One Year Later: The Search for Shelter

[The following is part of our ongoing coverage of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2006 -- eds.]

One of the biggest reasons that over 200,000 people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are still scattered to 50 states -- and can't get back home if they wanted to -- is because they have no home to come back to.

Housing is a lynchpin issue that decides who can come back, and who can't. For 12 months now, residents of New Orleans and coastal Mississippi have been waiting -- and there's been little political leadership to get them in a house. For renters, almost none of the rebuilding money has gone to rebuilding rental units; in New Orleans, rents are skyrocketing, units that used to go for $300 can now bring in $1,500.

Homeowners have yet to receive one dime from Louisiana's "Road Home" plan or Mississippi's equivalent program. Public housing tenants are faring the worst -- although the 38,000 public housing units in New Orleans weren't badly effected by the storm, HUD officials spent $1.5 million to barricade them so the poor couldn't come back.

The numbers don't lie. Here's a preview from the Institute's upcoming report, "One Year after Katrina." As this statistical snapshot shows, unless there's new leadership and priorities to make sure people can find homes, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will continue to struggle to make it back:

ONE YEAR AFTER INDEX: HOUSING

Percent of Louisiana mortgages past due as of July 2006: 20

Percent of Mississippi mortgages past due: 13

National average for percent of past-due mortgages: 4

Average rent for a one-bedroom New Orleans apartment before Katrina: $578

Average rent for a one-bedroom New Orleans apartment as of July 2006: $803

Occupancy rate of livable apartments in New Orleans: 99 percent

Number of mobile homes ordered for the Gulf Coast: 7,737

Number of smaller travel trailers : 105,927

Number of storm-affected households holding Federal Emergency Management Agency hotel vouchers: 39

Number of storm-affected households approved for housing assistance: 946,597

Minimum percent of New Orleans public housing that is still closed: 80

Number of homes the Army Corps of Engineers has demolished in Louisiana since Katrina: 1,105

Minimum number of New Orleans public housing units scheduled for demolition: 5,000

Months after Katrina that federal money for housing reconstruction was approved: 10

Total federal funds dispersed so far to rebuild homes: $0