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Friday, August 31, 2007

Keeping our promise to the Gulf Coast

The week is drawing to a close, and with it coverage of the two-year anniversary of Katrina. The media coverage and political pronouncements have put the Gulf Coast crisis back on the national radar.

But after the politicians leave and the TV crews head home, thousands of families in Louisiana and Mississippi -- and those still displaced around the country -- will still be struggling to survive. And our nation will still have an obligation to rebuild the Gulf Coast (maybe smarter and better this time) and bring its people home.

The following is a piece that appeared this week in The Hill, the online magazine of Congress, about the importance of living up to our promises:
TWO YEARS AFTER KATRINA: KEEPING OUR PROMISES

Institute for Southern Studies
August 29, 2007

This week, a parade of politicians will visit the Gulf Coast, voicing concern for the region devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita two years ago. If they venture beyond the usual drive-by photo-ops, they’ll discover a region still reeling in crisis — and desperately looking to the nation for help.

As we document in our recent report, “Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, thousands of Gulf Coast” residents are still in limbo or sliding backwards. Over 60,000 people are still in “temporary” FEMA trailers because programs to help homeowners and renters haven’t come through. From New Orleans to Biloxi, Miss., one sees miles of shuttered schools, hospitals and businesses. Suicides and homelessness are skyrocketing. Since Katrina, the death rate has risen 47% in New Orleans alone.

When confronted with the failing Katrina recovery, President Bush insists the federal government has done its job. The proof, he says, is “the big check” Washington has allegedly signed for the Gulf Coast, allegedly more than $116 billion.
But looking at the devastation still around them, Gulf residents are left wondering whether the check bounced.

“$116 billion is not a useful number,” says Stanley Czerwinski of the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm. For starters, most federal money — about two-thirds — was quickly spent for emergency needs like debris removal and Coast Guard rescue.

That has left little money for long-term rebuilding projects: our best estimate based on agency data is that only $35 billion has been appropriated for such rebuilding, a fraction of the figure cited by the White House.

Even more shocking: more than half of the money set aside for rebuilding hasn’t even been spent, much less gotten to those most in need. For example:

* Washington set aside $16.7 billion for Community Development Block Grants, one of the two biggest sources of rebuilding funds. But as of March 2007, only $1 billion — just 6 percent — had been spent, almost all of it in Mississippi. Following bad publicity, another $3.8 billion was spent between March and July — but 70 percent of the funds remain unused.

* The other major pot of money for rebuilding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program, received $8.2 billion. But only $3.4 billion was meant for non-emergency projects like fixing up schools and hospitals, and only a fraction has been spent.

* After the failure of federal levees flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $8.4 billion to restore storm defenses. But as of July 2007, less than 20 percent of the funds have been spent, even as the Corps admits that levee repair won’t be completed until as late as 2011.

Even the money allocated will likely come nowhere near the cost of rebuilding the Gulf Coast. For example, the $3.4 billion FEMA has available to rebuild local public infrastructure would only cover about one-eighth of the damage suffered in Louisiana alone. But this money is spread across five states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas — and covers damage from three 2005 hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

This spring, Congress and the President belatedly removed some barriers to Gulf spending, like waiving a rule that local governments have to match 25% of project costs before getting federal aid (Bush waived the rule entirely for New York after 9/11, but not for the cash-strapped Gulf Coast until this May).

But overall the White House is still pushing a policy of “trickle-down” recovery, like the $3.5 billion in tax breaks for business in Gulf Opportunity or “GO” Zones. Many of the breaks have been of questionable benefit to Katrina survivors, such as the $1 million deal to build 10 luxury condos next to the University of Alabama football stadium—four hours from the Gulf Coast.

Standing in New Orleans on September 15, 2005, President Bush promised that Washington would “do what it takes, and stay as long as it takes” to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Congressional leaders have echoed the sentiment.

But for the people of the Gulf Coast, the last two years have been marked by broken promises and failed leadership, and Washington’s support has come too little, too late and hasn’t gotten to those most in need. Or as Tanya Harris, a community activist in New Orleans says when asked about the $116 billion, “Where did it go? Tell me. Where did it go?”

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:47 PM | Email this post

An unequal recovery

Over the past week, there have been some excellent news stories about the grim situation faced by thousands of people across the Gulf Coast post-Katrina. There have also been some "feel-good" stories -- stories that aren't necessarily wrong, but which fail to capture the strong odds facing those trying to get back on their feet in the region.

This was the message we tried to send in our recent report Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf). It's also a message that comes through loud and clear in a new report from PolicyLink, "Hope Needs Your Help" (pdf), which among other things looks at the "unequal recovery" that's taking place in New Orleans:
Recovery for some ...

Today, there are visible signs of recovery in New Orleans. The city’s population has returned to nearly two-thirds of its size before the hurricane, and revenues from tax sales are almost 85 percent of their pre-Katrina levels.

• Personal savings, insurance companies, and The Road Home program will help many homeowners rebuild. More than 60,000 residential building permits have been issued, and 57,521 homeowners have applied to The Road Home program. One-quarter of the city’s 51,700 destroyed rental housing units are slated to be rebuilt.

• Many people have returned to their old jobs or have found new ones that support their families comfortably. The size of the New Orleans labor force has reached 78 percent of pre-hurricane levels.

• Children enrolled in private and parochial schools and those in magnet, charter, or traditional public schools are being educated once again. Twenty-five new public charter schools have opened in New Orleans, and an additional 11 are expected to open this fall. Almost 60 percent of the private schools in New Orleans have reopened.
... but not for all.

Unfortunately, the differences between post-Katrina progress for New Orleanians with many resources and those with few are stark.

• Little has been done to assist low-income renters and owners of small rental housing units. Only 8 percent of Road Home resources will be used to bring back rental housing in New Orleans. Of the 57,521 Road Home applications in Orleans Parish, only one-third are from low- to moderate-income households.

• Employment remains elusive for low-income people with few skills and fewer connections to the new employers. African-American evacuees were almost five times as likely to be unemployed compared to white evacuees in 2006.

• Many low-income families dependent on public schools are still waiting for an adequate supply of safe, high-quality schools where all children can learn to open across the city. Only 40 percent of the students have returned to New Orleans public schools, with 76 percent of the students in free-/reduced-lunch programs. Since Katrina, test scores have plummeted. From 2005 to 2006, the number of fourth and eighth graders passing the LEAP exam dropped 12 and 21 percent respectively. But early results in 2007 suggest these scores are improving.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:31 PM | Email this post

The Katrina Index: Gulf health in critical condition

Two years after Katrina, the Gulf Coast isn't a very safe place to live. The following is our final installment of The Katrina Index from our, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.


