Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch

Report finds progress for some, hardships for many since Katrina

2008-05-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

The recovery of Louisiana's people from Hurricane Katrina is far from complete.

That's the conclusion of a report released today by the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit that helps families and individuals recover from storm-related losses. Titled "Progress for Some, Hope and Hardships for Many," the report examines the obstacles still faced by many Louisiana residents and highlights what officials can do to help.

"Just like our state's levees, roads and homes, the lives of our people still need our attention and resource commitments," says Recovery Corps CEO Raymond Jetson. "Some residents are on the road to recovery and some are facing roadblocks."

The report was based on a survey of more than 2,100 storm-impacted residents in Calcasieu, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. About 45 percent of the households surveyed were black while about 51 percent were white. About 60 percent of the households surveyed were made up of adults without children, 20 percent were single adults with children, and 17 percent were married couples with children.

Among the report's key findings:

* Only one-third of impacted residents consider themselves mostly recovered from the disaster.

* Residents of Orleans Parish report the greatest challenges and slowest progress toward recovery.

* Black households report much greater impacts than white households. For example, nearly half of black households live someplace different than before the disaster, compared to only 20 percent of white households. This holds true even for black households with higher incomes.

* Only 20 percent of residents feel there are adequate resources to aid in recovery.

The report offers a number of broad policy suggestions that include confronting the emerging disparity in access and interest in training and employment opportunities, homeownership and stress management; initiating interventions that are "culturally competent and relevant"; and creating services to provide one-time financial help to impacted residents.

As the report concludes:

The human voice in recovery has been often overpowered by the sound of progress in rebuilding buildings, repairing levees, or even the silence of barren neighborhoods once full of life. The collective future of Louisiana is tied to the way in which we continue to approach recovery, particularly human recovery. The voices of people, our people, are shouting loudly to all that can hear. Are you listening?

McCain on Hagee's Katrina remarks: "Nonsense!"

2008-04-25T11:10:00.000-05:00

During presidential candidate John McCain's visit to New Orleans yesterday, reporters asked him about Pastor John Hagee's statements that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment against New Orleans for a gay pride parade. While Hagee has endorsed McCain -- an endorsement McCain has said he's glad to have -- the Arizona Senator wants to make it clear that he does not endorse Hagee's remarks. Here's what he had to say:

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense. I don't have anything additional to say. It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, I don't have anything more to say….it's nonsense. I reject that categorically."

But McCain's rejection of Hagee's Katrina comments didn't stop him from getting in a dig at Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who by the way will be the guest tonight on the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal. Asked about whether commenting on surrogates and endorsers is interfering with the campaign, McCain answered:

I didn't attend Pastor Hagee's church for 20 years. There's a great deal of difference in my view between someone who endorses you and other circumstances.

Televangelist repeats Katrina-as-punishment-for-gay-pride comments

2008-04-24T10:40:00.001-05:00

Remember Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, the televangelist who told a radio show that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment against New Orleans for a gay pride parade? Well, he's back at it. Think Progress reported on comments Hagee made this week on another radio show when asked to clarify his earlier remarks:

The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. … What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse.

Hagee, you may recall, is the same religious leader whose endorsement presidential candidate John McCain solicited, accepted, and said he's still "glad to have." We wonder if Hagee's remarks will come up during McCain's visit today to the still-recovering city. We also wonder if North Carolina's GOP leaders gave any thought to Hagee's statements when they decided to run ads linking Obama to the controversial comments of Rev. Jeremiah Wright over McCain's protests.

P.S.: Well, apparently Hagee's comments will come up during McCain's visit to New Orleans, thanks to MoveOn.org.

Katrina's homeless hit hard psychologically, study finds

2008-04-23T13:40:00.000-05:00

New Orleans residents who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina were five times more likely to experience serious psychological distress a year after the disaster than those who did not.

That's among the findings of a new study presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America in New Orleans. The research was conducted by Narayan Sastry of the University of Michigan and Mark VanLandingham of Tulane University. They examined the mental health status of New Orleans' pre-Katrina residents one year after the disaster.

Blacks reported much higher rates of serious psychological distress than whites. Almost one-third of blacks were found to have a high degree of distress, compared to just 6 percent of whites. Those with higher incomes and more education were much less likely to experience serious psychological distress, while those born in Louisiana were much more likely to suffer serious distress.

"Our findings suggest that severe damage to one's home is a particularly important factor behind socioeconomic disparities in psychological distress, and possibly behind the levels of psychological distress," Sastry said. "These effects may be partly economic, because, for most families who own their home, home equity is the largest element of household wealth."

The researchers note that severely damaged or destroyed housing may also prevent people from returning to their community, which in turn affects social ties and employment. Given the magnitude and permanence of a housing loss, they say, the psychological consequences of the experience could be profound and lasting.

(FEMA photo of destroyed homes in New Orleans by Marvin Naumann)

The new HUD nominee and the Katrina housing crisis

2008-04-21T14:23:00.000-05:00

On Friday, President Bush announced his nominee to replace outgoing Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who resigned while under investigation for illegal partisanship and cronyism in the provision of contracts. Jackson was also criticized by low-income housing advocates for pushing a plan to tear down public housing complexes in New Orleans that were barely damaged by Hurricane Katrina and replace them with mixed-income developments with less room for the poor -- a plan that's now faltering due to the credit crunch.

Bush's choice is Steven Preston, currently head of the Small Business Administration and a former executive with ServiceMaster and an investment banker with Lehman Brothers. Preston came to the SBA in 2006, at a time when the agency was under fire for its slow response to requests for loans from small businesses and homeowners impacted by Katrina. Shortly after he took over, the backlog of loan requests fell by 80 percent and its response times increased by 90 percent, as Bush noted during the press conference announcing the appointment:

Steve Preston is an experienced manager who knows what to do. He knows how to tackle a problem, devise a solution and get results. That's exactly the kind of leadership I was looking for.

The nomination was met with cautious praise from the U.S. Senators representing Louisiana. Democrat Mary Landrieu called Preston a "willing and able partner" and said she hoped HUD would be a "better partner" under his leadership, while Republican David Vitter said he was "encouraged" by Preston's "track record as a reformer and problem solver."

But others in Congress were less optimistic about Bush's choice. Noting that the United States faces the biggest housing crisis in recent history, Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said the nation needs a leader with expertise in housing issue, "yet the President’s choice has no apparent housing background, which raises questions." Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a New York Democrat who chairs the House Small Business Committee, was even less charitable in her assessment of the nomination:

Trading one troubled agency for another is short-sighted, and it could not come at a worse time for the American people. HUD’s crisis must be resolved without delay. But the fact remains the agency Mr. Preston has been responsible for leading is still plagued by serious problems of its own. Large businesses continue getting small business contracts, SBA’s Katrina disaster relief program is a failure, and morale of the agency’s personnel is one of the lowest in the federal government.

