[News] New Orleans Katrina Pain Index at 10: Who was left behind?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

sfbayview.com 
<http://sfbayview.com/2015/07/new-orleans-katrina-pain-index-at-10-who-was-left-behind/> 



  New Orleans Katrina Pain Index at 10: Who was left behind?

*/by Bill Quigley
http://sfbayview.com/2015/07/new-orleans-katrina-pain-index-at-10-who-was-left-behind/
/*

When Hurricane Katrina 
<http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=event_katrina2005> hit the Gulf Coast on 
Aug. 29, 2005, the nation saw tens of thousands of people left behind in 
New Orleans. Ten years later, it looks like the same people in New 
Orleans have been left behind again.

The tragic and infuriating consequences of demolishing 4,000 perfectly 
livable public housing apartments in developments with study buildings 
and generous green space, looking like college campuses, are reflected 
in statistics on the increase in poverty, the unaffordability of current 
housing for those who have returned and the failure of half the former 
public housing residents to return home at all.

The population of New Orleans is noticeably smaller and noticeably 
whiter. While tens of billions poured into Louisiana, the impact on poor 
and working people in New Orleans has been minimal.

Many of the elderly and the poor, especially poor families with 
children, never made it back to New Orleans. The poverty rate for 
children who did made it back remains at disturbingly high pre-Katrina 
levels, especially for Black children.

Rents are high and taking a higher percentage of people’s income. The 
pre-Katrina school system fired all its teachers and professionals and 
turned itself into the charter experiment capital of the U.S. even while 
the number of children in public schools has dropped dramatically.

Since Katrina, white incomes, which were over twice that of Blacks, have 
risen three times as much as Blacks. While not all the numbers below are 
bad, they do illustrate who has been left behind in the 10 years since 
Katrina hit.


      When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, the
      nation saw tens of thousands of people left behind in New Orleans.
      Ten years later, it looks like the same people in New Orleans have
      been left behind again.

33 – Rent in New Orleans is up 33 percent for one-bedroom apartments and 
41 percent for two-bedroom apartments since Katrina hit. This is very 
tough because in New Orleans, 55 percent of residents rent 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/>. 
The national average is 35 <http://nmhc.org/Content.aspx?id=4708> percent.

In 2005 
<http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr/fmr/docsys.htnl&data=docs>, 
a one-bedroom was $578 and two was $676. In 2015 
<http://www.hano.org/landlords/forms/2014%20Payment%20Standard-.PD>, it 
is $767 for one and $950 for two. CNN/Money recently named New Orleans 
as one of the worst cities in the U.S. for renters. 
<http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/new-orleans-one-of-the-worst-us-cities-for-renters/Content?oid=2609106>

Before Katrina the average renter 
<http://www.gnofairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Unsafe-Overpriced-Home-for-the-Holidays-FINAL.pd> 
spent 19 percent of his income on rent. The Data Center 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/>, a terrific resource for 
information on the region, reports 37 percent of renters in New Orleans 
now spend more than 50 percent 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/> 
of their income to rent. Rental apartments are mostly substandard as 
well with 78 percent, nearly 50,000 apartments 
<http://www.gnofairhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Unsafe-Overpriced-Home-for-the-Holidays-FINAL.pdf>, 
in the city needing major repairs.

38 – In 2005, <http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_622.html> 38 percent 
of the children in New Orleans lived in poverty, 17 percentage points 
higher than the U.S. as a whole. The most recent numbers show 39 percent 
<http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2015/02/thirty-nine_percent_of_new_orl.html> 
of the children in New Orleans live in poverty, still 17 percentage 
points higher than the national average. 82 percent of these families 
have someone working in the family so the primary cause is low wages 
<http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2015/02/thirty-nine_percent_of_new_orl.html>.

44 – New Orleans now has 44 school boards 
<http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CI_Policy_Brief_No1.pdf>. 
Prior to Katrina, nearly all the public schools in New Orleans were 
overseen by the one Orleans Parish School Board 
<http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CI_Policy_Brief_No1.pdf>. 
Ninety-one percent 
<http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CI_Policy_Brief_No1.pdf> 
of the public schools in New Orleans are now charter schools, the 
highest rate in the country. Only 32 percent of African Americans 
<http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cowen.poll_.2015.pdf> 
believe the new nearly all charter school system is better than the 
public school system before the storm versus 44 percent of whites, even 
though precious few whites attend the public schools.

50 – Fifty percent of the Black children 
<http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/12822531-125/post-katrina-progress-for-Black-new> 
in New Orleans live in poor households, a higher percentage than when 
Katrina hit.

59 – New Orleans is now 59 percent African American, down from 66.7 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/> 
percent in 2000; 31 percent white, up from 26 percent in 2000; and 5.5 
percent Hispanic, up from 3 percent in 2000.

67 – Prior to Katrina, New Orleans incarcerated more of its citizens 
than any city in the U.S. 
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Changing+Course+on+Incarceration.pd>, 
five times the national average. Ongoing efforts by community members 
and local officials have reduced the number of people held in the jail 
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Changing+Course+on+Incarceration.pdf> 
by 67 percent.

