Katrina Response Divides the Gulf Coast

Lacey McLaughlin

A participant holds a candle during a vigil in Henry Beck Park in East Biloxi last Saturday.

by Lacey McLaughlin
September 2, 2009

Also see: Recovery for the Rich?, Sept. 9, 2007[/url]

A small group of community advocates, neighbors, children, homeless men and women huddled together at Henry Beck Park in East Biloxi last Saturday, attempting to shield their candles from the wind during a commemorative ceremony recounting what they have lost and gained in the four years since Hurricane Katrina.

“Don’t worry if the wind blows out your candle,” ceremony coordinator Johnis Ross said. “Instead, let it be a symbol to remind us that we don’t have to dwell on the past.”

Songs and prayers offered the soundtrack as flames flickered and the group remembered residents who died when Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, virtually flattened the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005. The vigil was the culmination of a three-day remembrance hosted by the human-rights advocacy group, The Steps Coalition. The weekend centered on several recent economic-development milestones such as the ground-breaking for a new library and civic center and a ribbon-cutting at the Marsha Barbour Resource Center in Pass Christian, named after the first lady.

The Beau Rivage, Imperial Palace and the Isle of Capri casinos light up the sky along the city’s coast, and beach condos abound. Further east, however, granite slabs and vacant buildings remain, drawing a sharp contrast.

The Steps Coalition formed in 2006 to promote equality during recovery efforts on the coast. Three years later, the coalition’s members—community advocates and non-profit directors—are still working tirelessly and speaking out against the economic gap they claim has widened since the storm.

Steps Coalition member Sharon Hanshaw, executive director for Coastal Women for Change, owned a salon before the storm. After losing her home and business, she came back to the Coast unable to find housing. She was forced to live in a FEMA trailer for two years. She formed Coastal Women for Change to give women and minorities a voice.

“After the storm there was no voice as far as housing, jobs, mental health, and wellness for children and women,” Hanshaw told the Jackson Free Press. “We had developers coming in and grabbing land and identifying that land for casinos and condos. This was our community and there wasn’t anything affordable to come back to. It was a way to keep us out.”

Other members of the coalition include Mary Townsend, an immigration specialist at El Pueblo, a non-profit providing social justice for the Latino community. Even as demand for construction jobs grew after the storm, sub-contractors denied many immigrants their wages. The Mississippi Immigration Rights Association reports more than $1 million in unpaid wages since the storm.

Scott Williams, an advocate for the homeless community, said Saturday that a recent one-day survey found 638 homeless men and women in Biloxi; yet there are no shelters in the city. “We have no facilities at this point four years later to house people that have absolutely no place to go,” Williams said.

The Steps Coalition issued the report “Hurricane Katrina: Has Mississippi Fallen Further Behind?” last week.

The report states that between 2006 and 2008 Mississippi re-allocated almost $800 million in Community Block Development Grant housing funds toward economic redevelopment. The state reduced its housing allocation from 62 percent to 52 percent. Gov. Haley Barbour claimed existing programs would fully address the housing crisis.

As of March 2009, only 20 percent of the $2.7 billion spent went to income-targeted housing programs, but 50 percent went to homeowner compensation that heavily benefited wealthier insured residents.

The Steps Coalition report estimates that 2,000 pre-Katrina homeowners are now renters, with 2,322 households unable to afford rent and 1,750 people waiting for the completion of public housing facilities. In May, Mississippi officials publicly acknowledged the need of residents still outside the system and requested that Congress award 5,000 section 8 housing vouchers, where the government pays the difference between 30 percent of the tenant’s income and the fair-market rent of the unit. The tenant obtains the voucher for a fixed amount of money to offset rental payments.

Released in July, a report titled “The Status of Post-Katrina Housing: Louisiana and Mississippi” by the John C. Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, criticizes the voucher program, claiming that the money available for the vouchers does not meet the demands for tenants who need the subsidies.

The report reveals that applications for vouchers are taken sporadically and include long wait times. Once an applicant receives a voucher, the recipient has 60 days to find housing that meets the program requirements. Fair housing advocates say that there still aren’t enough rentals units available along the coast, especially ones at fair market value.

“You can’t put a 5,000-voucher Band-aid on the Gulf Coast and call it good enough,” Mississippi Center for Justice attorney Reilly Morse told the audience. “We are saying no, that’s not good enough. (The state) needs to match (its) commitment. That means you have to put back some of the money you took away.”

People Over Ports

Community advocates like Charmel Gaulden, executive director of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, are calling for more funding for low-income housing instead of focusing the bulk of resources on big projects like the Gulfport port expansion.

Supporters of the port claim the funds for the $1.6 billion port expansion will create new jobs and stimulate the economy.

Last year the Mississippi NAACP, the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, and several residents filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, challenging a $600 million diverson of federal funds from housing programs to finance expansion of the port. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress appropriated $5.481 billion in emergency funds to Mississippi. The appropriation of the funds was designated for housing, which HUD was designated to oversee.

The complaint states that HUD failed to review the state’s port expansion plan to determine whether the proposal complied with the Fair Housing Act and moderate-income benefit requirements. The plaintiffs seek an order from the court prohibiting HUD from releasing or approving the $600 million in CDBG funds to the port expansion.

“Why this becomes important is that we are in the middle of housing crisis, and we have a port that didn’t tap out all of its resources,” Gaulden told the Jackson Free Press.

She claims that HUD denied having the authority to oversee diversion of the funds. Currently, the plaintiffs are waiting on the court to rule on a motion to dismiss the case, which could be tied up in litigation for years.

The Future of Recovery

With a new federal administration, the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center is hopeful that the non-profit and government agency can engage in conversations about providing more assistance to low-income people.

The port expansion shows no signs of stopping. Groundwork began in June and $20 million was spent in the initial phase.

Lee Youngblood, communication director of the Mississippi Development Authority’s Disaster Recovery Division said the project will prevent the extent of damage caused by Katrina from happening again.

“Katrina’s storm surge was 22 feet in that area,” he said. “When we raise the port to 25 feet that will put containers and cargo above the surge. When Katrina hit cargo was dislodged, and containers the size of tractor tailors were deposited all over Gulfport and did a lot of damage. It is incumbent for us to take steps to keep that from ever happening again.”

Youngblood also defended accusations that Barbour’s diversion of the funds hurts affordable-housing programs.

“Reilly Morse and others have somehow inferred that Congress just appropriated that money for housing and I am not sure where that comes from,” Youngblood said. “The funds are not exclusive to housing, but for infrastructure as well. It would be very foolish if we didn’t restore the port, and most objective people can see that.” Youngblood, however, admits that the lack of affordable housing on the coast is a problem. “We need to support programs that enable existing stock to become more affordable,” he said.

At Henry Beck Park in East Biloxi, the ceremony ends, and the group heads back to New Bethel Church for refreshments.

“Sometimes it feels like we as a coalition have to grow a little bit more. We have the same crew of folks, and now we have to become bigger and more aggressive,” Gaulden says. “That’s where our next phase is.

Also see: Recovery for the Rich?, Sept. 9, 2007[/url]

posted by justjess on 09/02/09 at 10:28 AM

posted by Walt on 09/03/09 at 05:33 PM

posted by ladd on 09/21/09 at 12:53 PM

posted by justjess on 09/22/09 at 09:19 AM