Indeed, while the President focused on Preston's achievement in reducing the backlog of Katrina-related loan requests, the SBA under his leadership was lax in preparations for future disasters. In a report on the agency released last February, the Government Accountability Office acknowledged improvements under Preston but noted that the SBA still lacked a timetable for completing a disaster management plan.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, National Low Income Housing Coalition Director Sheila Crowley discussed the serious problems with housing since Katrina, including Jackson's poor handling of the region's federally assisted housing. She shared her wishes for what Preston's priorities would be:

I have high hopes he'll roll up his sleeves and dig into the Katrina mess, given that he has knowledge from another agency perspective. We'd also like to see immediate attention to issues related to getting adequate funding for public housing agencies. What HUD has lacked for the past eight years is an agency secretary who is an advocate for the agency's programs and who cared that the programs they worked for served the American public. And what we're looking for in a secretary is someone who has that commitment.

Will Preston be that someone? Time will tell.

(Photo of Preston and Bush from www.whitehouse.gov)

FEMA trailer toxin linked to Lou Gehrig's disease

2008-04-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that trailers the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina were contaminated with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde. Now, a new study suggests that the chemical -- which has already been linked to cancer and respiratory illnesses -- carries another risk: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

ALS is a progressive disease that causes damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and leads to paralysis and death. There is no cure or effective treatment for the condition.

The study's lead author is Marc Weisskopf, an assistant professor of epidemiology and environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He and his colleagues analyzed data from an American Cancer Society study of more than 1 million people who were monitored for 15 years, finding that 617 men and 539 women died of ALS during that time. Only those who reported formaldehyde exposure had a higher risk -- 34 percent -- of developing the illness.

At this time, neither the CDC nor FEMA have any programs in place to help trailer residents with medical expenses incurred as a result of living in unsafe housing.

"This is like Baghdad": Accused teen acquitted in killing of popular New Orleans musician

2008-04-11T12:08:00.000-05:00

The December 2006 murder of Hot 8 Brass Band drummer and high school music teacher Dinerral Shavers shocked New Orleans. Followed a week later by the killing of filmmaker and Food Not Bombs activist Helen Hill and coming amidst mounting violence in the storm-ravaged city, the incident sparked protest marches and official promises to crack down on crime. The initial failure of District Attorney Eddie Jordan to bring charges for Shavers' shooting, which took place while he was driving down a public street in broad daylight, was also part of the controversy that led to Jordan's resignation last year.

David Bonds, 19, was eventually charged with Shavers' murder. But after a four-day trial this week during which teenage witnesses proved reluctant to finger Bonds, a jury voted to acquit him of second-degree murder. Bonds allegedly shot Shavers by mistake while aiming for the man's teenage stepson because he did not "belong" in the neighborhood.

As the trial concluded, Judge Jerome Winsberg offered his personal commentary to the courtroom, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

"This is like Baghdad," Winsberg told the jury after reading their verdicts aloud. "It is appalling...It is shocking."

People shooting each other over neighborhood alliances, the veteran judge noted; children not only raising themselves, but being left to care for toddlers and babies in the 2200 block of Dumaine Street.

Winsberg said he wasn't commenting on the verdict, only on the four days of testimony that preceded it. A subset of New Orleans unfolded in court, the judge said, one in which no one seems to live with their parents, but guns and "beefs" and threats are ever-present.

Also commenting on the trial was Silence Is Violence, an anti-violence campaign founded following the murders of Shavers and Hill:

The world our young people are living in came to terrifying light through the fearful testimony of witnesses, justifiably afraid; through the defendant's assertion that he sells drugs in order "to help my family" (this forming part of the defense in this trial); through the repeated references to petty but clearly deadly turf wars being fought by children too young to drive from one neighborhood to another.

Scandal-plagued HUD chief quits, but affordable housing crisis continues in the Gulf

2008-04-04T14:57:00.001-05:00

This week brought the news that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson would resign effective April 18 to "attend more diligently to personal and family matters." Those personal matters probably include staying out of jail, since Jackson is currently under investigation for political favoritism and corruption in the awarding of contracts as well as for lying to Congress.

President Bush, a longtime friend and former neighbor of Jackson, accepted the resignation with regret. "I have known Alphonso Jackson for many years, and I have known him to be a strong leader and a good man," he said.

Jackson's legal troubles started two years ago with a remark made at a minority real estate forum in Dallas. He told the story of an African-American man who finally won a HUD contract after years of trying -- but when the man thanked Jackson, he also mentioned he didn't like President Bush. The secretary nixed the deal. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president?," he said. "Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

Apparently, Jackson was unaware (or unconcerned) that awarding contracts based on partisan politics is a violation of federal law. His remarks led to an investigation by HUD's Inspector General, which found that Secretary Jackson personally intervened against prospective contractors with Democratic affiliations. The IG also examined the political contributions of 29 companies that got HUD contracts and found that officers and key staff members at the winning firms gave more than twice as much to Republican candidates as Democrats.

When hauled before a Senate panel, Jackson testified, "I don't touch contracts." From there the investigation broadened, with the IG's investigators joining forces with the FBI, Justice Department, and a federal grand jury to examine improprieties in a number of HUD contracting decisions -- including several involving the controversial redevelopment of public housing in New Orleans.

Long itching to tear down New Orleans' traditional public housing complexes and replace them with mixed-income developments with less space for the poor [PDF], HUD and the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans used Hurricane Katrina to fast-track those plans. This was no quiet conspiracy, however: Soon after the storm, Jackson announced publicly that New Orleans was "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." His agency then championed a plan to reduce the number of public housing units in four complexes across the city from more than 5,000 before Katrina -- most of them occupied by African-American families -- to only 2,000.

Residents filed a class-action lawsuit to stop HUD's demolition plans, but a federal court denied all legal challenges. The lawyers have appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit, but a decision isn't expected for months. Officials from the United Nations have criticized the teardowns, saying they would force mostly black residents into homelessness. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who has been blocking House-approved legislation to replace demolished public housing units, responded by denouncing the U.N. as a "wasteful international organization" hell-bent on "expanding the dependency of people on government." With Vitter's blessing as well as the New Orleans City Council's, HUD has already begun demolition at three of the complexes, with work at the fourth expected to begin soon.

