do not appear overly concerned about the tens of thousands of 
working poor, the elderly and the disabled who are not able to come home.

The political implications of a dramatic reduction in poor and 
working mostly African American people in New Orleans are 
straightforward. The reduction directly helps Republicans who have 
fought for years to reduce the impact of the overwhelmingly 
Democratic New Orleans on state-wide politics in Louisiana. In the 
jargon of political experts, Louisiana, before Katrina, was a "pink 
state." The state went for Clinton twice and then for Bush twice, 
with U.S. Senators from each party. The forced relocation of hundreds 
of thousands, mostly lower income and African-American, could alter 
the balance between the two major parties in Louisiana and the 
opportunities for black elected officials in New Orleans.

Given the political and governmental officials and policies in place 
now, one of the major casualties of Katrina will be the permanent 
displacement of tens of thousands of African Americans, the working 
poor, their children, the elderly, and the disabled.

Those who wanted a different New Orleans rebuilt probably see the 
concentrated displacement as a success. However, if the test of a 
society is how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members, the 
aftermath of Katrina earns all of us a failing grade.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola 
University College of Law in New Orleans. He can be reached at 
<mailto:quigley77 at gmail.com>quigley77 at gmail.com

Interested persons can contact Hope House through Don Everard at 
<mailto:deverard at bellsouth.net>deverard at bellsouth.net




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