New Orleans
In late August of 2005, Hurricanes Katrina left a path of destruction and serious human rights concerns in its wake. The storms displaced hundreds of thousands of people living in the Gulf Coast region of the United States, who consequently were entitled to the human rights protections defined by the UN’s Guiding Principles on the Rights of Internally Displaced People. One of those rights is the Right to Return to their homes. Government actions at the local, state and federal level, however, have all appeared designed to prevent poor communities in New Orleans from coming home.
Homelessness
To ameliorate increasing homelessness, New Orleans planned to build 3,000 units of “permanent supportive housing” after hurricane Katrina. To attain them, the homeless would not be required to undergo a screening process. Simply having shelter was considered therapeutic. Additionally, supportive services, such as financial planning and substance-abuse counseling, would be provided after placement into a permanent home.
However, subsidies that would help pay rent in these “permanent” units were not provided. $70 million are needed to subsidize their rents and without it, the project would fail.
Federal and state funds to aid New Orleans’ homeless have repeatedly fallen short of need and are still dwindling. After Katrina, many displaced persons were not given the 18 months of aid the government had pledged. Most aid provided to the homeless now comes from grassroots organizations, whose funds are understandably strained as the number of homeless rises. The homeless rate in New Orleans has doubled since Hurricane Katrina.
New Orleans’ homeless now include the chronically homeless, displaced and returning residents, and workers hired to help rebuild the city. But, few homeless shelters ever reopened after hurricane Katrina. This, coupled with the fact that available affordable and public housing units are being reduced, offers little hope of finding adequate shelter within New Orleans.
Public Housing
Despite protests from former residents, housing advocates, and activists, the demolition of New Orleans’ Big Four by HUD commenced on March, 2008. These historical public housing complexes built in 1941- St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and Lafitte- contained 4,500 units of public housing. They would be replaced with privately-developed mixed-income developments containing only 668 public housing rentals, a decrease of over 80%. Only the complex Lafitte is expected to replace all public housing units.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every individual is entitled to adequate housing and that the government is required to re-house those that have been internally displaced. Over 50,000 residents were evicted in order to remake the Big Four and were added to the thousands already displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The projected number of new public housing units will clearly be insufficient to house them. In addition, hindered by insufficient funds and unclosed credit deals with developers, construction of new units was delayed six months. This may have made the 2010 deadline, which had already been extended, unattainable, which would, in turn, only extend the wait for the 668 public housing families it would house.
It is not the first time that New Orleans residents are unjustly displaced and low-income residents pushed out by development projects. In 2002, the same year New Orleans’ public housing system was taken over by HUD, the public housing complex St. Thomas, which housed 1,500 extremely-low-income families, was demolished. The replacement development would contain only 1,100 units and only a small fraction designated for public housing. The St. Thomas complex would be the model for future redevelopment projects.
The rebuilding of the Big Four is projected to cost $762 million. However, many of the public housing units demolished had suffered only minimal damage. It is estimated that only $130 million would have been needed to simply repair them.
Section 8
After Hurricane Katrina, more families than ever before found themselves in need of rental assistance. However, there were simply not enough Section 8 vouchers to relocate displaced families in addition to the many still waiting to receive aid. Immediately following the hurricane, the FEMA, or Federal Emergency Management Agency, provided some families with grants and temporary trailers, aid that would be removed by January 7, 2006.
The federal government, instead of expanding Section 8 funds for the City of New Orleans, created an emergency program called the KDHAP, or Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program. However, the program would be in place for only 18 months, and PHAs were not required to participate.
Many displaced families, therefore, had no recourse but to leave New Orleans. Families holding Section 8 vouchers from New Orleans may have found that many cities did not accept Section 8 transfers. Some cities created their own form of aid to accommodate for Katrina victims hoping that the FEMA would reimburse them. The FEMA warned, though, that reimbursements would cease on March 1, 2006.
The federal government also asked local governments to place those displaced by hurricane Katrina at the top of their Section 8 waiting list, but without expanding funds. Waiting lists were already long and vouchers insufficient on a national level. This meant fewer vouchers for local families and the removal of families that had finally reached the top of the list. According to a report by NPR, a resident of North Carolina had waited ten years before becoming eligible for Section 8, only to be told that the housing authority was “backed up because of Katrina victims” and could not help her.
Today, the rental market in New Orleans has experienced a rise in the average rent of 46%. Rising rents and the concomitant elimination of affordable housing have continued to raise the demand for rental assistance.
New Orleans’ Groups in the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights:
C3/Hands Off Iberville
Louisiana Justice Institute
May Day New Orleans
Survivors Village