HUD has also chosen the firms to carry out the redevelopment -- and one of them is now implicated in the scandal surrounding Jackson. As it turns out, the $127 million contract to rebuild the St. Bernard complex in New Orleans was awarded to Atlanta-based Columbia Residential, a company that owes Jackson somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000 for past work. Columbia has been one of the few private developers to land significant HUD contracts in recent years, including a major public housing redevelopment project in Atlanta. Investigators are now looking at Jackson's involvement in the Columbia deal in New Orleans, as well as whether he arranged high-paying contract work for two friends -- one of whom ended up with a $485,000 gig at HANO.

As the various probes of Jackson continue, there's still no word on who might replace him at HUD. The Advancement Project, a civil rights organization that filed a lawsuit against HUD on behalf of New Orleans public housing residents, said the secretary's resignation "should be a call to action for HUD to reverse decisions made in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. With the change in leadership, HUD now has the opportunity to fulfill its mission and provide affordable housing for families who are still in desperate need."

And the need is clearly desperate: A PolicyLink analysis [PDF] of HUD's progress in restoring subsidized housing in post-Katrina New Orleans found that the agency has approved resources to rebuild just over a third of those homes. Meanwhile, rents in many parts of the city have doubled, with affordable rentals that once were common now almost impossible to find. At the same time, federal recovery programs are projected to restore only 43 percent of the city's total rental losses, which includes everything from public housing for the poor to market-rate rentals. It's no wonder the city's homeless population has doubled since the storm.

But addressing the dire housing situation in New Orleans will take more than just a change in the top leadership at HUD -- it will also require deeper policy changes. For one thing, if HUD and other government agencies are going to continue to rely on private contractors, then they must strengthen oversight of contracting decisions to prevent improprieties and abuses, since the problem is much larger than Jackson. To date, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has identified at least 25 federal contracts related to Hurricane Katrina -- and 187 federal contracts in total, many relating to Iraq -- that involve significant waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement. And the problem is not limited to the federal government or one political party: Former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is currently under investigation for secretly increasing payments to Road Home contractor ICF International shortly before she left office, while New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has come under fire because his family business landed a contract installing countertops for a new Home Depot at the same time it was negotiating tax breaks with the city.

Even more fundamentally, though, a solution to the housing crisis in New Orleans and elsewhere across the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast will demand a new approach at all levels of government that treats affordable housing as what it really is: a basic human right that must not be denied, come hell or high water.

(HUD photo of Secretary Alphonso Jackson and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin)

NOLA public housing advocates bid good riddance to HUD chief, urge policy change

2008-04-01T12:56:00.000-05:00

The following statement is from the Advancement Project, a civil rights group that filed a lawsuit against U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson on behalf of New Orleans public housing residents shut out of their homes after Hurricane Katrina. Under investigation for alleged corruption and cronyism in contracting decisions, Jackson announced yesterday that he is resigning April 18. The Advancement Project points out that while the Katrina disaster caused the worst affordable housing crisis in recent history, HUD responded by demolishing thousands of habitable public units accessible to the poor and championing a redevelopment plan that replaces only 20 percent of them:

Alphonso Jackson will be most remembered for having turned his back on the people of New Orleans. We are glad to see him go, but the damage has been done. The people suffering, without a place to call home, are the people of New Orleans; the thousands of families who lived in public housing before Katrina and the working poor, many of whom remain displaced outside the city they used to call home.

While it is HUD's mission to provide affordable housing across the country, the exact opposite took place in the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans. It therefore comes as no surprise that Jackson is under criminal investigation for his post-Katrina dealings. HUD agents, city officials, and developers appeared to have colluded in the largest Black removal in U.S. history. HUD's intent in New Orleans was never to bring back the majority-black and working poor residents of New Orleans. In the storm’s aftermath, when Jackson said that "New Orleans was not going to be as black as it had been for a long time, if ever again," we realized that we had to fight for people's right to return home.

In addition to the lawsuit filed by the Advancement Project, residents organized themselves and met with members of Congress, including Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who took the lead to pass the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007 in the House. The legislation, opposed by HUD and now stuck in the Senate, would provide for one-for-one replacement of demolished units.

Secretary Jackson's resignation and tarnished tenure as the nation's housing chief should be a call to action for HUD to reverse decisions made in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. With the change in leadership, HUD now has the opportunity to fulfill its mission and provide affordable housing for families who are still in desperate need.

(Photo by Craig Morse courtesy of survivorsvillage.com.)

Architect of Katrina housing disaster resigns amid criminal probe

2008-03-31T14:30:00.002-05:00

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced today that he is stepping down to "attend more diligently to personal and family matters." The last day in office for the nation's scandal-plagued HUD secretary will be April 18.

The announcement comes just over a week after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Senate Appropriations Committee member Patty Murray of Washington requested Jackson's resignation, saying the various controversies engulfing the secretary were complicating efforts to address the national mortgage crisis and related recession.

A Texas native and longtime friend of President Bush, Jackson is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the HUD Inspector General, a federal grand jury and prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section for alleged conflicts of interest involving the controversial redevelopment of public housing in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands. In New Orleans, HUD awarded a $127 million deal to Columbia Residential, an Atlanta firm for which Jackson worked and that still owes him at least $250,000. The probe focuses on whether Jackson lied to Congress when he testified that he was not directly involved in contracting decisions.

Federal agents are also investigating whether Jackson arranged work for friends. One of them, contractor William Hairston of South Carolina, landed a profitable deal with the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which is under HUD control. The National Journal has reported that investigators are also examining financial ties between Jackson's wife and companies that did business with HANO. In addition, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has filed a lawsuit claiming Jackson took retaliatory action after the agency scrapped a deal involving his friend, former music producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble. A 2007 probe by HUD's Inspector General found that Jackson urged his staff to favor the president's friends when awarding contracts.

But corruption and cronyism were not the only problems at HUD during Jackson's tenure: His agency also oversaw a problematic housing recovery effort on the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that has left many disaster-displaced renters and low-income homeowners struggling to exercise their human right of return and resulted in a doubling of homelessness in New Orleans.

HUD's policies helped fulfill the prophecy Jackson made shortly after Katrina that New Orleans was "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." Since the storm, New Orleans' black population has fallen by 57 percent, compared to 36 percent for its white population. As a result, a city that was 67 percent black before the disaster is now estimated to be only 58 percent black.

