NPACH Perspective:
Preventing Recovery from Becoming Disaster
Almost two months ago, Hurricane Katrina made
a direct hit on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Louisiana. In
a cruel encore, Hurricane Rita delivered a finishing blow
just a few weeks later. Communities stretching from Texas to
Florida suffered severe damage from high winds, storm surge,
and subsequent flooding. As the images from these disasters
have been broadcast around the world and have touched
millions of hearts, we are reminded of the hundreds of
thousands of people who have lost everything and are now
hungry, homeless, out of work, and without health care.
To be sure, the immense devastation of the hurricane has
greatly exacerbated an existing economic crisis. Long before
Katrina was a blip on the radar, the waiting list for public
housing assistance in the City of New Orleans exceeded
19,000. And long before FEMA’s tragically slow response
helped expose America’s shameful secrets of race and
class, thirty seven million Americans lived in poverty.
Given the unprecedented level of destruction, this
year’s celebration of World Habitat Day (October 3)
seemed an especially appropriate time for us to think
globally and in kinship with those outside our own borders.
Much like the terrible earthquake in Pakistan and tsunami in
South Asia, the hurricanes disproportionately affected the
poorest of the poor, leaving so many with little more than
the shirt on their back.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been privately raised
for relief efforts, Congress has responded with a $60 billion
aid package, and thousands of American families have opened
up their homes to the victims of the hurricanes. But if we
are to prevent recovery itself from becoming another
hurricane, this outpouring of emergency assistance must be
matched by meaningful long-term national priorities and
policies. Perhaps the storms will lead those most affected to
do as those displaced by deadly waves in Asia have started to
do- demand a democratic reconstruction and a fundamental
human right to housing. We must work together to ensure that
these catastrophic storms finally force our political leaders
to do what should have been done all along- respond to
homelessness and poverty as the national crisis that they
represent.