Two Years after Katrina: Community Health

Number of patients seen on a typical day at D’Iberville Free Clinic, opened in Mississippi’s Harrison County after Katrina: 140

Number of free clinics created post-Katrina that are still operating in Harrison County, but that Mississippi’s medical licensing board is considering shutting down over concerns about competition with for-profit doctors: 4

Percent increase in New Orleans' death rate compared to the two years before Katrina: 47

Of the seven general hospitals New Orleans had before Katrina, number that are operating at pre-storm levels: 1

Portion of New Orleans' uninsured that would be helped by the Bush administration's plan to cancel rebuilding of Charity Hospital and instead use federal dollars to buy private insurance for the poor: less than half

Number of months that elapsed between EPA's December 2005 announcement that sediment from Katrina’s floodwaters wasn't expected to cause health problems and the agency’s clarification that that this applied only to “short-term” visits: 8

Number of Katrina-flooded homes that EPA tested for chemical contamination, as its Science Advisory Board suggested: 0

While EPA assured New Orleans residents that they were being protected from the risk of demolition-related asbestos inhalation, the number of air monitors the agency installed in the predominantly African-American Lower Ninth Ward, where demolition work has been concentrated: 0

Months that passed between Sierra Club's May 2006 report documenting dangerously high air levels of formaldehyde—a chemical linked to cancer and depression—in 83 percent of FEMA trailers tested and the agency’s decision to temporarily suspend deployment and sales of those trailers: 15

Factor by which suicide attempts among residents of Louisiana and Mississippi FEMA trailer parks has increased since Hurricane Katrina: 79

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:21 PM | Email this post

The Katrina Index: Is the Gulf Coast safe?

One of the most shocking realities on the two-year anniversary of Katrina is how little has been done to protect the region and its people from future storms. The following statistics from the Institute's report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.

Two Years After Katrina: Coastal Protection and Storm Defenses

Estimated number of years left to restore Louisiana’s wetlands before coastal communities are swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico: 10

Percent of the state’s population that lives in coastal parishes: 50

Distance the Gulf has moved inland since New Orleans' founding: 20 miles

Distance storm surge must travel over healthy wetlands to be diminished by a foot: 3.4 miles

Of the $21 billion water resources bill being considered by Congress and that President Bush threatened to veto over cost, amount devoted to Louisiana coastal wetlands restoration: $1.9 billion

Total estimated cost of a comprehensive program to restore the state’s coastal wetlands to a sustainable level: $14 billion

Square miles of protective wetlands destroyed in the New Orleans area by the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet since the Army Corps of Engineers completed it in 1965: about 100

Number of those acres set for restoration in the Corps’ official plan for closing MR-GO: 0

Level of storm protection the Army Corps of Engineers is still trying to provide for New Orleans: 100 years

Level of storm protection that safeguards the Netherlands' port city of Amsterdam: 10,000 years

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posted by Chris Kromm at 12:40 PM | Email this post

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Katrina Index: Making a living

From the Institute's report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.

Economy and Jobs

Number of jobs lost in the New Orleans area since Hurricane Katrina: 118,000

Percent of stores, malls and restaurants that remain closed in New Orleans: 25

Value of Gulf Opportunity Zone projects approved to date in Louisiana to stimulate business recovery: $4.5 billion

Number of GO Zone projects located in New Orleans: 1

Number of luxury condos a developer plans to build with GO Zone tax breaks near the University of Alabama, four hours from the coast: 10

Months after Katrina struck that the Small Business Administration finished processing loan applications submitted for the storms: 21

Percent of Katrina contracts that went to Louisiana small businesses as of April 2007, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to pledge an increase in contract awards: 12.5

Percent that went to Louisiana small businesses four months later: 7.4

Number of Katrina contracts that federal agencies claimed had gone to Louisiana small businesses, but were later revealed to have gone to big companies or ineligible recipients: 259

Value of wages the U.S. Labor Department has recovered from contractors that failed to pay their employees: $5.4 million

Rank of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” Casino and Resort among largest private development projects proposed on the Mississippi coast: 1

Rank of “can’t pay for move” among reasons those displaced by Katrina say they aren’t coming back to Louisiana: 1

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:37 PM | Email this post

How to create 100,000 good-paying jobs in the Gulf Coast

One of the biggest problems facing residents of the Gulf Coast post-Katrina is finding good jobs. Tackling this problem might not be as hard as Washington is saying. The following comes from the Institute's new report Blueprint for Gulf Renewal.

UPDATE: Scott Meyers-Lipton (see below) sends us this excellent YouTube short on an event they did in San Jose, CA, to promote a Gulf Coast Civic Works project.

Good jobs are hard to find on the Gulf Coast, and the lack of decent work is keeping many residents from getting back on their feet. But a growing chorus of Gulf leaders thinks Washington could swiftly tackle the problem, if they’d only look to a successful chapter in U.S. history.

During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration created four million public works jobs—in two months. The “WPA army” built or fixed up 2,500 hospitals, 6,000 schools, 13,000 playgrounds; they even planted three billion trees.

Today, Gulf activists are calling for a similar Gulf Coast Civic Works Project that would give residents good-paying jobs to revive their communities.

“The WPA rebuilt our country in the 1930s,” says Prof. Scott Myers-Lipton, a professor at San Jose State University in California and advocate of a modern-day Gulf WPA. “A similar program can rebuild the Gulf Coast today.” Myers-Lipton estimates it would take only $3.9 billion—half the monthly cost of the Iraq war—to put 100,000 people to work at jobs paying $15 an hour.

It would be the ultimate win-win: Gulf residents would get stable jobs, decent pay and training in needed skills. Businesses would benefit from new workers and new money pumped into the economy. It would also jump-start stalled infrastructure rebuilding projects needed to revive the Gulf.

In New Orleans, community and faith groups like ACORN, All Congregations Together and the Jeremiah Project are actively pushing for the Gulf Civic Works Program. Presidential candidates John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama have tentatively endorsed the plan.

But the program has gotten little traction in Washington, where lawmakers have opted to outsource the recovery to private contractors and a maze of fragmented agencies.

“Thousands of Katrina survivors have been waiting to return home and shape the future of their communities,” says James Rucker of ColorOfChange.org, a national e-advocacy group. “Finally, a plan exists to make this happen. But it won’t happen without public pressure.”

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posted by Chris Kromm at 2:24 PM | Email this post

More voices from the Gulf Coast

There are a number of sites featuring excellent unfiltered voices from the Gulf, for an "on-the-ground" perspective of the Gulf recovery. We mentioned two earlier here.