(HUD photo of Secretary Jackson and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in Gulfport, Miss. announcing a plan to help low-income homeowners affected by Hurricane Katrina)

FEMA added to lawsuit over formaldehyde-contaminated trailers

2008-03-27T13:29:00.000-05:00

A group of people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency for housing them in trailers contaminated with dangerous levels of formaldehyde. Filed in federal court last week, the complaint adds FEMA to a batch of consolidated cases against manufacturers for allegedly using shoddy materials and construction methods.

After independent tests conducted by the Sierra Club in early 2006 revealed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, FEMA was slow to respond. In fact, more than a year after the environmental group released its results, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison told a House committee he was unaware the trailers posed a health threat. The agency was also accused of suppressing health warnings due to liability concerns and meddling into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's study assessing the trailers' risks, though it insists it's done nothing wrong.

In the end, though, the CDC study confirmed serious problems with the trailers' air quality and sparked a mass relocation of trailer dwellers, with all FEMA-managed group trailer sites to be closed by June 1.

Nagin continues to stonewall press on questionable business deal

2008-03-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at the Times-Picayune newspaper for reporting on a deal landed by his family's company to install countertops for a Central City Home Depot at the same time the store was negotiating tax breaks and other assistance from the city. He complained that the paper's stories were part of a larger pattern of coverage that was unfair to him:

"It's unfortunate that we have to continue to get to this point where minor things are being blown out of proportion," he said. "My sons have followed every rule. I told them going into the business that they couldn't do any city contracts or anything close to a city contract, and the store in question is not one of the stores they're doing business with. So, you know, it's just typical, unfortunately, of what I have to go through."

But Nagin still refused to disclose any details on his involvement in the firm, saying only that he serves as a financier and owns "less than a majority" of the company. When asked for the precise percentage, he said he's "not getting into that." Louisiana ethics laws prohibit city officials from being paid by entities that have or are seeking business or financial relationships with the city. That prohibition would be triggered if Nagin owns 25 percent or more of the firm.

Deal between Home Depot, Nagin family business sparks ethics questions

2008-03-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Nearly a year ago, Mayor Ray Nagin headed up a team of city leaders to celebrate the breaking of ground on a new Home Depot store at the corner of Calliope Street and South Claiborne Avenue.

The ceremony marked a coup of sorts for New Orleans: The retailer, America's second-largest, was the first to commit to building a big new store in the inner city after Hurricane Katrina.

With tens of thousands of renovations occurring all over town, the opening of a Central City Home Depot promised to help New Orleans capture millions of dollars in sales taxes from Jefferson Parish. Additionally, the store was to be located in an area considered an economic wasteland.

In negotiating with Home Depot, the city relied on a tool similar to those often used to woo big-box stores: The retailer was approved for a long-term property tax reduction. In addition, the city agreed to sell the streets under the site for a price well below the appraised value.

But few at the ceremony knew that a month before, Stone Age LLC, a granite and marble business founded in early 2005 by the mayor and his two sons, had landed a deal with Home Depot under which Stone Age would be cutting and installing all granite countertops purchased at four of the giant retailer's other local outposts.

The arrangement would violate Louisiana ethics laws if Nagin's stake in the company is 25 percent or more, but it's not clear how involved he is. Official paperwork lists him as a vice president and one of three members, along with his two sons -- but Nagin declined to answer reporters' questions about his role, according to the paper.

The Times-Picayune also revealed that the mayor's 2007 daily planner shows a meeting with "Home Depot" on Feb. 1 at the offices of Stone Age, which landed the deal two months later. Last month Nagin lashed out at WWL-TV for a report about his work habits based on an analysis of his daily planner; he charged that making his personal schedule public put him and his family at risk.

More than toxic trailers: Investigation examines broader problems at federal health agency

2008-03-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

Those of us following the disaster on the Gulf Coast know the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave hurricane-displaced families temporary housing that was later found to be contaminated with hazardous formaldehyde. We also know the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dragged its feet before finally studying the trailer contamination and complied with FEMA's demands not to consider long-term impacts like cancer.

Well, it turns out the toxic trailer debacle is part of a bigger story about the ATSDR's failure to protect public health.

The Washington Independent just published a two-part investigation examining what it calls the agency's "questionable approaches" to communities with environmental health concerns. The first installment posted last week examined evidence of cover-ups in ATSDR's health studies of the Great Lakes region (initially uncovered by the Center for Public Integrity) and an eastern Pennsylvania community with unusually high rates of a rare blood cancer. (I've also been covering the Pennsylvania study on my Hometown Hazards blog.)

This week's installment looks at the agency's actions in two Southern communities -- Midlothian, Tx., and Athens, Ga. In Midlothian, the ATSDR considered health effects of air pollution from several industrial facilities at the request of local residents concerned about the rate of birth defects. The agency came up with "indeterminate" findings, but critics of the study -- among them a former CDC epidemiologist -- say the agency used faulty monitoring data from the state and failed to consider key pollutants.

The Athens case involves a health study requested by resident Jill McElheney, who was living across the street from a petroleum tank farm when her 4-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia; subsequent lab tests found their well was contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to the cancer. The ATSDR also came up with inconclusive findings in that study -- but failed to consider a facility less than 200 yards from the sick child's home, ignored air emissions, and declined to talk with the families of five other local children with leukemia who McElheney knew.

The series' conclusion?

The ATSDR's approach to public health studies of environmental sources has proven negligent in all the cases investigated by The Washington Independent. Some members of the local communities say the agency expends energy to make sure no health problem is found.

"Like pigs in a cage": Katrina guest workers fight 21st century slavery in Mississippi

2008-03-14T16:40:00.003-05:00

More than 100 guest workers carrying signs that said "I Am a Man" and "Dignity" walked off the job at a Mississippi shipyard last week to protest conditions they liken to slavery.

The shipyard workers, who are from India, have filed a class-action lawsuit [PDF] against Pascagoula, Miss.-based Signal International, one of the largest marine and fabrication companies in the Gulf of Mexico. The suit also targets recruiters in the U.S., India and United Arab Emirates, as well as New Orleans immigration attorney Malvern Burnett and the Gulf Coast Immigration Law Center.

Filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, where many of the defendants are based, the suit says that in the wake of Hurricane Katrina more than 500 Indian men were trafficked into the United States through the federal H2B guest worker program to work for Signal at shipyards in Pascagoula and Orange, Texas. Lured by promises of permanent work and a chance at legal immigration, the men gave up their jobs in India and went into debt to finance fees as high as $20,000 each. They then allegedly had their passports and visas held by recruiters who told them that changing their minds about working for Signal could bring legal action and even physical harm.

