Before Hurricane Katrina, 26-year-old Cindy Cole paid $275 a month for a two-bedroom house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. She lived next door to her mother and aunt and had an extended childcare network for her three young children.
Two years later, Cole is living in a mobile home park, is unemployed and has no savings. Food stamps are her only
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Cole’s rented apartment was one of thousands destroyed in the flooding following Katrina. Because she was not a homeowner, Cole was not eligible for federal funds to rebuild.
Rents in New Orleans today are double or triple what they were before the storm, leaving Cole unable to afford even a studio apartment for her family of four. Unfortunately, Cole’s situation is hardly unique.
Only 21 percent of the 77,000 rental units in New Orleans are scheduled to be rebuilt with government funds. Rents on the remaining 79 percent have dramatically increased.
As of May 2007, 13,000 people are living in temporary housing supplied by FEMA. Of those, one-third are elderly or disabled, one-third are employed in low-wage jobs and the remaining third are unemployed. (New York Times, July 12)
The local and federal governments have done almost nothing to make it possible for low-income renters to return home.
Despite community opposition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to tear down and redevelop New Orleans’ four largest housing projects, eliminating 3,000 apartments formerly reserved for low-income families. There is only enough money available to rebuild 1,000 units of affordable housing for previous residents.
Officials at the state level have allocated $6.3 billion for homeowners compared to only $869 million for renters. Yet, the state decided to transfer five percent of the budgeted funds for renters to homeowners.
Renters make significantly less than homeowners on average. In 2003, the median income for renters was $24,313 compared to $51,061 for homeowners. Twenty-five percent of renters lived below the poverty line compared to seven percent of homeowners. (Review of Policy Research, November 2005)
Capitalists will use any excuse to maximize their rates of profit, even the tragic events caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The only way to make housing affordable and available to all is to eliminate the profit motive and use the wealth of society to meet the needs of all people.
