NEW ORLEANS IN NUMBERS: A Pre- and Post- Hurricane Katrina Snapshot

Health Care:

4,486 doctors and 1,270 medical residents were displaced from New Orleans’ metropolitan area. The doctor population in the region, as of February 2006, was as low as 1,200. (1)

There were 22 hospitals in and around New Orleans with 4,400 beds available. As of April 13 2006, 15 hospitals were open with 2,000 beds available. (2)

In 1999, LA’s uninsured population ranked 5^th in the country and 22% of New Orleans’ residents were uninsured. Charity Hospital was a crucial part of New Orleans’ health care system because it delivered services to the uninsured population. In 1997, due to allegations of mismanagement and growing competition from HMOs and for-profit health care organizations, state legislation placed Charity under the control of LSU’s medical system and renamed it the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. These alterations were made in an effort to change the serviced population of Charity Hospital and make it more economically sustainable. (3) The basement of Charity Hospital flooded during Hurricane Katrina. According to officials, Charity Hospital has remained closed due to damages from the flood. (4)

Public Schools:

There were 117 schools in the Orleans Parish with roughly 60,000 students prior to Hurricane Katrina. As of April 26, 2006, only 25 schools in New Orleans have reopened, currently serving 12,000 students. (5)

The Orleans Parish School Board oversaw public education in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. Legislation passed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina allowed the State of Louisiana to take control of under-achieving schools, and over 100 schools in New Orleans were placed under state control. The state plans to turn many of these schools into specialized charter schools. Of the schools that remain in the Orleans Parish School Board’s control, 15 have been turned into charter schools. (6)

Number and Location of People Displaced by Katrina:

The New Orleans’ metropolitan population prior to Hurricane Katrina was 484,674. (7)

New Orleans had 325,947 black residents prior to Hurricane Katrina, who comprised 67.25% of the city’s population. (8) New Orleans had 135,956 white residents prior to Hurricane Katrina, who comprised 28.05% of the city’s population. (9)

The Rapid Population Estimate Project conducted by the Emergency Operations Center of New Orleans and the Center for Disease Control determined the post-Katrina population in New Orleans to be 181,400 as of Jan. 28, 2006. The report included age and gender demographics; however, black/white/ethnic population demographics were excluded from the report. (10)

The government has not made available coherent statistics or a central database of those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. Postal Service statistics recorded 160,000 relocated households from Orleans Parish after the storm. Of those, 17,000 households were relocated to other domiciles within Orleans Parish, and 21,000 households were relocated to the greater metropolitan area. Over 2/3 of relocations were to outside of the state. The most common sites of relocation were Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. (11)

As another indicator of migration patterns, FEMA received 388,630 applications for assistance from residents of Orleans Parish after the storm. Of these, 154,103 applications were from within LA, 108,471 applications were from TX, and

126,056 of applications were from other states. (12)

Absentee ballot applications were received from TX, LA, GA, TN, CA, AK, VA, MS, FL, AL, VA, and other states. (13)

Public Housing Units:

The Housing Authority of New Orleans or HANO, (which controls public housing in New Orleans and is in federal receivership to the Department of Housing and Urban Development) serviced 14,000 families --49,000 residents-- prior to Hurricane Katrina. (14) HANO managed 7,379 rental housing units including 10 large housing projects and 700 scattered sites. 5,146 of HANO housing units were occupied prior to Hurricane Katrina. (15) 9,400 Housing Choice Vouchers or Section 8s, rental subsidies, were allocated by HANO prior to Katrina. (16)

HANO is now serving 876 families at the Guste, Fischer, and St. Thomas (now known as River Garden) public housing sites, which were areas of HOPE VI redevelopment programs, and some scattered sites. (17)

HANO has allocated 2,900 emergency housing vouchers to families, with 1,297 currently being used. (18)