Once in the United States, the men were forced to live in guarded, overcrowded and isolated labor camps, the suit charges. After several of the plaintiffs spoke out against conditions in the Pascagoula camp, Signal security guards allegedly tried to forcibly deport them. One of the workers -- Sabulal Vijayan -- became so distraught by the threat of deportation that he attempted suicide and had to be hospitalized. The guards locked three of the other men in a room for several hours, refusing to provide them with water or bathroom access. The abuse left Signal's immigrant workers terrorized, the suit says:

Deeply fearful, isolated, disoriented, and unfamiliar with their rights under United States law, these workers felt compelled to continue working for Signal.

Filed by the Louisiana Justice Institute, Southern Poverty Law Center and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the suit charges the defendants with violating the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, among other laws. Five of the plaintiffs are also bringing individual claims of false imprisonment, assault, battery, and infliction of emotional distress. The workers are also asking the Department of Justice to investigate. Signal says the charges are untrue and that most of its guest workers are satisfied with their living conditions.

During last Thursday's walkout, the workers threw their hardhats over the fence in protest as they left the shipyard and sang "We Shall Overcome." Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, who served as an interpreter, said the workers talked of living "like pigs in a cage."

"The U.S. State Department calls it 'a repulsive crime' when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation," Soni says. "This is precisely what is happening on the Gulf Coast."

(Photo by Ted Quant courtesy of neworleans.indymedia.org. To see more images from the protest, click on the previous link or the photo above.)

Survey to assess health impacts of Katrina and Rita

2008-03-13T16:54:00.001-05:00

People whose health was directly affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- whether as evacuees, displaced persons, rescue and recovery workers, or volunteers -- are invited to participate in a groundbreaking national survey that will assess the storms' impact on mental and physical well-being. The survey's sponsors, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and Partners Publishing, explain their aims:

The primary purpose of the survey is to identify the current health status of individuals whose physical and psychological health remains negatively impacted from exposures to flood waters, hurricane sediment, water-damaged buildings, mold, formaldehyde and/or mold in FEMA-provided trailers, mobile homes, or park models, and/or other contaminants incurred during and/or after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and/or from other contaminant-laden post-hurricane housing. The secondary purpose of the survey is to identify the total number of people who have become physically and/or psychologically ill since hurricanes Katrina and Rita to assist in identifying health trends, patterns of illnesses, and geographic clusters of increased levels of illnesses.

The The 2008 Nationwide Katrina and Rita Health Survey will be available online during an eight-week period that began yesterday and ends May 7. Results will be compiled by town, parish and state. Information on preliminary data will be released midway through the survey period, with a full report set for its conclusion. A Spanish version of the survey will be available by March 24, organizers say.

Blanco gave controversial Road Home contractor a secret raise

2008-03-13T12:03:00.001-05:00

While former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is making the most of her time out of office delivering speeches and writing a book, there's more trouble brewing for her back in the capital. From today's New Orleans Times-Picayune:

In the final weeks of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, state officials quietly increased the size of the Road Home management contract from $756 million to $912 million, rewarding a contractor the Legislature wanted to fire, auditors questioned and thousands of homeowner applicants cursed.

The Blanco administration never told the public about the 25 percent compensation increase for ICF International that was added to the three-year Road Home contract Dec. 7. The Times-Picayune discovered the change this week during a review of the program's latest budget estimates, in which the Louisiana Recovery Authority shows it's setting aside enough to pay the full $156 million increase.

The story goes on to note that Blanco's administration approved the raise without notifying the legislature, which is supposed to review large recovery contracts. State officials presented a Road Home budget update to a legislative budget committee a week after the decision but did not mention the raise.

New Louisiana Recovery Authority Director Paul Rainwater, who was appointed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and given greater control over Road Home, said a raise was needed but questioned the amount and the process. He said he has contacted the legislative auditor to investigate and promised to make the findings public.

Earlier this week, ICF International released its fourth-quarter earnings, reporting revenues of $186.4 million -- "substantially above the $113.9 million reported for last year's fourth quarter." The Road Home contract accounted for the bulk of that revenue, totaling $108.8 million in the 2007 fourth quarter compared to $60.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. In the earnings release, company officials said the Road Home raise was needed to cover increased program management costs resulting from the receipt of about 50 percent more applications than originally estimated.

The ICF's dealings in Louisiana have raised ethical questions before. The company first got involved in the post-hurricane rebuilding effort when its Emergency Management Services subsidiary won a $900,000 contract to help the state decided how to spend federal grant money, helping develop what would eventually become the Road Home program. At the same time it was carrying out that work, ICF decided to seek the lucrative administration contract.

While it was pursing that deal, the formerly private company filed paperwork for an initial public offering of stock. It went ahead with that offering in October 2006 -- shortly after winning the contract from Louisiana. That same year, ICF paid its executives bonuses about five times higher than the previous year.

Clearly, the Road Home has been very good for ICF. But with more than 50,000 grant applicants still waiting for payments more than two and a half years after the storm, there are some Louisianans who don't think ICF has been very good for the Road Home -- and who rightly question whether it deserves such generous backroom rewards.

Blanco speaks on Katrina's lessons at UNC

2008-03-07T16:25:00.000-05:00

Former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is on the lecture circuit these days talking about lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. She gave her first speech as a former governor outside her home state last month at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and last night she delivered the annual Charleston Area Alumni Lecture in Southern Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Blanco, a Democrat, chose not to run for re-election and left office in January. She was succeeded by Republican Bobby Jindal, who she had defeated four years earlier. She described leaving as a "blessed ending" and said she "can't stop smiling from ear to ear" to have her life back.

Noting that any community can be turned upside down in an instant, she emphasized that emergency planning must not be an afterthought. Blanco offered four key things Katrina taught her:

1. "You cannot coordinate if you cannot communicate," she said.

Blanco recounted the complete collapse of Louisiana's communications infrastructure in the wake of the storm, as winds knocked over cell phone towers and floodwaters inundated BellSouth's facilities. She told of National Guard officers being forced to deliver important messages by bicycle.

"Communities should invest in communications systems that can withstand hell or high water," she said.

2. "Be prepared to be on your own for the first 72 hours after a disaster," she advised.

Blanco pointed to the federal government's well-documented failure to respond to the Katrina disaster in a timely way, with the Bush administration not dispatching the Army to Louisiana until five days after the storm. She thanked North Carolina for promptly sending National Guard troops -- and for taking in some 6,000 displaced persons.

3. "You cannot meet unlimited needs with limited resources," she observed, urging the formation of compacts between states to help each other in the event of a major disaster.

