In 2005, the devastation caused by hurricanes, floods, and levee breaches claimed nearly two thousand lives, imperiled thousands more, and wreaked unprecedented damage. These natural and unnatural disasters offered the country a dual opportunity: 1) to examine the role that public policy plays in the persistent economic and social inequity that makes vulnerable the lives of so many, and 2) to create policies that ensure residents have safe, quality, affordable housing that provides access to regional opportunities such as good schools, employment, social networks, and quality public services—an approach PolicyLink calls ' Equitable Development.'
PolicyLink has been applying its Equitable Development approach to the rebuilding efforts on the federal, state and local levels. In collaboration with its Louisiana-based staff and consultants, and relationships with government agencies and community groups, PolicyLink is working to ensure that the policies that guide the rebuilding will result in positive outcomes for impacted residents—particularly for those residents of color and low-income families most vulnerable after the storms. This engagement has resulted in major policy successes, which include:
Shaping a more equitable housing recovery policy for the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans;
Building a state of the art communications' platform to reach displaced residents with the information they need to make informed decisions (www.louisianarebuilds.info); and
Inserting an equity agenda into the state's long term regional planning process that will guide future infrastructure investments.
At the heart of the equitable development process is the belief that the wisdom, voice, and experience of local constituencies are essential to the process of development and change. PolicyLink is informed by this belief as it works with partners, throughout the region, to help guide the rebuilding of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region.
To provide a status on housing three years after Hurricane Katrina, PolicyLink published A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008. The report reviews the housing recovery progress made by the State of Louisiana to implement the major, federally-funded housing recovery programs to restorm storm-damaged housing; this includes the large rental and small rental repair programs and the homeowners' Road Home program.
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Based out of our New Orleans offices one block from City Hall, PolicyLink is working with community based organizations and key New Orleans City agencies that are setting direction for redevelopment.
We worked with key agencies on a policy platform on equitable development, which incorporated the original Ten Points to Guide the Rebuilding and specific Equitable Development Strategies for each. We have loaned executives and consultants to these key agencies, most notably a full-time Senior Advisor for Equitable Development. We provide research support for a coalition of local organizations advancing inclusionary zoning, code enforcement, and other affordable housing strategies through city council.
Across the New Orleans metro area, nearly 228,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, of which about 40 percent were owner-occupied homes and approximately 60 percent were rental units. While over half of the damaged housing was rental housing, less than a third of the units will be replaced through federal recovery support. We continue to work with New Orleans advocacy networks to direct more rental housing and low-income homeownership support to New Orleans from both the state and federal governments. These groups were successful in winning a $25 million infusion of new capital into the state housing trust fund, and winning passage of a bill through the House (currently in the Senate) to address vulnerable residents’ housing needs.
As part of our assessment work, PolicyLink analyzed losses of low cost rental housing, and monitored the plans for both new and rehabilitation of residential housing in the city. See A Long Way Home, the most recent report on housing recovery.