Reconstructing Justice post-Katrina
Hurricane Katrina exposed not only the consequences of structural racism but also its repugnant underbelly. As the world watched in horror the coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its devastation, America faced the unaddressed racial disparities and poverty that plague this nation. In the months since the storm, survivors continue to be confronted by injustices as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Market forces, greed and racism have presented challenges to survivors in the area of relief efforts, housing, contracting and employment. Yet, facing these challenges; people who have come to help in the rebuilding are also facing exploitation and racism, especially immigrant workers.
Since October, 2005, Advancement Project has worked with community-based organizations to address three categories of survivor needs: the right to return; the right to repair their lives; the right to a voice in the rebuilding process; and the right to fair employment.
We have assisted community-based organizations, primarily in New Orleans, in the following ways:
- Filing systemic litigation;
- Providing strategic communications support;
- Investigating post-Katrina labor conditions;
- Advocating for and organizing marginalized communities; and
- Identifying and brokering legal and other resources through the Grassroots Legal Network (which Advancement Project coordinates).
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Advancement Project's theory of change provided exactly the type of process essential to ensure that the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort does not exacerbate historical and systematic social and racial inequities that were exposed by the high levels of poverty in affected, primarily African-American Gulf Coast communities. In addition, this process aims to secure a place at the rebuilding/reconstruction table to prevent the exclusion of people of color from rebuilt areas.
Watch video on Advancement Project’s Work in New Orleans.
Litigation and Advocacy
In the months after Hurricane Katrina, it became evident that low-income African-American families were not welcomed back to New Orleans. Most of the city’s public housing, which was home to almost 5,200 families, was boarded up despite little to no damage. While residents were ready to move back, “the federal government had no intention of permitting their return” Congressman Richard Baker (La.) stated. In July 2006, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it would demolish 5,000 of the 7,700 public housing units in New Orleans. Within days, Advancement Project, along with Loyola Law Clinic, Jenner & Block, and attorney Tracie Washington filed litigation to reopen habitable public housing units immediately and require that public housing residents be included in decisions about the future of public housing, Anderson v. Jackson.
An uphill battle from the onset, the lawsuit ultimately could not stop the government from razing these homes. The lawsuit has, however, forced the government to reopen more public housing units for returning families than originally planned and has prompted Congress to monitor the redevelopment.
Worker's Rights
Advancement Project completed its investigation into post-Hurricane Katrina labor conditions in New Orleans. With the assistance of the Economic Justice Working Group of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, and law student volunteers from the Student Hurricane Network, UCLA, and the National Black Law Students Association, we completed over 700 interviews of workers both in New Orleans and displaced.
In July 2006, along with the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition and the National Immigration Law Center, we released “And Injustice For All: Workers Lives In The Reconstruction of New Orleans.” This publication, the most comprehensive documentation of post-Katrina worker conditions to date, presented detailed findings of the instances of injustice to immigrant workers. The report is a compilation of personal narratives based on more than 700 worker interviews that raises the voices of New Orleanians struggling to return and reconstruction workers, all of whom are attempting to survive in the face on inequitable and unjust polices and practices of public and private institutions.
As a result of the work related to the report, along with the Coalition and the National Immigration Law Center, Advancement Project assisted in the establishment of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. The Workers' Center is engaged in campaigns to organize workers against exploitative situations, including a day laborer campaign, a guest worker campaign, and a FEMA trailer park campaign focused upon African-American survivors.
