RETURN OF NEW ORLEANS' DISPLACED, NO EASY TASK

By Diane M. Grassi

Now that the cameras of the news media and press have largely left the area of New Orleans, Louisiana, its parishes and the Mississippi Gulf, in a post-Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita world, the real test will be for those residents who no longer have homes or jobs, as they face the dreaded winter season with funds and social services quickly running out. While no longer expedient for television networks to cover the disaster zone, Louisiana residents remain in disaster-mode.

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, LA, has tried single handedly to stir up a public relations campaign for his devoured city, with little success. Within a couple of weeks post-Katrina he encouraged his residents to return to areas which were still uninhabitable due to non-restored electricity, and sewer, health and emergency services all but nonexistent. Nagin delayed his ‘welcome back’ by a week only to order everyone out again as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Gulf. He suggested that the state legislature allow 500-room hotels to become casinos in order to bring in city revenue, only to be dismissed by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Mayor Nagin then announced he would have to cut 3,000 civilian city government jobs while his police superintendent resigned in the midst of it all.

But the essential problem facing those now displaced primarily from the city of New Orleans and its metropolitan area is finding jobs and housing. Many would like to return. But as Mayor Nagin continues to lay down the red carpet once again for his city’s residents, neither he nor the state government has spent time nor allocated resources to housing these residents in order for them to partake in the rebuilding of their city. The present primary residents consist of contractors, laborers and members of the National Guard, some in the medical community and limited numbers of restaurant and hotel workers. With Bourbon Street restaurants in the French Quarter coming back to life, but open far fewer hours partly due to a shortage of workers, their customers are not the desired tourists but crews doing demolition and environmental cleanup, still necessary in assessing the city’s needs.

However, the problems endured by the New Orleans’ populace is far larger than the infighting between mayor and governor or state and federal government agencies, still being scrutinized over decision making and efforts both pre and post-Katrina. Every sector of business and economic strata has been knocked off-line in the New Orleans’ metro area indefinitely, in a now bankrupt city with its future fiscal health a big question mark.

Professionals such as doctors who have no hospitals in which to practice medicine or lawyers without a courthouse in order to try their cases have far better chances of relocation and finding new employment than the average bread winner. Yet it would be foolish to overlook the fact that basic services and the infrastructure of New Orleans are at the core of rebuilding the city. And each business or service collectively employ thousands of people who are middle or working class who do not have the resources to sustain themselves indefinitely. And the very city which seems anxious for it residents to return, appears incapable of doing it the right way.

The federal government allotted some rental assistance totalling $2,358.00 per family which was approximated for three months rent in a one bedroom apartment, allocated to those who either completely lost their homes or those deemed uninhabitable. Yet there are systemic problems in meeting the qualification for the assistance and then the ultimate wait for actual receipt of the housing voucher. There needs to be required proof by state inspectors and then insurance companies, for those with insurance, in order to verify the condition of one’s home. It is only then that the rental assistance check will be approved. Through October 25, 2005, inspectors in Louisiana had completed 362,308 inspections, yet still have 446,168 more to go. Many residents still await their rental vouchers as they live in temporary FEMA provided hotel rooms, some trailers, or Red Cross shelters.

For those families who evacuated New Orleans with children, they have enrolled them in public schools in other cities in Louisiana or Mississippi as well as in other states in the south such as Texas, yet as far away as California and New Jersey. And many families who have received the $2,358.00 know that without employment their chances to continue to pay rent are dwindling even if lucky enough to have found permanent housing. Many still living in hotels, shelters, or sharing homes with extended family have trouble looking for apartments without access to a home telephone, credit cards, or cash.

An underreported fact is that for those families who were already in the welfare system and receiving Section- 8 housing from the federal government, their plight is far easier. There are more social services available to them and their immediate needs are being tended to far more quickly than the homeowner who did not have a mortgage and little overhead, yet still had a job or steady income and now has little hope of ever owning a home again.

There have been 296,000 unemployment insurance claims which have been filed since Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans alone. In all of 2004 there were a total of 196,000 claims filed. But lawmakers and the press have unfairly reported that Louisiana residents do not want their jobs back, since many temporary jobs remain unfilled. Again, without the essentials of housing, electricity, schools, water, gas and public transportation, businesses will remain closed. Most job seekers are looking for permanent work and would like to return, but the prospects of permanent work or housing remain bleak. There is a definite symbiotic relationship between housing and employment, neither of which the mayor has clearly addressed.

To make matters even more exasperating for some, New Orleans renters also face eviction notices even though they are no longer living there. Landlords who are anxious to start renovating in order to rent to non-local temporary contractors at far higher rents, are issuing eviction notices even though some renters have offered to pay their rent while not there. For short-order cooks and wait staffs wishing to return to their jobs on Bourbon Street, sky-high rents now face them upon their return. There has been no moratorium, however, on rent gouging, which is an area the mayor could concentrate on while he urges his residents to come back. And while employers can apply for help with housing for their displaced workers through the Louisiana Economic Development Office as well as FEMA, they may do so only if workers are doing “infrastructure-related jobs.”

For those displaced looking for employment in cities which are new and vast in square miles, getting around using public transportation is no easy feat either. While most Katrina victims did receive 90 days worth of food stamps and 30-day bus passes provided in cities such as Houston, Dallas and Austin, TX, the cost of transportation and food without immediate employment will leave most with no choice other than to apply for welfare benefits. And while much has publicly been made in the press since Katrina about the non-coverage of the poverty existence in New Orleans, not enough has been focused on the average workers made up of cab drivers, waiters, musicians, bus drivers, teachers, office workers and courthouse clerks, to name a few. While not glamorous, they were livelihoods for those who have gotten short shrift in the media and now by their very own city and state.

For the nearly 1 million displaced residents of the greater New Orleans area as well as the Mississippi Delta primarily from Hurricane Katrina, the rest of the U.S. is now left to micro-manage each individual family crisis. Politics will most likely blur the mistakes made by the federal and state governments with hurricanes Katrina, Rita as well as Wilma in Florida While more funds will be allocated for rebuilding efforts they remain subject to mismanagement and failed oversight, although Americans have been told that will not be the case.

Lost in the mix will be the day-to-day recovery and efforts required for not only getting the displaced back on their feet, but ultimately giving them the choice to return to their home city. Strong leadership and creativity will be necessary in doing so. So far, neither has been present and there are no indications that inept bureaucracies will suddenly address imminent needs. Most think that the wrath of the 2005 hurricane season is over. But for its victims, it may have only just begun.