What should government's priorities be in helping Hurricane Katrina victims at this stage? UI experts offer their perspectives. (This feature appeared in UI's 2006 annual report.)

Federal government—and taxpayers—should maintain some responsibility for rebuilding and providing services to the devastated areas. Even before Katrina, Louisiana and Mississippi had a more limited tax base and more daunting expenditure needs than most other states. Residents of both states earn on average less than the national average, and a high share live in poverty. Demand for additional social services—such as health care, welfare, and unemployment insurance—will be high in the coming months as people return. Now the programs that the federal government shares with the states and localities must take these higher service costs and limited state and local tax bases into account as they try to sustain these communities in the months ahead. Understanding what federal revenues will be needed and the structure these funds should take will be critical. Revenue transfers for social services may better serve victims than some of the tax credits in place for businesses or individuals.

—Kim Rueben of the Tax Policy Center

Nonprofit organizations have been a mainstay in the relief and recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina, but they cannot rebuild Gulf Coast communities alone. True, nonprofits provided large numbers of volunteers to deliver needed services. But sustaining these services requires more than good hearts and helping hands. Public payment mechanisms, such as purchase orders and contracts available to for-profit firms, are needed to reimburse nonprofits for their costs. These resources will make it easier for nonprofits to carry out their work and rebuild trust and cohesion in devastated neighborhoods. Plus, mechanisms are needed to coordinate nonprofit and government services more quickly and effectively. Establishing ties with local and regional nonprofits before a disaster hits can speed service delivery and foster better coordination.

—Carol De Vita of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy

As the communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina rebuild, residents must be confident of getting the health care they need. Families moving back to Louisiana should have greater access to health care coverage and community-based providers than they did before the storm hit. State and federal officials will need to work together to ensure that this happens. Right now, Louisiana's very limited public coverage for adults leaves too great a share without any health insurance and forces many poor people to secure care only at hospitals. Louisiana should be given the flexibility to redirect funds toward community-based care. In exchange, the state could commit to expanding eligibility for public coverage to levels closer to national averages.

—Steve Zuckerman of the Health Policy Center

New Orleans desperately needs to rebuild affordable housing because, without it, many residents can't return home. But new housing policies should not repeat the mistakes of the past. Instead, affordable housing for both renters and homebuyers should be incorporated into communities that aren't poor. At the same time, distressed neighborhoods must be redeveloped to accommodate a mix of income levels. These income-mixing strategies need not—and should not—displace low-income residents or allow the communities they have built to die. Emerging national models create stable, inclusive neighborhoods and offer low-income families meaningful choices about where to live.

—Marge Turner of the Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities

When considering the needs of several hundred thousand people displaced by a catastrophic event, one is struck by that population's diversity and the resultant variation in needs. Age, health status, socioeconomic circumstances, and the effects of the storm and flood on people's homes, breadwinners' livelihoods, and networks of family and friends affect people's needs in multiple, interconnected ways. The elderly and infirm were particularly vulnerable. Patients transferred from hospitals or other institutions with custodial responsibility may have been fortunate to escape, but little is known about how their continuing needs for services have been met. Government's responsibilities to the victims of Katrina—and of future catastrophic events—surely include learning as much as possible about what happened to displaced people and which actions by government and private organizations made a difference.

—Brad Gray of the Health Policy Center