Where is your Neighbor?

Celina Cantu, Nancy Pater, Megan Smith

Population

2000484,674

White: 28.1%Black: 67.3%

2010343,829

White: 33.0%Black: 60.2%

Population Change 2000-2010: -29.1%

Housing

2000Total Housing Units

215,091Occupied Housing Units

188,251Vacant Housing Units

26,840Vacancy Rate

2.2%

2010Total Housing Units

189,896Occupied Housing Units

142,158Vacant Housing Units

47,738Vacancy Rate

4.5%

According to FEMA damage records,134,564 (72 percent) housing units

in Orleans Parish were damaged by Katrina and Rita

and the subsequent flooding, of which 78,918 (42 percent)

were severelydamaged or destroyed.

African American Population:Before and After Katrina

Before After

Population 325,947 (67.3%) 206,985 (60.2%)

The Pace of Return to New Orleans Varies for Blacks and Whites

Source: RAND Corporation, Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Survey (DNORPS).

African American Population:2000

https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/maps/race/pdfs/african_american.pdf

Displacement

• Katrina caused one of the largest and most abrupt relocations of people in U.S. history. 1.5 million people aged 16 years and older left their residences in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

• As of May 2007, there were still more than 30,000 displaced families scattered across the United States.

Where did the evacuees go?

• Within a week, Hurricane Katrina displaced more than one million Gulf Coast residents.

• About half of the evacuees returned to their homes within days of the storm

• Evacuees were initially sent to:– Shelters– Hotels – Carnival cruise ships

Percentages of Evacuee Displacement

• Texas 31.4%• Tennessee 4.5% • Georgia 2.8%• Florida 3.0%• Arkansas .6%• Other States 14.1%

The long-term solution

• Federal government evacuation plan• Airlines began shipping survivors off nationwide• Houston received about 240,000 evacuees – a 7% population increase

• San Antonio, about 30,000 – a 3% increase

• Phoenix, about 3,000 – less than a 0.5% increase

Displaced Families: Economic implications

• With high rates of poverty in the misplaced families. – 34 % (89,000) of the African American displaced were

considered poor– 14.6% (14,000) of Non-Black persons displaced were

considered poor• What are the financial implications of

misplacement?– Housing– Jobs– Access to food– Necessities (lack of possessions)

FEMA’s housing plan• “Because of the unprecedented need for housing

and sheltering following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did something it has never done before. FEMA devised a way to meet the immediate emergency sheltering needs of tens of thousands of evacuees fleeing the aftermath of catastrophic storms.”

Sheltering and Housing Katrina Evacuees

Dec. 15, 2006

FEMA Housing• Shelters, hotel rooms,

and apartments– FEMA usually lasts no

more than 30 days– Available for 6 months

from Sept. 2005 to March 2006

– Extended until August 2006 ... Sheltering program ended

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=32169

• Communities Housed Evacuees• Chapter 13 :The Racialized Search

for Housing Post-Katrina

• Desert Bayou• Families were evacuated to Utah• Army Base - Fort Williams

Jobs and Unemployment

• Unemployment rate for evacuees who did not return was 30.65%

• Unemployment rate for evacuees who returned was 6.0%• Unemployment rate for other unaffected areas nationwide

4.7%

• Discrimination against Evacuees

Access to Necessities• Basic Necessities– Food

• Transportation – Do they have a car or is

the public transportation up and running?

• Schooling– Only 1 out of 7 schools

had been replaced in the Lower Ninth Ward

– 86 Public schools (2008) reopened out of 128 schools (2004)

Does your neighborhood have a grocery

store?

Is there even electricity in

your homes or trailers?

Is eating out ever day a financial option?

Do you have transportation

to the restaurants? Car or bus?

What amenities do you have in

your neighborhood?

Social Consequences

• Family separation• Decline in health conditions• Education• Economic • Emotional and mental illness/disorders– Post Traumatic Stress Disorder– Anxiety disorders– Depression – SED

• Serious Emotional Disturbances

Questions added to the Current Population Survey from October

2005 to October 2006 addressed the issue of how Katrina evacuees

have fared; blacks, young adults, and the never married were

much less likely to return to their homes, and nonreturnees

were more likely to be unemployed and to earn less than returnees

Was Coming Home Addressed?

Forgotten People

• Of evacuees, about 410,000 had not returned to their homes by October 2006

• Avg. distance from home was 399 miles

Returners

• 61.9% returned to their residences• 73% returned to their counties• Gone for an avg. of 33 days

• 54 percent of black evacuees returned to their pre-Katrina counties, compared with 82 percent of white evacuees

• Probability of returning home increases with age

Five Years after Hurricane Katrina, over 100,000 New Orleanians had

yet to return home.

Works Cited

• http://www.prb.org/Articles/2010/katrina.aspx• http://www.newschoolsforneworleans.org/downloads/n

sno_%20EducFactSheet.7.09.pdf• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?

storyId=13979111• http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/2255000.htm

l• https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/maps/race/pdfs/afric

an_american.pdf• http://www.gnocdc.org/prekatrinasite.html• http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=32169• https://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/maps/race/pdfs/

african_american.pdf

• http://www.soros.org/resources/multimedia/katrina/issue/displacement.php

• http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2005/11metropolitanpolicy_katz.aspx

• http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art3full.pdf• http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2010-0

2-12-hurricane-katrina-crime_N.htm• http://www.kff.org/newsmedia/upload/7401.pdf• http://

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105100031.htm• http://www.hurricaneu.com/hurricane-relief/the-financial-and-soci

al-impact-of-hurricane-katrina-why-charity-is-necessary• http://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/crsrept.pdf• www.quickfacts.census.gov• http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art3full.pdf• http

://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2010/08/five_years_after_hurricane_kat.html