Okla-homey
3/15/2006, 08:48 PM
whatever.
March 15, 2006,
New Orleans study cites obstacles to repopulation
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The population of New Orleans in 2008 will be close to half its count before Hurricane Katrina, with hundreds of thousands of former residents continuing to live in Houston and other new locations, according to a detailed study released Wednesday.
In neighborhoods hit hardest by the flooding — most were home to poor and African-American residents — less than a third of the Crescent City's housing will be habitable in three years, according to the RAND Corp.'s Gulf States Policy Institute.
"What we looked at were the things that will shape people's ability to return to the city," said Narayan Sastry, co-author of the report.
Factors like the slow rate of recovery by schools and other service institutions will keep people out of areas that were devastated, the report said.
The study projects a population of 272,000 in September 2008, three years after Katrina hit. That would be 56 percent of the 485,000 people who lived in New Orleans the day before the storm. The present population is about 190,000.
The report was requested by a commission established by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin to examine the city's recovery plans.
The authors have yet to reach conclusions about the racial and economic makeup of the city. Shortly after the hurricane, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told the Houston Chronicle that the city might never return to its predominantly African-American composition.
The report said the poor and minorities would face special challenges in trying to return.
"Many poor residents was tenants who, on average, paid extremely low rents. These people may no longer be able to afford high rents that is going to be demanded for reconstructed dwellings in New Orleans," Jackson said.
March 15, 2006,
New Orleans study cites obstacles to repopulation
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The population of New Orleans in 2008 will be close to half its count before Hurricane Katrina, with hundreds of thousands of former residents continuing to live in Houston and other new locations, according to a detailed study released Wednesday.
In neighborhoods hit hardest by the flooding — most were home to poor and African-American residents — less than a third of the Crescent City's housing will be habitable in three years, according to the RAND Corp.'s Gulf States Policy Institute.
"What we looked at were the things that will shape people's ability to return to the city," said Narayan Sastry, co-author of the report.
Factors like the slow rate of recovery by schools and other service institutions will keep people out of areas that were devastated, the report said.
The study projects a population of 272,000 in September 2008, three years after Katrina hit. That would be 56 percent of the 485,000 people who lived in New Orleans the day before the storm. The present population is about 190,000.
The report was requested by a commission established by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin to examine the city's recovery plans.
The authors have yet to reach conclusions about the racial and economic makeup of the city. Shortly after the hurricane, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson told the Houston Chronicle that the city might never return to its predominantly African-American composition.
The report said the poor and minorities would face special challenges in trying to return.
"Many poor residents was tenants who, on average, paid extremely low rents. These people may no longer be able to afford high rents that is going to be demanded for reconstructed dwellings in New Orleans," Jackson said.