Another excellent resource is the Ms. Foundation, one of our collaborators on the Blueprint for Gulf Renewal report, which went to the Gulf Coast this month and trained grassroots women leaders in radio production. From their website:
As part of our capacity building efforts in the region, from August 6th-12th, 2007, the Ms. Foundation ran two intensive radio documentary training sessions for our grantees in Gulfport, MS and Baton Rouge, LA. Women and girls who were and continue to be impacted by Katrina came together to learn the ins and outs of radio production, guided in the process by radio documentary experts from the People's Production House. The resulting documentaries are now airing on Pacifica stations across the country.
You can listen to the full range of audio documentaries here. They are a moving and powerful set of testimonies to what is really happening in the region.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 2:15 PM | Email this post

"Blueprint" changing the Katrina debate

The Institute's new report on the Katrina two-year anniversary -- Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action (pdf) -- is making a big media splash and helping change the debate about the Gulf Coast recovery.

So far the report has been covered nationally by the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Gannet, The Los Angeles Times and McClatchy News.

Blueprint has also been featured on over 50 TV and radio broadcasts nation-wide, including MSNBC, National Public Radio, PBS "NewsHour" and XM satellite radio. We've been covered by city TV and radio in 16 states.

Let's keep making sure the important issues about the failed recovery -- including "Where did the Katrina money go?" -- keep getting asked, this week and beyond.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 1:55 PM | Email this post

The Katrina Index: Where's the housing?

From the Institute's report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.

The need for housing

Scope of post-Katrina rent increases in Louisiana's and Mississippi's most storm-damaged parishes: 200 percent

Number of rental units available below fair market rents as of August 2007 in Mississippi's Hancock County, Katrina’s Ground Zero: 0

Of the 200,000 homes in Louisiana that suffered major or severe damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, number that were rental units: 82,000

Number of Louisiana's storm-damaged rental units on track for rebuilding under state-administered restoration programs: 33,000

Of the 5,100 New Orleans public housing units occupied before Katrina, number that are now occupied: about 1,500

Number of livable public housing units in the city that HUD has slated for demolition: 3,000

Number of planned replacement units that would be affordable to previous residents for which there’s rebuilding money: 1,000

Number of hurricane-affected households still living in FEMA trailers: 81,000

Number of those trailers located in FEMA camps, which are home primarily to displaced renters: 13,000

Estimated shortfall in Louisiana's Road Home rebuilding program for homeowners if everyone eligible applied: $5 billion

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posted by Chris Kromm at 10:16 AM | Email this post

Better days ahead

President Bush in New Orleans yesterday:
And so it's a -- my attitude is this: New Orleans, better days are ahead. It's sometimes hard for people to see progress when you live in a community all the time.

[..]

First, I do want to thank our fellow citizens for their generosity when it comes to helping New Orleans and the Gulf Coast rebuild. The citizens of this country thus far have paid out $114 billion in tax revenues, their money, to help the folks down here.

[..]

Of the $114 billion spent so far -- in resources, allocated -- about 80 percent of the funds have been dispersed or available. And, of course, Don and I will try to work through the bureaucracy in Washington, just like folks down here are trying to work through the bureaucracy to make sure that there are adequate plans for the money.

And so we're working through this kind of collaborative effort of federal, state and local folks working together to make sure the taxpayers' money is spent wisely on priorities.

But there's been a commitment and a strong commitment. A lot of people down here probably wondered whether or not those of us in the federal government not from Louisiana would pay attention to Louisiana or Mississippi.

In other words, it's one thing to come and give a speech in Jackson Square; it's another thing to keep paying attention to whether or not progress is being made.

And I hope people understand we do. We're still paying attention. We understand.
Better days are ahead, we're still paying attention, we understand, $114 billion spent so far... who or what is he paying attention to? Certainly not the facts.

As he says, it's one thing to give a speech in Jackson Square. It's entirely another to make good on your promises. Instead, he has once again lowered the bar, reducing the federal government's role to "paying attention to whether or not progress is being made." Even at that, the Bush administration can't seem to live up to its own lowered expectations.

Thankfully, we will only have to endure one more Katrina Anniversary speech by President Bush. Indeed, there may be better days ahead.

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posted by R. Neal at 8:08 AM | Email this post

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Katrina Index: Relief and Recovery

From the Institute's report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action, released this week.

Rebuilding and Recovery

Amount that Bush administration says has been spent on Gulf Coast recovery since 2005 hurricanes: $116 billion

Estimated percent of those funds that are for long-term recovery projects: 30

Amount of FEMA’s 2005 disaster relief budget that was spent on administrative costs: $7 billion

Percent of the 2005 relief budget that represented: 22

Of $16.7 billion in Community Development Block Grants earmarked for long-term Gulf Coast rebuilding, percent that had been spent as of August 2007: 30

Of $8.4 billion allocated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for levee repair in Louisiana, percent that had been spent as of July 2007: 20

Percent of rebuilding costs that Gulf Coast local governments were required to pay up front to receive matching federal funds, due to a Stafford Act provision that Congress has since waived for the region: 25, later reduced by President Bush to 10

Percent that New York had to pay after 9/11 and Florida after Hurricane Andrew, because the federal government waived the Stafford Act’s matching requirement: 0

Amount of additional money for rebuilding now available since the match requirement was waived in the Gulf Coast: up to $1 billion

As of June 2007, value of controversial “cost plus” Katrina contracts given out by three federal agencies, which allows companies to charge taxpayers for cost overruns and guaranteed profits: $2.4 billion

As of August 2006, value of Gulf Coast contracts that a Congressional study found were “plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement”: $8.75 billion


For more on the state of the Gulf Coast recovery two years after Katrina, read the full report here (pdf).

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posted by Chris Kromm at 12:14 PM | Email this post

NPR: Much Katrina aid unspent

National Public Radio has a piece today covering the theme of our recent report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf) -- that much of the so-called "big check" of $116 billion that Washington leaders say has gone to the Gulf Coast hasn't even been spent. Here's an excerpt:
St. Bernard Parish's government complex is still not repaired. Papers still lie scattered on the floor beneath desks and file cabinets overturned by the storm.

"Two years later, we have yet to start construction or repairs. ... We got into a two-year-long debate with FEMA about how much damage did we have and how much are they going to pay to have the building repaired," says parish Councilman Craig Taffaro.

These lengthy discussions have occurred not only in St. Bernard Parish but in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. The result is police and firefighters still working out of trailers, sewage systems in disrepair, a deficit of hospital beds and buses. To make matters worse, local governments had been required to put up 10 percent in matching funds for recovery projects — money some of them just didn't have. Congress only recently waived the rule.
You can listen to the full piece here.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 11:54 AM | Email this post

Institute report on Huffington Post: Where's the Katrina money?

