Adequate and Affordable Housing Remains a Problem in New Orleans
New Census Bureau data shows that more than four of every five Black New Orleans-area residents moved away from the region for at least a couple of weeks during or shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Many lived at two or more addresses in the disaster’s immediate aftermath, according to the 2009 American Housing Survey for the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. New Orleans had 343,829 residents in 2010, down 29% from 485,000 in 2000, according to Census data. Notably, the 141,171 difference is most certainly over 90% Black. These statistics can be attributed to inadequate and/or affordable housing for the present and former Black residents of the city.
Of note more than 65,000 housing units were still uninhabitable in 2009 because of hurricane damage. Furthermore a survey of 6,000 Black households offers a comprehensive look at housing characteristics since the 2005 storm.
Of those surveyed, 21% said they lived at two residences after the storm, compared with 12% who said they moved only once. An additional 7% said they still weren’t permanently settled, and mind you these numbers don’t encompass those who left with the clothes on their back, never to return. The survey also shows that 41% of Black residents displaced by Katrina said they had moved into a better neighborhood than where they lived before the storm. This leads us to know that for all intensive purposes Blacks have long lived in sub-standard housing or public housing in New Orleans. My question is, “if the disaster didn’t occur would this be a topic of discussion?”
According to Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracks housing trends. The numbers emphasize that victims of floods, hurricanes or other catastrophes urgently need housing assistance afterwards. It doesn’t take a molecular scientist to figure this out. My sojourn to the city a week ago only validated that the rhetoric Plyer speaks, “it is what it is,” just talk. Never in my lifetime did I imagine driving down miles of streets where every house is uninhabitable. FEMA trailers still dot the yards of several Lower 9th Ward neighborhoods. Mind you this area didn’t just have flooding, but was totally submerged. The scene five years later is an American Tragedy in that the same dilapidated and uninhabitable homes had “For Rent and For Sale,” signs on them. Should we or any other race live like this? If Actor, Brad Pitt didn’t spearhead an Affordable/Green Housing Initiative in the area, would there be any new housing constructed? Makes you wonder…
This brings me to another matter of contention; the Census Bureau data also showed that of the 214,700 owner-occupied units damaged during Katrina, financial aid went to 173,400, including homeowner’s insurance (152,100), federal flood insurance (43,800) and federal financial assistance (15,900). Of course policy owners deserved to recoup monies for their investments; but the government should have exercised their fiduciary duty to taxpayers and raised those properties and constructed new ones instead of blanket financial assistance to owners of condemned homes. The affected areas would have a different look today if this protocol was implemented.
Some schools of thought say that, “Given the extent of the destruction, New Orleans has had a very successful rebuilding effort.” I beg to differ. The rebuilding efforts have been concentrated in the tourist, and affluent sectors of the city. The infrastructure of the Lower 9th Ward and the other predominantly Black areas of the city are still blighted to include impassable roads, and closed retail stores coupled with a corrupt police force and jaded politicians you can see the recipe for disaster that is still prevalent in New Orleans.
We all know that this country was ill-equipped for the displacement of a major city. The question is: Is there a better way to plan for that? This disaster should be studied on every academic level as it is indicative of the lack of empathy on the part of America as a whole.
Hopefully, Black America can now see the vastness and complexity of the need for adequate and affordable housing in the New Orleans area. This dialogue should stretch across the spectrum of agendas for every major metropolis in this great land.
Lastly, time is out for rhetoric for the feel good city. Immediate action needs to be taken on the part of the Federal Government to rebuild New Orleans. If not a part of Black, and most importantly American culture will dissipate in the ever present phrase, “Laissez Bon Temps Rouler!”