Blanco pointed to other instances where greater coordination and planning was needed. For example, nursing homes that arranged for buses to rescue residents sometimes ended up contracting for the same buses. Commercial airlines concerned about the cost of flying into New Orleans with empty planes canceled flights, which meant that tourists had to be evacuated under duress. And the Army Corps of Engineers based its plan for distributing commodities on the assumption that people would be able to drive to pick them up -- even though many of those who stayed behind didn't have cars or lost them in the flood.

4. "When systems go down, paranoia sets in, and the media cycle spins out of control," she warned.

Blanco noted that news outlets reported horrific stories of violence in the storm's aftermath that were later found to be exaggerated or wholly inaccurate. She pointed to the problems that can arise when hordes of reporters descend on a disaster area, calling it "unconscionable" to give reporters space on rescue boats or helicopters when people still need to be saved.

The former governor had strong criticism for the Bush administration, which she blasted not only for failing to promptly help the storm's victims but also for trying to shift the blame for its failed response to state officials. That in turn threatened to create other problems, as Blanco's staff got sidetracked trying to correct the record.

"I ordered my staff to quit trying to defend me against the game of gotcha," she said.

In closing, Blanco had effusive praise for the response of the American people, and for the numerous organizations and individuals that have come to the Gulf Coast and turned New Orleans into a laboratory for public service.

"Ten years from now, Louisiana will surpass our dreams," she predicted. "Its robust economy will be a source of pride for the South."

Following the hour-long talk, Blanco answered questions for about half an hour, addressing the rebuilding of the levees, the misinformation spread about the actions she took in advance of the storm, her controversial shoot-to-kill order (which she said came only to quell the fear of violence that was paralyzing rescue efforts), and the urgent need to reform the federal Stafford Act governing disaster response.

In the final question of the night, she was asked whether she has any plans to re-enter politics.

"I'm planning to write my book to tell my story," she said to enthusiastic applause.

Welcome to New Orlanta

2008-03-06T14:33:00.002-05:00

With the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, it's becoming clear that many New Orleans residents displaced by the disaster won't be coming home any time soon. As Bill Quigley recently reported, half of the city's displaced working poor, elderly and disabled residents still have not returned, and demolition of the city's public housing stock continues despite the protests of international human rights officials.

Given that harsh reality, some of Katrina's displaced are stepping up organizing efforts in the communities where they live now. In Atlanta, for example, they recently created Network New Orlanta, a social networking community with a mission to connect the people of New Orleans who are now living in Georgia's biggest city:

The goal of the social network is to pool and identify financial resources, job placement and business opportunities, mental healthcare access and educational advancement programs that will assist in stabilizing families [affected] by Hurricane Katrina. Network New Orlanta further plans to serve as a watchdog organization that will advocate, lobby and demand accountability of elected officials and agencies fundraising on behalf of Hurricane Katrina families. Organizers are all natives and supporters of New Orleans who are dedicated to the rebuilding progress and process and the quality of life for those who remain displaced.

The first Network NewOrlanta mixer will take place on March 15 at Blaxx Entertainment Complex, 1245 Fowler St., from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and will feature traditional New Orleans food and cocktails. Says ChiQ Simms, a publicist who's one of the event's organizers:

"It is important that we gather more frequently to effect change for ourselves. It is vital that we posture ourselves to be a part of the solution. Our message is about prioritizing New Orleans people, not the politics."

For more information about Network New Orlanta and the upcoming mixer, contact Sandy at sugathesoutherndiva [at] gmail.com. To make a financial or in-kind donation, call the group's offices at 404-816-6000 or e-mail divadend [at] bellsouth.net.

Mississippi lawmakers hold hearing on post-Katrina housing crisis

2008-03-05T16:48:00.000-05:00

March 15 is the deadline for Mississippi residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina to apply for assistance for a home rebuilding and replacement program. But at a legislative hearing today in Jackson, some testified that the program denies aid to homeowners who need help the most.

Held by the state Senate Housing Committee, the hearing included testimony from advocacy groups including the NAACP, Oxfam American and the Mississippi Interfaith Disaster Task Force. The Associated Press reports:

John Joplin of the Mississippi Center for Justice Katrina Recovery Office said estimates show 18,000 storm-damaged homes aren't eligible for any of the federally funded programs being administered by the Mississippi Development Authority.

"It is very apparent the goal of affordable housing remains a distant mirage," Joplin said.

The program's first phase provided up to $150,000 each to homeowners who lived outside the federal flood plain. The second phase offers up to $100,000 for low-income homeowners who had storm surge damage, regardless of whether they were insured or whether the property was in a flood zone.

But homeowners who had wind damage don't qualify for either phase -- one of the concerns raised at the hearing. The advocacy groups asked the state to develop an assistance program to help homeowners with wind damage. However, Gov. Haley Barbour's administration is reluctant to do that since Congress didn't provide funds for wind damage, and since such damage extended far beyond the state's hardest-hit coastal communities.

Half New Orleans poor permanently displaced: Failure or success?

2008-03-03T14:49:00.001-05:00

By Bill Quigley
Guest Contributor

Government reports confirm that half of the working poor, elderly and disabled who lived in New Orleans before Katrina have not returned. Because of critical shortages in low cost housing, few now expect tens of thousands of poor and working people to ever be able to return home.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) reports Medicaid, medical assistance for aged, blind, disabled and low-wage working families, is down 46% from pre-Katrina levels. DHH reports before Katrina there were 134,249 people in New Orleans on Medicaid. February 2008 reports show participation down to 72,211 (a loss of 62,038 since Katrina). Medicaid is down dramatically in every category: by 50% for the aged, 53% for blind, 48% for the disabled and 52% for children.

The Social Security Administration documents that fewer than half the elderly are back. New Orleans was home to 37,805 retired workers who received Social Security before Katrina, now there are 18,940 – a 50% reduction. Before Katrina, there were 12,870 disabled workers receiving Social Security Disability in New Orleans, now there are 5350 – 59% less. Before there were 9425 widowers in New Orleans receiving Social Security survivor’s benefits, now there are less than half, 4140.

Children of working class families have not returned. Public school enrollment in New Orleans was 66,372 before Katrina. Latest figures are 32,149 – a 52% reduction.

Public transit numbers are down 75% since Katrina. Prior to Katrina there were frequently over 3 million rides per month. In January 2008, there were 732,000 rides. The Regional Transit Authority says the reduction reflects that New Orleans has far fewer poorer, transit dependent residents.