My compatriot Jeffrey Buchanan of the RFK Memorial has a piece up on Huffington Post, highlighting the findings of our study looking at where the Katrina recovery money went. To find out, visit here.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 10:55 AM | Email this post

The Katrina crisis: A national call for action

Today is the two-year anniversary of a horrifying episode in our country's history: the onslaught of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and their devastating aftermath for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gulf Coast.

Katrina was a big storm -- but the tragedies that followed were mostly the fault of humans. The shoddy levees that poured water into 80% of New Orleans. The failed FEMA and Red Cross response that subjected thousands to misery in the Convention Center and consigned hundreds to death. An evacuation plan that amounted to "start driving," when over 28% of the residents didn't have cars.

What's not talked about as much is the second Katrina crisis -- the horrifying situation that still faces thousands of people in the Gulf Coast. As we document in our new report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf), over 60,000 people are still in “temporary” FEMA trailers because programs to help homeowners and renters haven’t come through.

From New Orleans to Biloxi, Miss., one sees miles of shuttered schools, hospitals and businesses. Suicides and homelessness are skyrocketing. Since Katrina, the death rate has risen 47% in New Orleans alone.

Why is the Katrina recovery failing? All roads lead back to Washington. The President and Congress dithered for months before signing bills that would help get money to the region. And as we show in our report, less than 1/3 of that money is for the long-term recovery projects -- rebuilding schools, hospitals and homes -- that people need.

And to add insult to injury, our analysis shows that less than half of the money allocated has even been spent -- while thousands of families remain in limbo or are sliding backwards.

What money did go to the Gulf Coast often hasn't gone to the right places. While Washington was quick to get money to rebuild Naval shipyards and line the pockets of big contractors, money for homeowners moved at a glacial pace; 18 months after Katrina, only 600 homeowners in all of Louisiana had received checks.

Instead of a "trickle-down recovery" aimed at helping those with the most, a real Gulf Coast recovery could have injected billions into helping people get jobs, get back home and get on with their lives. For example, for only $3.9 billion -- half what we spend in Iraq each month -- Washington could have put 100,000 people to work in a Gulf Coast Civic Works program, paying hard-up workers $15 an hour to fix up their homes and neighborhoods.

We still have time. In our latest trip to the Gulf Coast, we interviewed over 40 community leaders from New Orleans to Biloxi, Miss.; from Baton Rouge to the Houma Nation in south Louisiana. They all said the same thing: they want to rebuild. They want their people to come home. And they want to create a more vibrant, safe and just future for the region.

But they can't do it alone. The people of the Gulf Coast need for people across the country to realize the Katrina crisis is EVERYBODY'S issue, and we have a national obligation to make things right.

In our report, we offer practical, common-sense solutions to the Gulf Coast crisis, based on our interviews with grassroots leaders in the region. They aren't rocket science, and they would remove countless barriers that have held up the Katrina recovery.

We have a responsibility to act. The people of the Gulf Coast need our help. And there's still time.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 10:32 AM | Email this post

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Voices from the Gulf

ColorOfChange.org has a new project website up -- Voices from the Gulf -- featuring the unfiltered video perspectives from the region, in time for the Katrina two-year anniversary. Check it out here.

UPDATE: NPR has a similar audio feature here. Both are powerful.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 5:22 PM | Email this post

A Jewish call for justice in the Gulf Coast

The following commentary on the Katrina two-year anniversary comes from Simon Greer of the Jewish Funds for Justice, a passionate supporter of grassroots recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast and collaborator on our recent report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf)

Study reveals failures in New Orleans recovery effort

Simon Greer
Guest Contributor

It is hard to believe that on Aug. 29 we mark the second anniversary of the tragic day when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and surrounding states.

On a recent trip to Louisiana, a local journalist asked me to imagine: If most of the housing stock from Manhattan to East Hampton was damaged or destroyed, would it be possible that two years later the majority of the homes would still be uninhabitable and hundreds of thousands of residents still displaced?

"You can't imagine it," he continued, "because it wouldn't happen."

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which followed one after the other, were natural disasters. But the damage they inflicted was due in no small part to a pair of man-made disasters: inadequate infrastructure and an inept response.

Sadly, two years later and long after the water has receded, the man-made disasters remain. According to a new report by the Institute for Southern Studies, commissioned by the Jewish Funds for Justice and Oxfam America, the failure to achieve a speedy recovery is startling:

* Of $8.4 billion allocated for levee repair in Louisiana, only 20% had been spent as of July 2007, leaving whole communities inadequately protected and making it much harder to bring families home.

* $8.75 billion was lost to waste, fraud and mismanagement of federal contracts, according to a Congressional study.

* Of $16.7 billion in Community Development Block Grants, only 30% had been spent as of August 2007.

* It took 21 months for the Small Business Administration to finish processing loan applications for the recovery.

And, just as startling, is the impact of these wasted or unused dollars on the ground:

* Of 82,000 rental housing units that suffered major or severe damage, only 33,000 are on track for rebuilding under state-administered restoration programs.

* After two years, 81,000 households are still living in FEMA trailers.

* Twenty-five percent of all stores, restaurants and malls in New Orleans remain closed.

* Of seven general hospitals in New Orleans, only one is operating at pre-storm levels.
The Gulf Coast region has been allowed to suffer an ongoing disaster while too much of America has moved on.

One bright spot has been the continued commitment to the region by the Jewish community. We understand our mutual interdependence with, and thus our obligation to, Americans of all backgrounds. Our community has been a model of sustained leadership providing social services to both Jewish and non-Jewish communities; our response to the ongoing disaster has reflected this proud Jewish tradition.

For the past two years, the Jewish Funds for Justice has led a recovery effort through the Katrina Recovery and Redevelopment Fund. In partnership with a broad segment of the Jewish community, including the United Jewish Communities, the federations in New York and Los Angeles, the Reform and Conservative movements and thousands of individuals, the fund has balanced two complementary strategies. It makes grants to community-based organizations in the Gulf that can insure that the voices of the most disenfranchised will be heard in the recovery process and provides hurricane victims seeking to rebuild their homes and small businesses with access to capital.

The Jewish community has embraced these strategies and to date we have catalyzed more than $3 million to rebuild the region. The largest portion of that money has been for loans to local credit unions that in turn make loans to build community centers, start small businesses and rebuild housing. The logic in the lending model, which leverages access to capital, is incontrovertible when faced with a disaster on such a massive scale.

Three years ago, Rabbi Shai Held composed this prayer in response to another devastating natural disaster:

Strengthen the hands of those who would bring relief, comfort the mourners
Heal, please, the wounded
Grant us wisdom and discernment to know our obligations
And open our hearts so that we may extend our hand to the devastated.

