New Orleans Still a 'Disaster,' Report Says

WASHINGTON — Eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still a "disaster," according to a report released Monday by a Southern research group tracking the recovery.

"One and a half years later, hundreds of thousands of people are still facing a grim reality: New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still in crisis," reported the Institute for Southern Studies, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group founded by veterans of the civil rights movement and based in Durham, N.C.

"Katrina may have fallen off the national radar, but the disaster never stopped," said the report by the Institute's Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch.

It said the federal recovery effort had been so ineffective that it has "shattered many people's faith in the government's ability to help those in need."

About 110,000 displaced families are still living in temporary government-issued trailers or receiving rental assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the report said. Some rental aid has been extended to August 2007 — two years after the historic storm made landfall — but "tens of thousands have already been cut from the rolls," said the report, titled "A New Agenda for the Gulf Coast."

The report cited Louisiana's federally funded, $4.6 billion "Road Home Program" as an example of the failure of efforts to help people rebuild their homes and their lives. The program is supposed to provide up to $150,000 each to help eligible homeowners return to their houses damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita.

So far, more than 107,000 people have applied for aid under this program, but only about 630 have received any money, according to the report.

"Last week, over half of New Orleans' residents weren't home to celebrate Mardi Gras because they still can't find good housing, jobs and schools," said Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute.

Before Katrina flooded New Orleans in early September 2005, the city's population was about 444,000. The Louisiana Recovery Authority says the population is now about 191,000.

The report said many obstacles remain for those wishing to return to New Orleans, including fears about the city's schools, health care, levees and murders.

"Since Katrina, New Orleans' already high violent crime rate soared even higher," the report said.

It urged federal agencies to provide resources and oversight to address the "crisis of trust" between police and residents in the city. The report said a survey by a New Orleans activist group called Safe Streets, Strong Communities found that two-thirds of the respondents were afraid they or their loved ones would be harmed instead of helped by police.

The report also recommended steps that Congress can take to address the ongoing crisis:

— "Crack down on insurance companies" that have denied claims for flood damage and are refusing to cover some new homes.

— Push state and federal agencies to speed up compensation promised to eligible homeowners and reverse a decision by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to raze 5,000 "barely damaged public housing units" in New Orleans.

The Institute for Southern Studies' Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch was begun in November 2005 to document and investigate the rebuilding of the region from the destruction of Katrina and Rita. Its board of directors includes NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, housing activist Steve Bradberry of ACORN and professors from the University of Mississippi and New Orleans' Loyola University Law School.

This is the group's fourth report. It and the others can be found online at www.southernstudies.org/gulfwatch.