An unequal recovery

Over the past week, there have been some excellent news stories about the grim situation faced by thousands of people across the Gulf Coast post-Katrina. There have also been some "feel-good" stories -- stories that aren't necessarily wrong, but which fail to capture the strong odds facing those trying to get back on their feet in the region.

This was the message we tried to send in our recent report Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf). It's also a message that comes through loud and clear in a new report from PolicyLink, "Hope Needs Your Help" (pdf), which among other things looks at the "unequal recovery" that's taking place in New Orleans:

Recovery for some ...

Today, there are visible signs of recovery in New Orleans. The city's population has returned to nearly two-thirds of its size before the hurricane, and revenues from tax sales are almost 85 percent of their pre-Katrina levels.

• Personal savings, insurance companies, and The Road Home program will help many homeowners rebuild. More than 60,000 residential building permits have been issued, and 57,521 homeowners have applied to The Road Home program. One-quarter of the city's 51,700 destroyed rental housing units are slated to be rebuilt.

• Many people have returned to their old jobs or have found new ones that support their families comfortably. The size of the New Orleans labor force has reached 78 percent of pre-hurricane levels.

• Children enrolled in private and parochial schools and those in magnet, charter, or traditional public schools are being educated once again. Twenty-five new public charter schools have opened in New Orleans, and an additional 11 are expected to open this fall. Almost 60 percent of the private schools in New Orleans have reopened.
... but not for all.

Unfortunately, the differences between post-Katrina progress for New Orleanians with many resources and those with few are stark.

• Little has been done to assist low-income renters and owners of small rental housing units. Only 8 percent of Road Home resources will be used to bring back rental housing in New Orleans. Of the 57,521 Road Home applications in Orleans Parish, only one-third are from low- to moderate-income households.

• Employment remains elusive for low-income people with few skills and fewer connections to the new employers. African-American evacuees were almost five times as likely to be unemployed compared to white evacuees in 2006.

• Many low-income families dependent on public schools are still waiting for an adequate supply of safe, high-quality schools where all children can learn to open across the city. Only 40 percent of the students have returned to New Orleans public schools, with 76 percent of the students in free-/reduced-lunch programs. Since Katrina, test scores have plummeted. From 2005 to 2006, the number of fourth and eighth graders passing the LEAP exam dropped 12 and 21 percent respectively. But early results in 2007 suggest these scores are improving.