This anniversary we must not forget the 100,000 Gulf Coast residents still trying to go home. We must not let those living in inhumane conditions continue to toil in isolation. Let us commit ourselves to doing something for residents of the region.

Simon Greer is president and CEO of the Jewish Funds for Justice.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 5:10 PM | Email this post

Lessons from Katrina

The following guest contribution comes from Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola- New Orleans and on the Advisory Board of the Institute's Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch project.

10 IMPORTANT LESSONS
Katrina, Two Years Later

By Bill Quigley
Guest Contributor

One. Build and rebuild community.

When disaster hits and life is wrecked, you immediately seem to be on your own. Isolation after a disaster is a recipe for powerlessness and depression. Family, community, church, work associations are all important --get them up and working as fast as possible. People will stand up and fight, but we need communities to do it. Prize women --they are the first line of community builders. Guys will talk and fight and often grab the spotlight, but women will help everyone and do whatever it takes to protect families and communities.

Powerful forces mobilize immediately after a disaster. People and politicians and organizations have their own agendas and it helps them if our communities are fragmented. Setting one group against another, saying one group is more important than another is not helpful. Stress and distress is high for everyone, but community support will multiply the resources of individuals. Build bridges. People together are much stronger than people alone.

Two. Self-reliance.

Your community must be ready to re-settle your property as soon as possible and care for those most in need. Prioritize help for the elderly, the sick, children and women, especially the poor. The prime cure for helplessness is taking control over your own life and joining others to fight for justice.

Groups and people will want to treat you like a victim --say you are traumatized and incapable of making basic decisions about yourself. They will tell you they know best and act like they know best. Tell them to get lost.

Three. Tell your own story.

Sharing our stories, successes and failures, is a way to connect and educate ourselves. Connecting with others nationally and internationally who have been through disasters is the very best thing that you can do. Disasters and the corporations that cause them and profit from them do not respect national boundaries. Look for global justice connections. Learn from those who have been through this before. They will tell you - do not let anyone say who you are or what is best for your community --say it yourself.

Those in power will blame circumstances outside their control for what happened and inevitably they will blame the victims of the disaster. Those in power will tell the people's story in ways that makes the powerful look good. If others do not tell the truth --you do it and get your stories out. Real allies help lift up the voices of the people.

Four. Value every single human life equally.

Every religion and human rights recognizes that every single person is entitled to human dignity. There are no forms to fill out, no criteria to meet. Every single person no matter their race or gender or economic situation has equal value. Every person has the right to participate in the response to the disaster equally. Every single person and family has the right to repair and rebuild and participate in the decisions being made.

The exact opposite occurs after a disaster. The people with economic and political power get together and decide what has to happen. They also decide which people are "worthy" of getting help first. They consider poor working people disposable and movable. Since this is an emergency, they say there is not time to allow regular people to participate in the decisions. If every single person is not treated equally before the disaster hits, they certainly should not expect to be treated fairly after.

Five. Don't wait for a leader --become one.

Resist the tendency to think someone else is going to come save you. There is no leader out there. We must each become leaders and followers in order to bring about the change that is needed. Each of us is challenged to get beyond our pre-disaster comfort zone. New leadership is essential to avoid just repeating the mistakes that contributed to the disaster.

Those who work for human development instead of real estate development will be repeatedly criticized as "obstructionist" by those who do not value every life equally. Be prepared for these criticisms. That is what they said about Mandela, Gandhi, ML King. Good company.

Six. Prepare for a Love-Hate Relationship with the Government.

After disaster, only the government has the resources to help fix major problems for the social good. We must hold them accountable and demand that the public sector mobilize and assist in an equitable way.

At the same time, we cannot wait for the government. Nor can we necessarily listen to the government. After a disaster, the government will immediately be manipulated by those in power. We must both critique the government and build our own alternative community supports.

Seven. Government will help businesses first and second and third, and if there is anything left, maybe fourth.

Who is in charge of government before the disaster? Governments will look to privatize the public sector --housing, health, education, transportation, every system after a disaster. That was what they wanted before the disaster, so the disaster offers them an opportunity to move their plans into action.

Corporations see disasters as opportunities. They look for valuable land that poor people were living on before the disaster. They decide that there is a better economic use for that land. Then they will push the government to come up with some excuse to take the land for other uses.

You will quickly see that those with power and money before the disaster end up with more power and more money after the disaster. You will see that 98% of the money distributed in a disaster ends up enriching corporations. Our most colorful example is the blue tarps that the government put on the roofs of houses after Katrina. The main contractor, Shaw Group, got $175 a square to put on the tarps. The subcontracted the work out to another corporation for $75 a square. The second corporation subcontracted the work out to a third corporation for $30 a square. Who in turn subcontracted it out again to guys who did the work for $2 a square. Two dollars a square for the actual worker is less than 2 percent of what the government paid out --guess who got the money.

Wonder why the Gulf Coast is not fixed up yet? This is not an accident. It is not that the system isn't working. It is working for the benefit of those who create and fund and manipulate it. Read Naomi Klein's THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. It spells it out in detail.

If government works primarily for corporations before the disaster, after the disaster it will be a hyper corporate-friendly environment.

Eight. Disasters reveal the structural injustices in our communities in race, gender and class and are thus learning and action opportunities.

Wonder about the role of race, class and gender in society? Watch what happens when disaster strikes. Who is left behind during the disaster? Who is left behind in the repair and rebuilding and planning and decision-making? Disasters illuminate injustices.

There is tremendous educational opportunity to look at what really matters in our society after a disaster. The curtains are pulled back. The bandages are ripped off. Our histories of injustice are laid bare for all to see. International human rights create great opportunities to reframe the justice discussion.

But just looking is insufficient. Join in solidarity with the same folks who are left out. If a disaster can be an opportunity for those interested in unjust economic advantage, why cannot we change the pattern and make it an opportunity to redistribute justice in our communities and right the wrongs that created what all can now see?

Nine. A justice-based reconstruction will not be funded.

Money will flow. Charities, churches and governments will send money for charitable help. If your community is trying to create a more just community than the one destroyed by the disaster, there will not be funding for that. If you are trying to make the community fairer for and with the poor, the elderly, and those who lived in unjust circumstances before the disaster --get ready to raise your own funds for your organization. Funding for charity will come, but funding for justice will not.

We must insist on some transparency and accountability from the non-profits and foundations and others who have raised and spent billions in the names of those in distress. They cannot be allowed to operate like multi-national corporations --they must open their books and involve people in their decision-making.

Solidarity not charity is one of the great demands to come out of Katrina from the Common Ground collective. Another is "Nothing about us without us is for us" from Peoples Hurricane Relief.

