Housing, Race, and Recovery from Hurricane Katrina

The destruction of private and public housing in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina was greatest among African Americans due to historic settlement patterns. Data for 13 planning districts within Orleans Parish (the city of New Orleans proper) that document the extent of housing destruction, the distribution of population by race, and the share of returned population at 2 and 5 year points across these planning districts are evaluated using correlation analysis. The finding is that the return of African Americans to New Orleans is significantly less than that of other groups and is associated with the greater housing destruction in neighborhoods with the highest percentages of African Americans. An analysis of the structure and impact of the Road Home program for private housing and of the initiatives of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans provides evidence of racial discriminatory policies and practices that contributed to the racial disparity in the African American return to New Orleans. It is suggested that political leaders paid more attention to the interests of developers and big businesses in the restoration of New Orleans than to the interests of the predominantly black working class in the city.