73 – Seventy-three percent of New Orleans students who start high school 
graduate 
<http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/07/new_orleans_high_school_exam_r.html> 
on time.

3,221 – There are now 3,221 fewer low income public housing apartments 
in New Orleans than when Katrina hit. In 2005 there were 5,146 low 
income public housing apartments 
<https://billquigley.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/locked-out-and-torn-down-public-housing-post-katrina-by-bill-quigley-and-sara-h-godchaux/> 
in New Orleans, plus thousands of other public housing apartments 
scheduled for renewal or maintenance, nearly 100 percent African American.

The housing authority now reports having 1,925 public housing apartments 
available for low income people on the sites of the demolished 
complexes, less than half of the number promised, and less than half of 
those completed have rents set at rates which are affordable to those 
who lived in public housing before Katrina 
<http://www.hano.org/our_story/Agency%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Winter%202015.pdf>, 
meaning the majority of their public housing units now require higher 
incomes from renters than the people who were living in public housing 
prior to Katrina.

That is why only about half of the families who lived in the four public 
housing developments which were demolished after Katrina made it back to 
New Orleans at all by 2011 
<http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/katrina/12479401-186/katrina-scattered-new-orleans-entrenched>. 
And only 7 percent of those original families were living in the new 
housing which replaced their homes.

6,000 – There are 6,000 fewer people on Social Security in Orleans 
Parish than before the storm. Orleans parish had 26,654 people on Social 
Security, either old age or disability, in 2004 
<http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/2004/la.pdf>. Orleans 
parish had 20,325 people on Social Security in the latest report 
<http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_sc/2013/la.pdf>.

There are similar drops in the numbers of people on Temporary Assistance 
for Needy Families in New Orleans. There were just over 3,000 families 
receiving state temporary assistance in New Orleans in May 2005 
<http://www.dss.state.la.us/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats04-05/FITAP/fy0405_FITAP_Part_Reg.pdf>. 
As of May 2015 
<http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats14->, 
that number was down to 463.

7,500 – Over 7,500 public school teachers and paraprofessionals, mostly 
African American 
<http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2015/05/justices_decline_to_hear_appea_1.html>, 
were fired after Katrina when Louisiana took over the New Orleans public 
school system. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal in 
May 2015.

9,000 – There are 9,000 fewer families receiving food stamps than 
before. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the old food 
stamps program. In May 2015 
<http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats14-15/SNAP/fy1415_FS_Part_Reg.pdf>, 
Orleans Parish had just under 40,000 households receiving SNAP benefits. 
In May 2005 
<http://www.dss.state.la.us/assets/docs/searchable/OFS/Statistics/Stats04-05/FOODSTAMPS/fy0405_FS_Part_Reg.pdf>, 
New Orleans had 49,000 households receiving food stamps.

17,392 – There are 17,392 fewer children enrolled in public schools 
<http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/11/new_orleans_public_school_enro.html> 
in New Orleans now than before Katrina. There were over 63,000 enrolled 
pre-Katrina and now there are 45,608.

35,451 – The median income for white families in New Orleans is $60,553; 
that is $35,451 more than for Black families, whose median income is 
$25,102. In the last 10 years the median income for Black families grew 
by 7 percent. At the same time, the median income for white families 
grew three times as fast, by 22 percent 
<http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/12822531-125/post-katrina-progress-for-Black-new>.

In 2005, the median income for Black households was $23,394, while the 
median for white households was $49,262. By 2013, the median income for 
Black households had grown only slightly, to $25,102. But the median for 
white households had jumped to $60, 553.

44,516 – The New Orleans metro area 
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Latinos+in+New+Orleans.pdf> 
(Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, 
St. John the Baptist, and St. Tammany parishes) has 44,516 more Hispanic 
residents in 2013 than in 2000. The total is now 103,061, just over 8 
percent of the metro population according to The Data Center 
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/The+Data+Center_NOI10_Latinos+in+New+Orleans.pdf>.

71,000 – Seventy one thousand fewer people live in New Orleans now than 
before the storm. In 2005 
<http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/03/census_estimate_shows_strong_p.html>, 
New Orleans had a population of 455,000 and in 2014 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/population-by-parish/> 
its population was 384,000.

99,650 – There are 99,650 fewer African Americans living in New Orleans 
<http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/who-lives-in-new-orleans-now/> 
now than in 2000, compared to 11,000 fewer whites.

71,000,000,000 – Seventy one billion dollars 
<http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/katrina/12479369-186/the-cost-of-recovery-after> 
was received by the state of Louisiana for Katrina repairs, 
rehabilitation and rebuilding. One look at this index and you see who 
did NOT get the money.


      Seventy one billion dollars was received by the state of Louisiana
      for Katrina repairs, rehabilitation and rebuilding. One look at
      this index and you see who did NOT get the money.

/Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans. You can 
reach him at //quigley77 at gmail.com/ <mailto:quigley77 at gmail.com>/. /

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