After Katrina, it again became clear that decades of oil development has literally destroyed the natural protections around the gulf coast. Yet the disaster actually enriched the oil companies who helped cause it, creating their biggest year of profit in some time. Yet, do you hear the voices of those calling out for the oil corporations to be held accountable for what they have caused? Those voices are small and unfunded. But they, like so many others calling for justice, are out there and will one day be hear.

Ten. Love is the answer --justice work is a commitment for the long haul.

When disaster hits, there is a natural urge to work around the clock to try to set things right. After a few weeks or months, it will become clear that is not sustainable. Working 24 hours a day is going to make you as crazy as the government. No one likes a crank --even if they are working for justice.

Building communities of resistance and working for human development is long-term work. Love is a tremendous source of energy. But we have to love ourselves as well so we can keep living this resistance with others. We have and will continue to make mistakes. We have to get back up, dust ourselves off, forgive ourselves and others, and get back to working in community to create a more just world.

It is important to laugh too. Remember that last job held by the guy in charge of disasters for the entire US government was as head of an association of dancing horses! We can't make this stuff up.

We have to love and laugh along with our tears and rage and keep learning new lessons.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley@loyno.edu

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posted by Chris Kromm at 2:38 PM | Email this post

Taking the Katrina message to the airwaves

Ever since we released our groundbreaking report on the two-year anniversary of Katrina, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal, Institute staff and report co-authors have done over 30 TV and radio interviews with local and national stations across the country, including MSNBC, NPR, XM Radio.

I'll put up a full list soon; if you'd like to tune in right now, I'm going to be featured on 710 KIRO in Seatle, WA -- "Seattle's Talk Leader" -- to discuss the state of the Gulf Coast and our report's recommendations for a real Gulf recovery. Tune in now!

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posted by Chris Kromm at 1:56 PM | Email this post

New report: Obesity a huge problem in the South

A new report by the Trust for America's Health finds there is a growing problem with obesity, particularly in the South.

According to a press release, "Twenty-two states experienced an increase for the second year in a row; no states decreased. A new public opinion survey featured in the report finds 85 percent of Americans believe that obesity is an epidemic." The report also finds that "Eight of the ten states with the highest rates of overweight children were in the South."

In its state-by-state rankings, the report finds that "Mississippi topped the list with the highest rate of adult obesity in the country for the third year in a row, and is the first state to reach a rate of over 30 percent (at 30.6 percent)."

From the report's state rankings:

Adult obesity:
1 Mississippi 30.6%
2 West Virginia 29.8%
3 Alabama 29.4%
4 Louisiana 28.2%
5 (tie) South Carolina 27.8%
5 (tie) Tennessee 27.8%
7 Kentucky 27.5%
8 Arkansas 27.0%
9 (tie) Indiana 26.8%
9 (tie) Michigan 26.8%
9 (tie) Oklahoma 26.8%
12 (tie) Missouri 26.3%
12 (tie) Texas 26.3%
14 Georgia 26.1%
15 Ohio 26.0%
Childhood obesity:
1 D.C. 22.80%
2 West Virginia 20.90%
3 Kentucky 20.60%
4 Tennessee 20.00%
5 North Carolina 19.30%
6 Texas 19.10%
7 South Carolina 18.90%
8 Mississippi 17.80%
9 Louisiana 17.20%
10 New Mexico 16.80%


The report makes several recommendations, including:

• Develop a national strategy to combat obesity that involves federal, state, and local governments and engages private industry and community groups.

• Develop policies to help Americans choose healthy foods and engage in more physical activity, ranging from more phys-ed in schools to better nutritional info for restaurant food.

• Educate business on the economic value of employee wellness programs.

• Escalate research on ways to promote healthy choices.

The full report can be found here (PDF format).

So why are we fatter in the South? Our home cooking is world renowned, and not always the healthiest. But as we discussed here previously, there is also a correlation between poverty and obesity, and poverty is more prevalent in the South, particularly in the rural South. While that might seem contradictory, the problem is that fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthier choices are generally more expensive than fast food and manufactured convenience food grocery items.

As noted in that report, advertising unhealthy foods to children is also part of the problem. In a related update, U.S. food and drink corporations are taking voluntary steps to reduce such advertising and to promote healthier choices, ahead of possible FTC regulation. From Reuters:
Some of America's largest food and drink companies, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Mills, promised on Wednesday to put stricter controls on advertising aimed at children under 12.

The voluntary steps varied among the 11 companies and were announced as the Federal Trade Commission held a forum to spotlight the need for more responsible food marketing to help address childhood obesity.
The list of companies "taking the pledge" can be found here.

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posted by R. Neal at 12:06 PM | Email this post

Monday, August 27, 2007

FULL REPORT: Two years after Katrina, blueprint for a failed recovery

Today, the Institute for Southern Studies released the full version of our report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action (pdf).

On September 15, 2005, President Bush pledged that our nation would "do what it takes, and stay as long as it takes," to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Yet over 60,000 people are still in "temporary" FEMA trailers, and houses, hospitals and schools across the region remain shuttered. For thousands of people, the Katrina recovery has failed.

The study, published in collaboration with Oxfam America and the Jewish Funds for Justice, looks at 80 statistical indicators and draws on interviews with more than 40 Gulf Coast leaders to identify roadblocks to recovery, and ways federal leaders can tackle critical needs in the region like housing, jobs and coastal protection.

The study also features “Where did the Katrina money go?” -- an in-depth analysis of federal Katrina spending since 2005. The Institute reveals that, out of the $116 billion in Katrina funds allocated, less than 30% has gone towards long-term rebuilding—and less than half of that 30% has been spent, much less reached those most in need.

For a full copy of the report, visit here (pdf). You can read the press release here.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 1:02 PM | Email this post

Friday, August 24, 2007

Is Katrina our "defining moment?"

We are getting a great response to the report we released yesterday looking at the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf). We've been contacted by dozens of reporters, have done six radio interviews (we'll post the podcasts soon!), and will be delivering thousands of copies to New Orleans and Mississippi in time for events across the Gulf Coast next week.

One question I've heard is: why is this still important? As we point out in our report, the biggest reason is that President Bush and other federal leaders pledged their commitment to the Gulf Coast -- a promise that our report shows has clearly been broken. It's also a matter of simple decency, when 80,000 people are still living in FEMA trailers and a region remains devastated.

But there's a broader issue at stake -- the question of what and who our government is here to serve. In June, pollster James Zogby touched on this issue in a piece titled "Will Katrina be our defining moment," which appeared in Campaigns and Elections Magazine. It's worth quoting at length:
I have been saying for some time that the top issue in the 2008 presidential campaign is going to be the Iraq war, with the war on terror a clear second. [...]

