— Bernstein, Mark A., Julie Kim, Paul Sorensen, Mark Hanson, Adrian Overton, and Scott Hiromoto. "Rebuilding Housing along the Mississippi Coast: Ideas for Ensuring an Adequate Supply of Affordable Housing." Santa Monica, CA: RAND Gulf States Policy Institute, 2006. This report identifies policy and implementation options that address the challenge of providing affordable housing after a natural disaster. The report provides criteria for defining affordable housing and shows how this definition varies by geographic region. It also discusses the critical challenges faced in providing affordable housing and the strategies available to deal with those challenges. It reviews how affordable housing issues have been addressed in the wake of other natural disasters in the United States and discusses lessons learned and best practices based on previous natural disaster experiences. — Fischer, Will, and Barbara Sard. "Bringing Katrina's Poorest Victims Home: Targeted Federal Assistance Will Be Needed to Give Neediest Evacuees Option to Return to Their Hometowns." Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, November 3, 2005. (PDF file) This article discusses how bringing Katrina's neediest victims home will require extensive federal housing-related assistance targeted specifically to household needs. It explains that rebuilding should be carried out in a matter that ensures that the region's poorest residents have the same opportunities as more affluent families. The relocation should allow poor families to live in mixed-income neighborhoods that offer the employment and educational opportunities they will need to rebuild their lives and create adequate opportunities for their children. |
<< Housing & Neighborhood Development |
— Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Current Housing Unit Damage Estimates: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. New Orleans, LA: The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, February 2006. (PDF file) The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding at the Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has compiled data to assess the full extent of housing damage due to hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Detailed tables on the extent of damage, type of damage, tenure, insurance status, and housing type are provided for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas combined and individually. Detailed tables are also provided for select parishes in Louisiana (Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, and Vermilion), counties in Mississippi (Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson), and each of Orleans Parish's 14 planning districts. Summary damage estimates are provided for the 136 counties across the five states that had 10 or more housing units with damage. — Housing Assistance Council. "Picking up the Pieces: Restoring Rural Housing and Communities after Hurricane Katrina." Washington, DC: Housing Assistance Council, 2005. (PDF file) This guide explains federal and state temporary and long-term resources for rebuilding housing after Hurricane Katrina, and how to find local assistance. — Katz, Bruce, and Mark Muro. To Shelter Katrina's Victims, Learn from the Northridge Quake Zone. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, September 2005. This report reviews the last major disaster-the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California-in which tens of thousands of families needed temporary housing. In that disaster, HUD responded promptly and issued emergency Section 8 vouchers to approximately 20,000 families. The authors draw lessons from this study that might serve as models for Katrina victims. — Nigg, Joanne, John Barnshaw, and Manuel Torres. "Hurricane Katrina and the Flooding of New Orleans: Emergent Issues in Sheltering and Temporary Housing." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 604 (March 2006): 113-28. This article reviews the disaster literature on shelter and temporary housing and contrasts how these needs developed in both the pre-impact and post-impact evacuation situations. The article also investigates the ways that intergovernmental planning failed to anticipate the need for shelter and housing solutions or to implement effective measures to put those plans into operation. — Popkin, Susan, Margery Austin Turner, and Martha Burt. "Rebuilding Affordable Housing in New Orleans: The Challenge of Creating Inclusive Communities." In After Katrina: Rebuilding Opportunity and Equity into the New New Orleans, edited by Margery Austin Turner and Sheila R. Zedlewski (17-26). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, April 2006. The challenge of rebuilding New Orleans and providing housing for its residents is immense, with tens of thousands of families displaced, their former homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The situation is especially difficult for families who lived in the poor, mostly African American neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the flood damage. The challenge going forward is even greater if New Orleans is to avoid old patterns of concentrating assisted housing and poor families in a few isolated communities. This essay draws on evidence from innovative housing programs and development initiatives to outline a strategy that would allow New Orleans to recreate itself as an economically diverse, inclusive city that offers its low-income residents authentic opportunities. With careful planning by and for all, New Orleans can bring back its families and offer them homes in vibrant mixed-income communities. — Singer, Audrey, and Katharine Donato. "In Katrina's Wake, Who Will Return?" Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, September 2005. This article reviews the consequences of the evacuation and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The authors call for "cities and other localities to think beyond temporarily hosting evacuees and prepare for the long-term reality of new residents in their communities." |