Figures from the Louisiana Department of Social Services show the number of families receiving food stamps in New Orleans has dropped from 46,551 in June of 2005 to 22,768 in January 2008. Welfare numbers are also down. The Louisiana Families Independence Temporary Assistance Program was down from 5764 recipients (mostly children) in July 2005 to 1412 in the latest report.

While there are no precise figures on the racial breakdown of the poor and working people still displaced, indications strongly suggest they are overwhelmingly African American. The black population of New Orleans has plummeted by 57 percent, while white population fell 36 percent, according to census data. The areas which are fully recovering are more affluent and predominately white. New Orleans, which was 67 percent black before Katrina, is estimated to be no higher than 58 percent black now.

The reduction in poor and low-wage workers in New Orleans is no surprise to social workers. Don Everard, director of social service agency Hope House, says New Orleans is a much tougher town for poor people than before Katrina.

“Housing costs a lot more and there is much less of it,” says Everard. “The job market is also very unstable. The rise in wages after Katrina has mostly fallen backwards and people are not getting enough hours of work on a regular basis.”

The displacement of tens of thousands of people is now expected to be permanent because there is both a current shortage of affordable housing and no plan to create affordable rental housing for tens of thousands of the displaced.

In the most blatant sign of government action to reduce the numbers of poor people in New Orleans, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is demolishing thousands of intact public housing apartments. HUD is spending nearly a billion dollars with questionable developers to end up with much less affordable housing. Right after Katrina, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson predicted New Orleans was “not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.” He then worked to make that prediction true.

According to Policy Link, a national research institute, the crisis in affordable housing means barely 2 in 5 renters in Louisiana can return to affordable homes. In New Orleans, all the funds currently approved by HUD and other government agencies (not spent, only approved) for housing for low-income renters will only rebuild one-third of the pre-Katrina affordable rental housing stock.

Hope House sees four to five hundred needy people a month. “Most of the people we see are working people facing eviction, utility cutoffs, or they are already homeless” reports Everard. The New Orleans homeless population has already doubled from pre-Katrina numbers to approximately 12,000 people.

Everard noted that because of FEMA’s recent announcement that it was closing 35,000 still occupied trailers across the gulf, homelessness is likely to get a lot worse.

United Nations officials recently called for an immediate halt to the demolitions of public housing in New Orleans saying demolition is a violation of human rights and will force predominately black residents into homelessness.

"The spiraling costs of private housing and rental units, and in particular the demolition of public housing, puts these communities in further distress, increasing poverty and homelessness," said a joint statement by UN experts in housing and minority issues. "We therefore call on the Federal Government and State and local authorities to immediately halt the demolitions of public housing in New Orleans." Similar calls have been made by Senators Clinton and Obama. Despite these calls, the demolitions continue.

The rebuilding has gone as many planned. Right after Katrina, one wealthy businessman told the Wall Street Journal, "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically." Elected officials, from national officials like President Bush and HUD Secretary Jackson to local city council members, who are presumably sleeping in their own beds, apparently concur.

Policies put in place so far do not appear overly concerned about the tens of thousands of working poor, the elderly and the disabled who are not able to come home.

The political implications of a dramatic reduction in poor and working mostly African American people in New Orleans are straightforward. The reduction directly helps Republicans who have fought for years to reduce the impact of the overwhelmingly Democratic New Orleans on state-wide politics in Louisiana.

In the jargon of political experts, Louisiana, before Katrina, was a “pink state.” The state went for Clinton twice and then for Bush twice, with U.S. Senators from each party. The forced relocation of hundreds of thousands, mostly lower income and African-American, could alter the balance between the two major parties in Louisiana and the opportunities for black elected officials in New Orleans.

Given the political and governmental officials and policies in place now, one of the major casualties of Katrina will be the permanent displacement of tens of thousands of African Americans, the working poor, their children, the elderly, and the disabled.

Those who wanted a different New Orleans rebuilt probably see the concentrated displacement as a success. However, if the test of a society is how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members, the aftermath of Katrina earns all of us a failing grade.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com Interested persons can contact Hope House through Don Everard at deverard@bellsouth.net

New Orleans to push homeless into barrack

2008-02-27T17:46:00.001-05:00

At the same time public housing complexes in New Orleans are being torn down and redeveloped into mixed-income communities with less space for the poorest families, Mayor Ray Nagin has announced his intent to push the homeless people who've been living under Interstate 10 near the French Quarter into a tarp-covered barrack.

The 120-foot-long, 30-foot-wide structure stands on the grounds of the New Orleans Mission in the city's Central Business District. The barrack was built by nearly two dozen volunteers from churches around the country and funded largely by First Baptist New Orleans and the Louisiana Baptist Convention. New Orleans' homeless population is estimated to have doubled since Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

The homeless relocation program is not voluntarily, according to a report from the Associated Press:

The city's public advocacy unit, unarmed officers with the New Orleans Police Department Homeless Assistance Collaborative, city housing department workers, and mission staff will usher people into the barrack as early as Thursday, [Nagin spokesperson Ceeon] Quiett said. Those who do not go elsewhere will face citations, and arrests could take place if drugs are found, city officials said.

KatrinaRitaVille Express is coming to tonight's presidential debates!

2008-02-21T17:50:00.001-05:00

Several Gulf Coast organizations have purchased two FEMA trailers that are now touring the country to raise awareness about the ongoing nature of the crisis in the region and the government's failure so far to rebuild in a manner that meets the needs of poor and minority residents. The trailers will be making a stop at tonight's CNN Democratic Presidential Debate from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. At 7 p.m., the debate will be shown live on the side of one of the 32-foot trailers. For more details about the KatrinaRitaVille Express, visit the tour's Web site here.

Citing formaldehyde risks, FEMA begins "aggressive" relocation of Katrina trailer dwellers

2008-02-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

But no financial assistance provided for those sickened by unsafe housing

Almost two years after first being notified about the problem by environmental advocates, federal health officials this week confirmed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde in travel trailers and mobile homes occupied by people displaced by Hurricane Katrina -- levels expected to rise with temperatures. Consequently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would take "aggressive action" to move people out of manufactured housing and into more permanent homes by summer, or at least into hotels and motels until more long-term solutions are found.

In a Feb. 14 press conference held in New Orleans with FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding discussed the preliminary findings of her agency's study of formaldehyde in housing for Katrina victims. The chemical, which is emitted by building materials, has been linked to breathing problems and cancer.

One-third of the 519 travel trailers and mobile homes the CDC tested had formaldehyde levels high enough to cause respiratory symptoms in children, the elderly and people with respiratory diseases such as asthma. Both housing types were found to have high levels -- on average, about five times the levels in most modern homes. About 5 percent of the units had levels so high that even people without vulnerabilities could experience breathing problems.