In the shadow of these mammoth international problems are domestic concerns: health care, Social Security reform, the environment. But these issues pale in the face of a widespread sense of real trouble ahead for America. Barely 30 percent think the nation is now headed in the right direction, and 73 percent say the U.S is in a serious crisis, according to our recent polling.

This suggests a need to redefine the very nature and structure of U.S. federalism. In our post-Katrina polling, we found a hunger nationwide for a new model for the federal government. In many ways, I believe Katrina, over the long haul, will prove to be more of a defining moment in American history than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I realize this may be a stunning statement and that I may be a little ahead of the polls on this, because a poll provides us with a snapshot in time. But there is a trend pointing to this conclusion. While sour memories of the post-Katrina failures have dimmed, the hunger for a better government model has not. The implications for the 2008 presidential election are fascinating.

Our polling shows that Sept. 11, 2001 and its aftermath left a majority of Americans resigned to the idea that we will face another major attack on our own soil. It is, to a certain extent, out of our control. [...]

But Katrina was different. It involved an entire region, and revealed a dramatic structural failure of our system of government.

Ultimately, the failures sent a single message to America: the United States is not prepared for a major disaster, natural or otherwise.

The feds get the most blame because they are seen as the government solution of last resort. When the governments of New Orleans and Louisiana failed in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the storm, Washington acted more like the error-prone Little Leaguer you try to hide in right field than the superhero swooping in to save the day.

And so the 2008 presidential campaign is being waged against a backdrop of national unease over Washington’s competence. With the candidates already pretty well-defined on the dominating issue of the Iraq war, the winner may be the one who best defines a new role for how Washington performs when crisis strikes here at home. Americans want the job done, and done right, and the candidate who successfully outlines a plan for national unity and a marshaling of resources is going to have a decided edge.

Our polling shows Americans, faced with a major disaster, don’t want the federal government to solve all their problems by dominating state and local governments with bureaucratic dictates from Washington. Instead, they want a nimble federal government that acts as a clearinghouse, an organizer, a traffic cop for all levels of government and other organizations, including faith-based groups and non-governmental organizations.

Even if candidates don’t talk about these concerns, American voters will be judging them based on whether or not they have what it takes to build that kind of national government. In a post-Katrina world, these may well be the defining issues not just of the 2008 presidential election, but of this generation.

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:30 PM | Email this post

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Two years after Katrina, Washington money not getting to those in need

Today the Institute released a new report, Blueprint for Gulf Renewal (pdf), tracking the post-Katrina recovery. One of our key findings is that most Katrina money coming from Washington hasn't gotten to those most in need -- and the funding squeeze is stopping much of the Gulf Coast from coming back.

Here's a piece we did for the report, which is now making the rounds.

Two Years After Katrina, Billions in Relief Funds Are Missing
By Jeffrey Buchanan and Chris Kromm

This article is taken from the new report compiled by the Institute for Southern Studies called, "Blueprint for Gulf Renewal," giving a voice to grassroots advocates calling for greater federal accountability in the Gulf Coast rebuilding process. The report is available at: http://www.southernstudies.org/BlueprintShort.pdf.

When pressed on the slow pace of recovery in the Gulf Coast, President Bush insists the federal government has fulfilled its promise to rebuild the region. The proof, he says, is in the big check the federal government signed to underwrite the recovery -- allegedly more than $116 billion. But residents of the still-devastated Gulf Coast are left wondering whether the check bounced.

"$116 billion is not a useful number," says Stanley Czerwinski of the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm.

For starters, most federal money -- about two-thirds -- was quickly spent for short-term needs like debris removal and Coast Guard rescue. As Czerwinski explains, "There is a significant difference between responding to an emergency and rebuilding post-disaster."

That has left little money for long-term Gulf Coast recovery projects. Although it's tricky to unravel the maze of federal reports, our best estimate of agency data is that only $35 billion has been appropriated for long-term rebuilding.

Even worse, less than 42 percent of the money set aside has even been spent, much less gotten to those most in need. For example:

* Washington set aside $16.7 billion for Community Development Block Grants, one of the two biggest sources of rebuilding funds, especially for housing. But as of March 2007, only $1 billion -- just 6 percent -- had been spent, almost all of it in Mississippi. Following bad publicity, HUD spent another $3.8 billion on the program between March and July, leaving 70 percent of the funds still unused.

* The other major source of rebuilding help was supposed to be FEMA's Public Assistance Program. But of the $8.2 billion earmarked, only $3.4 billion was meant for nonemergency projects like fixing up schools and hospitals.

* Louisiana officials recently testified that FEMA has also "low-balled" project costs, underestimating the true expenses by a factor of four or five. For example, for 11 Louisiana rebuilding projects, the lowest bids came to $5.5 million -- but FEMA approved only $1.9 million.

* After the failure of federal levees flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received $8.4 billion to restore storm defenses. But as of July 2007, less than 20 percent of the funds have been spent, even as the Corps admits that levee repair won't be completed until as late as 2011.

The fact that, two years later, most federal Katrina funds remain bottled up in bureaucracy is especially shocking considering that the amounts Washington allocated come nowhere near the anticipated costs of Gulf rebuilding.

For example, the $3.4 billion FEMA has available to recover local public infrastructure would only cover about one-eighth of the damage suffered in Louisiana alone. But this money is spread across five states -- Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- and covers damage from three 2005 hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Congress has acted on some of the money holdups, like changing a requirement in the Stafford Act that mandates local governments pay 10 percent of rebuilding projects up front before receiving federal aid. The Bush administration had refused to waive the rule -- like it did for New York after 9/11 -- grounding countless projects. The effect of the rule was particularly devastating in the hardest-hit places like Mississippi's Hancock County, where communities lost most of their tax base after the storms.

Many in Washington claim that state and local governments are to blame: The money's there, they say, but the locals just aren't using it. And it's true that there have been problems below the federal level. For example, Louisiana's "Road Home" program -- created by Congress but run by the state -- has been so poorly managed that 18 months after the storms only 630 homeowners had received checks. Closings have sped up since then, but administrators admit many won't see money until 2008, if at all -- the program is facing a projected $3 billion shortfall.

But the White House and Congress have done little to exercise oversight of these federally backed programs, much less step in to remove red tape and make sure taxpayer money gets to its intended destination.

This is especially true when it comes to tax breaks and rebuilding contracts. Included in the $116 billion figure is $3.5 billion in tax breaks to jump-start business in Gulf Opportunity Zones -- "GO Zones" -- across 91 parishes and counties in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. But many of the breaks have been of questionable benefit to Katrina survivors, like a $1 million deal to build 10 luxury condos next to the University of Alabama football stadium -- four hours from the Gulf Coast.

