Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the housing stock of
New Orleans, inundating as many as 110,000 of
New Orleans’s
180,000 homes with floodwater. Yet, a year and a half after the storm,
citizens of the city are coming back. In many neighborhoods, roofs are being
repaired, mold is being scrubbed from the walls, and renovations are
underway or complete. Residents,
in celebration of Mardi Gras, are flying their purple, green and gold from
front porches.
However, much of
New Orleans’s public housing developments remain
abandoned. A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, many of the units
stand just as they did the day after the storm. In some of these
developments, the water line still scars the building, interior walls remain
covered in mold, and personal belongings remain strewn across the floor.
With people gone, rats and other pests have moved in, vines creeping through
the windows.
The residents who used to live in these units have been
blocked from returning to their apartments to clean up and move back in. All
but 1,097 of approximately 6,000 public housing units have been boarded up,
shuttered, and slated for demolition by the Housing Authority of New Orleans
(HANO). The rationale behind the
decision for demolition is that the flooded housing is unsafe to inhabit,
but former residents are suspicious that the powers-that-be truly have their
health in mind.
For generations, the housing developments of New Orleans have
concentrated the city’s poor in large numbers.
Before the storm, poverty rates ranged between 60 and 80 percent, and
unemployment rates were greater than 20 percent.
Since the storm, a fierce debate has emerged over the future of
thousands of public housing units which have historically provided public
housing for the city’s large number of low income residents.
According to the housing authority of New Orleans (HANO),
approximately 49,000 New Orleanais lived in public housing before Katrina.
Among these people, 20,000 lived in older, large-scale barracks style
housing projects over 70 years old.
The housing projects in New Orleans had long been due for an upgrade,
and a number of demolition and redevelopment plans were already in place
before the storm.
Even before Katrina hit, public housing units had
become old and dangerous, rife with mold and lead.
A 2003 study by Dr. Felicia Rabito and her colleagues at the Tulane
University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine showed that 32
percent of children living in New
Orleans
public housing projects had blood lead levels above the CDC limit. Elevated
exposure to lead in early childhood has been linked to lowered IQ scores,
lifelong learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and aggressive behavior.
Subtropical weather and poor insulation has fueled the proliferation
of mold and other indoor allergens in older, substandard housing units.
These exposures can trigger asthma, exacerbate allergies, and
irritate the respiratory system.
Katrina’s wind and flooding caused the conditions of
public housing in New Orleans
to go from bad to worse. Water poured into many units, soaking everything
and driving the residents out of the city. HANO has deemed the units
uninhabitable and covered with entrances steel bars, locks, and “no
trespassing signs.” HANO and HUD
have claimed that due to the storm-ravaged conditions of the units and the
lack of infrastructure in the surrounding community, it did not make sense
to reopen the housing projects.
In March 2006, the assistant secretary of HUD told the Times-Picayune: “I
appreciate that people want to come home, [but] we can’t act precipitously.
People can get hurt. This is a
real concern for me.”
On June 15th 2006, the Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson announced a plan for the future of
the abandoned units: more than 5,000 public housing apartments would be
demolished and replaced by an estimated $681 million of mixed-income
developments. “Katrina put a
spotlight on the condition of public housing in New
Orleans,”
Jackson
announced, “[and] I’m here to tell you we can do better.” The new plan calls
for demolition of New Orleans’
four largest housing developments (B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, St. Barnard, and
Laffitte) which were damaged in varying degrees from Hurricane Katrina.
Simultaneously, 1,000 apartments in several, less damaged housing complexes
would be reopened to provide short-term housing.
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