New hope for the Gulf Coast?

More than three years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Gulf Coast recovery faces serious challenges.

Skyrocketing rents -- 46 percent higher in New Orleans than before the disaster -- have made it difficult for many residents to find affordable housing. That in turn has left many businesses unable to find needed workers. And some of the city's neighborhoods, especially those that are home to people of color and of modest income, still remain vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.

But advocates for an equitable and inclusive recovery see hope in the election of a president who has long championed the region's needs.

"It means a chance for a do-over," says James Perry, executive director of Americans for Gulf Coast Recovery, a citizens' lobby created in 2006. "Katrina fatigue had become the norm, but this new administration has said Gulf Coast reconstruction is a priority. We're already getting calls from people close to the administration asking about what they need to go back and correct."

Perry, an attorney who also directs the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, makes the case that Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats owe their recent electoral successes in part to the region's suffering.

"Before the disaster, it was difficult to criticize the Iraq War," Perry says. "But when the storms happened, people started to question the administration. How can they handle a war if they can't save New Orleans? This created an opening, and it's part of why the Obama campaign had great respect for the region."

But Obama's interest in the region's recovery didn't start only after he entered the presidential race. Days after Katrina, the Senator from Illinois visited evacuees in Houston along with former Presidents Clinton and Bush -- the first of Obama's four official post-disaster trips to the region. Afterward, he blasted the "unconscionable ineptitude" of the official storm response:

... [W]hoever was in charge of planning and preparing for the worst case scenario appeared to assume that every American has the capacity to load up their family in an SUV, fill it up with $100 worth of gasoline, stick some bottled water in the trunk, and use a credit card to check in to a hotel on safe ground. I see no evidence of active malice, but I see a continuation of passive indifference on the part of our government towards the least of these.

Obama went on to introduce a number of Katrina-related proposals: to create a national emergency family locator system, launch an emergency volunteer corps, better oversee recovery spending, speed tax refunds for Katrina victims, require evacuation plans to account for the most vulnerable, extend the Child Tax Credit to low-income parents in disaster-affected counties, and end no-bid reconstruction contracts.

Action on Housing Is Key

Obama continued to highlight the region's needs during his campaign, releasing a plan to rebuild the Gulf Coast [pdf] that included proposals to strengthen New Orleans' levee and pumping systems, boost crime control and ensure federal reconstruction money reaches local communities. He also called for fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency by requiring the director to have professional emergency management experience, serve a fixed six-year term to insulate him or her from politics, and report directly to the President.

From Perry's perspective, though, the single most pressing issue facing the region is housing -- particularly rental housing. Though homeowners still face difficulties accessing needed repair funds, the housing situation is even more dire for renters, who made up 57 percent of New Orleans' pre-Katrina population.

To date, tens of thousands of small landlords in Louisiana have applied for government assistance but only a few hundred have received help, Perry reports. There's also a shortage of affordable rental housing in Mississippi and Alabama, making it difficult for displaced residents to come home.

"There's an obligation to make sure every person has the right to return, regardless of income," Perry says.

Obama's Gulf Coast recovery plan mentioned only a general need to increase the supply of rental property. But Perry has some specific suggestions on how the new administration and Congress could accomplish that, such as offering additional federal assistance for small landlords across the Gulf. He would also like to see an increase in available tax credits from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency requiring developers to lease a number of apartments at reduced prices to families earning significantly less than the area's median gross income.

Jobs for locals are another priority. While there are laws requiring federal contractors to hire locals, they are not always followed, Perry reports. One upcoming project where he thinks enforcing those laws will be especially critical is the planned work to close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a '60s-era shipping channel that worsens flooding from storms in New Orleans.

"That work entails digging dirt and moving rocks, so you don't need a lot of training," he says. "There's no reason for companies not to hire locals."

Perry would also like to see any new economic stimulus plan provide for the repair and development of U.S. infrastructure, including bridges and levees. An approach like that would help the Gulf Coast by providing much-needed jobs and also by shoring up the region's storm-battered infrastructure.

In an effort to ensure the region's needs are not forgotten by the nation's new leaders, Americans for Gulf Coast Recovery has launched a petition drive. They hope to get 100,000 of their fellow citizens to send an e-mail to President-elect Obama reminding him of his campaign promise [pdf] to "to partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild, stronger than ever."

The petition also calls on the federal government to give families a voice in the recovery process, ensure access to education, invest in small businesses, streamline the federal bureaucracy, repair wetlands and create long-term disaster recovery plans for every U.S. region.

"The key is to get our new leaders' attention and to remind them of the need," Perry says. "We have to start anew here."

(Photo of damaged home in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward by Sue Sturgis)