Federal contracts for rebuilding and recovery have also been marked by scandal, fraud and abuse. An August 2006 study by the office of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., identified 19 contracts worth $8.75 billion that experienced "significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement."

For thousands of Gulf residents, the end result is that federal support for recovery after Katrina's devastation has been insufficient, too slow and hasn't gotten to those most in need.

"Where did it go?" says Tanya Harris of ACORN in New Orleans when asked about the $116 billion. "Tell me. Where did it go?"

Jeffrey Buchanan is communications officer with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. Chris Kromm is executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies. This report was part of ISS's "Blue Print for Gulf Renewal."

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posted by Chris Kromm at 3:32 PM | Email this post

Florida Gov. Crist environmental policies under fire

Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's environmental policies are under fire from "Freedom Works", a conservative Washington D.C. "policy group" that "recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom." The group is headed by former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

They have organized a petition opposing Gov. Crist's initiatives to fight global warming:
Most people who voted for Nancy Pelosi expected to get extreme left-wing public policy. But when people heard Charlie Crist’s promises to follow in the conservative legacy of Jeb Bush and voted for him to be governor of Florida, they didn't expect to get Nancy Pelosi.

Yet just months into office, that's exactly what Gov. Crist is becoming, by embracing the Nancy Pelosi agenda on global warming. It's a series of mandates on Florida businesses and citizens that will drive up energy costs without benefiting the environment. Even worse, Gov. Crist is advancing the Pelosi agenda through decree, without a vote in the state legislature.
At least the right-wing extremists are bipartisan in their opposition to saving the planet. (By way of th Florida Politics blog.)

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posted by R. Neal at 11:46 AM | Email this post

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Modern-day slavery on the Gulf Coast

Since Hurricane Katrina, many employers on the Gulf Coast have turned to the federal H2B "guestworker" visa program to meet their need for employees. But labor rights advocates have long warned that the program is prone to abuse, since it ties foreign workers to a single employer for the entirety of their U.S. stay, creating a relationship of extreme dependence that's ripe for exploitation.

Today we got word from folks with the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition about allegations of extreme abuse involving a Pascagoula, Miss. law enforcement official, a Texas shipyard, an Alabama labor recruiter and 30 Mexican men who came to this country looking for an opportunity to better support their families. Instead, the Mexicans are now hiding in New Orleans, without work or money.

The next time you hear President Bush or other politicians calling for expanding "temporary worker" programs, remember that this is what they're talking about:

For Immediate Release
August 22, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Contact: Saket Soni – 504 881 6610

Pascagoula Police Captain Kidnaps Guestworkers

Mexican H2B visa workers charge ranking officer with kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, and gross civil rights abuses; File Notice of Intent to announce that they will bring major lawsuit.

More than 30 Mexican nationals who entered the country on H2B visas were kidnapped in Pascagoula, Mississippi by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula police department and a US labor recruiter.

Workers and advocates charged Tillman with State and Federal crimes kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers’ civil and constitutional rights. They filed a Notice of Intent declaring that that they will sue Tillman and the Pascagoula Police Department.

Workers released a formal statement today that recounted their journey as guestworkers across the post-Katrina Gulf Coast:
We are welders and pipefitters from Veracruz, Mexico, who entered the United States on H2B visas in July 2007. We are fathers and husbands, with families to feed. Like all workers we came to the United States because of economic desperation. We are here to feed our children, to send money to our families. We came to work for a Texas shipyard called Southwest Shipyards, LP.

Within days of our arrival we realized that recruiters had lied to us about the living and working conditions in the United States. Several of our co-workers sustained life-threatening injuries on the job. One man was electrocuted. When we organized to ask for safer conditions, we were threatened.

Faced with retaliation, we ran away from Southwest. We went to Alabama, where a recruitment agency named Black Hawk promised us jobs. We signed up with Black Hawk, but the agency packed all 30 of us in two trailers in rural Alabama -- and abandoned us. We stayed in the trailers for 6 days without food or transportation.

Desperate again, we escaped from the Alabama trailers to Pascagoula, Mississippi. There we were kidnapped by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department.

On the night of August 2, 2007, Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department arrived at our doorstep in uniform, with his badge and gun. He was accompanied by another officer and the recruiter from Black Hawk. Tillman told us that the recruiter from Black Hawk was our "owner," and that we had to go with him. He said that if we didn't, we would face prison and deportation.

We resisted. But we were forced to pack our bags and get into vans. We were transported to a new location. Tillman and the others packed all 30 of us into three rooms. He warned us that the area would be monitored by the police.

The next morning the recruiter returned to take mugshots of us and videotape us. With the help of several organizations, we escaped, hid in a Walmart, and eventually fled to New Orleans, where we have been living in hiding without work or money.
Workers and advocates challenged federal officials to recognize that the H2B program is creating slave-like conditions for workers across the Gulf Coast. Thousands of guestworkers have arrived to work for US companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Daniel Castellanos, organizer with the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf Coast-wide organization of guestworkers. "I am a guestworker and I know the realities of the H2B visa," said Castellanos. "We are brought here on false promises. Our members report being sold, being kidnapped, being told they are owned. Meanwhile survivors of Katrina and Rita are still shut out of work two years later. The federal government is allowing this. They’ve traded the old slaves for new slaves."

Nsombi Lambright, director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Mississippi called on Mississippi lawmakers to ensure that legislation outlawing kidnapping and human trafficking are enforced. "We can't leave it up to conscience to ensure that people of color and poor people are protected from the hundred of Tillmans out there. We have laws. They need to be enforced."

Workers and advocates called on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the abuses of civil and constitutional rights guestworkers face in the Gulf Coast. Advocates pointed out that law enforcement seldom protects and often intentionally violates the civil rights of H2B visa workers. "Corporations, law enforcement agencies, and recuiters work hand-in-glove to coerce and control workers. Police often enforce company policy, not US law," said Bill Chandler, director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance.

Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice called Tillman's actions "immoral, unjust, illegal -- but not uncommon. Tillman's abuses tell us we need policy changes in Washington DC. But meanwhile, Tillman's going to have to pay up in Pascagoula."

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posted by Sue Sturgis at 3:02 PM | Email this post

Photo petition: Tell the president to rebuild the Gulf Coast

Oxfam America has a great way to send a message to the White House about the need to rebuild the Gulf Coast on the two-year anniversary of Katrina.

They've started a photo petition at Flickr, where people from across the country are calling on Washington to honor its promises for recovery. Check it out -- and add your own message.



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posted by Chris Kromm at 11:43 AM | Email this post