September-October 2005

The Next Move

Can NPA organize around Hurricane Katrina?
by Inez Killingsworth, NPA national co-chair

The images of death, destruction and suffering that came with Hurricane Katrina and the federal government’s failures were haunting and highlighted the struggle of Black and low income people in this country to survive.

But beyond the immediate need for help and heartfelt charity is a need to examine the potential impact that Hurricane Katrina may have on neighborhoods across the country. There is also a need to consider whether Hurricane Katrina’s impact offers an opportunity to connect grassroots organizations in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with National People’s Action and whether local organizing outside the region can connect with Katrina’s aftermath.

For example, there are already predictions that heating costs will rise this winter as a result of the hit refineries took for the hurricane. By some estimates, heating costs could be 50-70 percent higher than last year. What does this mean for low- and moderate-income people? Will this be a problem that comes up soon and will groups need to organize around it?

There are also questions about where money to rebuild the Gulf Coast will come from. It looks like the federal government will rob Peter to pay Paul by taking money out of already under- funded programs that should help poor people. And as the Department of Housing and Urban Development opens up dwindling public housing units to Katrina evacuees, what does that mean for those already pushed out of public housing? Can this be used as a point of agitation, a chance to build alliances or gain media coverage about the plight of already suffering public housing residents? Barbara Majors, a longtime grassroots organizer and co-chair of the Bring New Orleans Back advisory commission, called it pitting poor people against poor people.

Some analysts have said the Community Development Block Grant should be increased in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. They have argued that CDBG money should be used significantly to fund affordable housing.

As people scramble to keep and maintain homes and as public housing residents search in vain for shelter, the federal government has spent almost $1.3 billion buying over 95,000 trailers in two months, according to the Knight Ridder news service. By the time the trailers are hooked up to services, the price for each trailer could double, the Oct. 31 article noted. Housing experts said it would have been cheaper to give vouchers to evacuees for use in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and nearby states. 

On the education front, many students from New Orleans have been placed in private and Catholic schools in the communities where their families have resettled. Is this an opportunity to raise questions about why public schools weren’t fit places for these children? Why were our schools in such bad shape to begin with? What about the children and parents whose needs are not being met in public schools? Why aren’t their needs being met and who is reaping the benefit? Just as no-bid contracts to rebuild New Orleans were handed out to Bush cronies shortly after Hurricane Katrina, other Bush cronies, like State Farm CEO Ed Rust, have been pushing for corporate profits in the name of education reform. Are there ways to highlight these connections through alliances that make sense and through the media?

On the jobs front, some organizations want to challenge the well-connected corporations that received contracts to rebuild New Orleans. They want displaced New Orleans residents, and others affected by the disaster, to be given jobs and contracts first. But, some groups said, pushing the corporations doesn’t mean everybody has to come to New Orleans. Direct action can be taken at the headquarters and offices of these corporations outside New Orleans and local FEMA offices. Could this be another way to highlight the problems of the lack of quality jobs that makes life harder for many workers? Michael Brown, the guy who botched FEMA’s response, has been given a two month extension on his $148,000-a-year job, according to the Associated Press. He should have been fired! We have to keep in mind that New Orleans neighborhoods were in trouble long before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Many of that city’s problems in employment, housing, health and education aren’t different from problems neighborhoods around the country face. We need to consider connections that make sense. We know many neighborhoods are in trouble and it didn’t take a hurricane for us to see the light.