Though the majority of units tested had relatively low levels of the chemical that would not be expected to cause health problems over the short term, Gerberding acknowledged that "exposures do add up over time" and that even residents of units with low levels of formaldehyde were at risk of health problems over time.

FEMA and CDC staff are in the Gulf region to meet with study participants and advise them on the findings, and the agencies will hold community meetings to provide information to Katrina trailer dwellers who were not chosen to participate in the federal study. FEMA will offer caseworker assistance to help affected families find new housing alternatives, and the agency will provide financial assistance with food, furniture and boarding of pets for families in need.

The CDC is also creating a registry of people who lived in manufactured housing after Katrina in order to study their health over time and gain a better understanding of formaldehyde's impacts. However, neither CDC nor FEMA have any programs in place to help trailer and mobile home residents with medical expenses incurred as a result of living in unsafe housing.

At the peak of the Katrina-related displacement, about 144,000 families were living in trailers, with an average of about three residents per trailer, according to Paulison. About 38,000 families are still living in those units, and about 30,000 of those are parked next to private residences that are being renovated or rebuilt. FEMA reports that about 800 to 1,000 displaced families are moving out of manufactured housing each week.

Because the Katrina disaster wiped out a significant portion of the region's affordable rental housing stock, FEMA has faced difficulties in getting displaced renters into permanent housing. To address this problem, Paulison announced plans to create a joint federal-state relocation task force to help improve placement efforts. He could not provide any figures on how much the relocation effort would cost.

When asked about how the agency would deal with families that chose not to leave their travel trailer or mobile homes, Paulison said that would be an issue for the joint housing task force to address.

"That's going to a tough decision for us," he said. "Some people aren't going to want to move."

In response to concerns about mobile homes originally designated for Katrina victims being used to house families left homeless by the recent tornadoes in Arkansas and Tennessee, Paulison said his agency would allow the use only of those units that had been aired out for at least a week and that had been tested and found to have low formaldehyde levels. Furthermore, he said FEMA would not use use travel trailers to house disaster victims in the future. But he didn't offer any plans to provide additional testing on units as the weather warms up and formaldehyde off-gassing increases.

CDC is now doing further work to identify those manufacturers whose units tested especially high. Gerberding said that analysis would be available in a few weeks. But she cautioned against using the results for Katrina units to make judgments about manufactured housing more generally.

"We learned something about mobile homes and need to step back and see what relevance this has," she said, adding that manufacturers have taken steps over the years to lessen formaldehyde off-gassing.

Neither Paulison nor Gerberding mentioned the Sierra Club, which first discovered high formaldehyde levels in the manufactured housing FEMA provided to Katrina victims. Findings released by the environmental advocacy group in the spring of 2006 found that 88 percent of trailers tested had formaldehyde levels above the federal recommended limit.

But it wasn't until heated congressional hearings held last July that FEMA leaders agreed to work with the CDC to conduct their own study of trailer air quality. As a result, some advocates have suggested that the agencies intentionally delayed the tests until cooler weather arrived, bringing down formaldehyde levels.

There are a steps that people still living in FEMA trailer and mobile homes can take to minimize formaldehyde levels, according to Gerberding. These include ventilating the units, spending more time outside, and not smoking tobacco inside, which worsens formaldehyde pollution and also makes people more susceptible to respiratory problems. Trailer and mobile home dwellers experiencing respiratory symptoms should contact their doctor. Residents can call toll-free 800-CDC-INFO for more on health effects and 866-562-2381 for FEMA relocation assistance.

Gerberding hopes that by next Valentine's Day she will be in the Gulf to celebrate the placement of all Katrina-displaced families in permanent housing -- because, as she said, "home is really where the heart is."

Human rights advocates blast U.S. record on race, Katrina

2008-02-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

Later this month, representatives of the Bush administration will travel to Geneva, Switzerland to defend the the United States' human rights record before a United Nations committee. Meanwhile, human rights advocates charge that the administration is not only failing to comply with a treaty to eliminate racial discrimination but is trying to whitewash the reality of racial inequality in America -- particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

On Feb. 21 and 22, officials with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice will appear before the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is examining compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. When the United States signed the ICERD treaty in 1994, it agreed -- though with some reservations -- to eliminate "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."

Under the treaty, the United States is obligated to prepare a report every two years documenting its compliance and steps it's taking to remedy racism. However, the United States has submitted only two such reports, the first [PDF] in 2000. The second report [PDF], released last April, met with widespread criticism among human rights advocacy groups -- including many associated with the Atlanta-based U.S. Human Rights Network, which produced its own so-called "shadow report" documenting problems the Bush administration's report fails to acknowledge or discuss in depth. Said USHRN Executive Director Ajamu Baraka:

"Our analysis reveals that the Bush Administration is utterly out of touch with the reality of racial discrimination in America. From failing to address the chronic persistence of structural racism to even acknowledging the disparate racial impact on people of color of Hurricane Katrina, the State Department reports reads like a fantasy; unfortunately a fantasy that is to often experienced as a nightmare for Americans of color."

According to USHRN, the U.S. government's report:

* does not mention the race- and poverty-related impacts of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath;
* ignores the issue of policy brutality, which it calls "one of the most blatant and common forms of ongoing differential treatment based on race";
* does not discuss the "school to prison pipeline," in which discriminatorily applied "zero tolerance" policies and criminal justice-based responses to overcrowding and under-resourcing of public schools drive children of color out of the educational system and into the prison system;
* provides information about compliance with the Convention at the state level only for Oregon, South Carolina, Illinois and New Mexico while overlooking states with some of the country's largest populations of people of color and immigrants as well as the Gulf Coast States impacted by Katrina;
* suggests that racial disparities in incarceration rates may be "related to differential involvement in crime" rather than the cumulative impacts of racial disparities in the treatment of minorities at every stage of the criminal justice process;
* fails to acknowledge widespread racially and ethnically targeted law enforcement practices since 9/11 such as the special registration program and aggressive round-ups and interviews of thousands of non-citizen Muslims, Arabs and South Asians; and
* ignores the profound and ongoing effects of colonialism and racial discrimination on indigenous people in the United States.

Activists and experts affiliated with the Network will be attending the Geneva hearings to monitor the U.S. presentation and hold press briefings.

Last month the Institute for Southern Studies released its own report documenting U.S. non-compliance with international human rights standards in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, focusing specifically on the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.