Prior to Katrina, HANO campaigned to implement the Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) VI program, a federal grant program that targeted low-income housing projects for demolition and replacement with mixed-income housing, at its public housing sites. The HOPE VI program was implemented at the Desire and St. Thomas (renamed River Garden) public housing communities and development had begun at the Fischer, Florida, and Guste public housing sites. Class action lawsuits and numerous complaints to HUD were filed by residents of the Desire and St. Thomas housing project for illegal eviction and displacement that resulted from the HOPE VI program prior to Hurricane Katrina. (19) Hurricane Katrina has accelerated HANO’s campaign to transform housing projects into mixed-income housing communities and stalled HOPE VI development activity at the Desire and St. Thomas sites are now moving forward. (20) In June 2006, HUD announced the destruction of over 5,000 HANO housing units through the demolition of 4 housing projects including the St. Bernard complex. (21)

Lower Ninth Ward Demographics Pre-Katrina:

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the Lower 9^th Ward had a population of 14,008 or 4,820 households. The Lower 9^th Ward was 98.3% black, 0.5% white, and 0.5% Hispanic. (22)

Prior to Hurricane Katrina there were 1,963 elderly living in households. 26.8% of elderly lived alone. 71.2% of elderly lived with family. (23)

Remarkably, no government data on post-Katrina 9^th Ward exists. The city’s Rapid Population Estimate Project provided population estimates for the city’s 13 planning districts, but excluded the 9^th Ward. (24)

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the 9^th ward in New Orleans had one of the highest rates of black homeowners in the country. The Lower 9^th Ward had 5,601 total housing units prior to Hurricane Katrina with 4,820 occupied housing units. 59% of housing units in the Lower 9^th Ward were owner- occupied. 1,262 owner-occupied housing units had a mortgage. 41% of housing units in the Lower 9^th Ward were rented. (25) Property ownership in the 9^th ward is changing dramatically post-Katrina; however, data on the subject is not yet available.

Footnotes:

(1) “The Doctor is Out” by Keith Darce. Times-Picayune. Feb 8 2006.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/113938404216310.xml

(2) “After the Storm: Health Care Infrastructure in Post Katrina New Orleans” by Ruth E. Berggren and Tyler Curiel. New England Journal of Medicine. April 13 2006. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/15/1549

(3) “How a legendary New Orleans hospital is struggling to finally change it’s ways” by Deborah Gesensway. American College of Physicians. April 1999. http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/apr99/orleans.htm

(4) “Forced to Change” by Keith Darce. Times-Picayune. Jan. 9 2006.

(5) Testimony of Scott S. Cowen. U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. April 26, 2006. http://www2.tulane.edu/president_testimony1_2006.cfm

(6) “New Orleans Schools Charter a New Course” by Joel Rubin. Los Angeles Times. June 4, 2006.

(7) U.S. Census 2000. http://neworleans.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm

(8) ibid.

(9) ibid.

(10) Rapid Population Estimate Project Survey Report. Emergency Operations Center City of New Orleans. Jan. 28-29, 2006. http://www.gnocdc.org/reports/NOLAPopEstimate.pdf

(11) “Population Displacement and Post-Katrina Politics” by John Logan. American Communities Project. Brown University. http://www.s4.brown.edu/katrina/report2.pdf

(12) ibid.

(13) ibid.

(14) http://www.hano.org/FAQ.pdf

(15) ibid.

(16) ibid.

(17) ibid.

(18) ibid.

(19) “Katrina’s Early Landfall” by Kristen L. Buras. Z Magazine. December 2005. http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Images/buras1205.html

(20) http://www.hano.org/FAQ.pdf

(21) “Four N.O. housing developments will be demolished” by Gwen Filosa. Times-Picayune. June 15, 2006.

(22) Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/8/22/people.html

(23) ibid.

(24) Rapid Population Estimate Project Survey Report. Emergency Operations Center City of New Orleans. Jan. 28-29, 2006. http://www.gnocdc.org/reports/NOLAPopEstimate.pdf

(25) http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/8/22/housing.html

Information compiled by the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans and the Information Collective. For more information contact commongroundlower9@gmail.com or info@infocollective.org.