Katrina: For Women, The Storm Was Only Half The Nightmare

21 April 2008 in Childbirth Pregnancy, Children Parenting, Employment Work, Financial, Funding, Government, Housing, North America

New Report Points to Gaping Holes in Recovery and Calls for Action

“They tried deliberately to separate our children from us. I was one that fought for my child. . . . I told [the National Guard] he may as well take that rifle and start putting bullet holes in my head cause I’m getting off this truck and getting my baby.”

These words come from one of dozens of women interviewed for a new report exposing the nightmarish experiences of women during and after New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina. It makes a shocking tale of more than two years of hard times at the hands of nature and the bureaucracy.

Women in the Wake of the Storm: Examining the Post-Katrina Realities of the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was released at the 2008 Economic Justice Summit in Atlanta GA today. It was issued by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and funded by Soroptimist International of the Americas, Inc., a women’s organization devoted to improving economic and social conditions for women and girls.

“The women of New Orleans have been abandoned, not only in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but still today, over two years later, by the dearth of adequate policy response to their lingering severe needs,” according to the report author, Dr. Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, Director of the Research, Public Policy and Information Center, National Council of Negro Women.

“The women of New Orleans deserve a chance to rebuild their homes and their lives, to live in a place free of the constant threat of physical or sexual abuse, and have fair and equal access to jobs that offer decent wages,” Jones-DeWeever said.

Right now, that is not a likelihood, according to the report, which sees continuing patterns of unfairness and discriminatory policy, disadvantaging women, children, the elderly and the poor.

Her report is based on interviews with 38 women who lived through Katrina, ranging in age from 19 to 66, from diverse ethnicities, including Black, White, Latina and Creole. All have contributed to their community as volunteers, activists, organizers or public service professionals.

The report documents the way that “recovery” efforts are being used to actually worsen life for many vulnerable victims. The affordable housing issue is one such instance. Katrina severely damaged or completely destroyed 142,000 housing units, of which about 80 per cent were affordable-to-low income housing. But the city and federal governments are now destroying 4,500 public housing units that survived the storm, and replacing them with only 744 units of low-income housing and more housing for those who can afford more expensive units.

Meanwhile, fair market rents have risen 46 per cent since recovery began, reflecting limited availability of rental housing.

The report also documents how the housing shortage has dramatically increased sexual assaults on women and children, as extended families are forced to share smaller quarters and battered wives are forced by the housing shortage to return to their abusers for shelter.

Only one domestic violence shelter survived the storm and it is filled to capacity.

The report also notes that though individual houses may be rebuilt, it’s not the same thing as rebuilding whole neighborhoods, which would restore the community. So, many survivors, especially among the elderly, may never regain their sense of “being back home.”

Jones-DeWeever also documents failures in the restoration of health services, especially for the poor and those whose health or mental health were compromised by the trauma of the storm.

The women’s words draw a powerful picture:

“The same people who were left behind during the storm have been left behind in rebuilding it. The elderly, the young, single mothers.”

“Since Katrina sexual assault has gone sky high. Because you have more women staying with relatives, more sexual assaults happen.”

“Kids are living with seventeen different cousins and sharing bedrooms, and uncle so-and-so is in the trailer. It’s very upsetting to me that sexual abuse is becoming part of the Katrina experience for children. The more that the government fails to provide housing, the longer this goes on.”

“This disaster caused a lot of women who had been separated from their batterers to go back to them because they lost their homes.”

“I was a teacher for 25 and a half years and was arbitrarily fired because they fired all Orleans Parish School Board employees right after Katrina. So now I’m an unemployed school teacher with no health benefits, living in a house where I’m paying more rent than I was paying for my house note.”

“I went in for the blood work, did all the prep work, and the woman came in, ‘I know that you’re scheduled for surgery in two days, but you have no insurance.’ The insurance company said that they weren’t paid during Katrina.”

“It’s not that we just don’t have health services, we don’t have public schools, we don’t have daycare.”

“The biggest thing, don’t forget about us.”

The report’s author reports that many New Orleans women felt that their voices went unheard “both in the initial chaos” and throughout the recovery period.

Jones-DeWeever proposes a “gender-informed disaster relief strategy” that includes making affordable housing a top priority; the use of both non-traditional job training and enforcement of laws against job discrimination to help incorporate women in the rebuilding economy; increased availability of quality child care and schools; and targeting medical and mental health services to the needy.

The report also calls for a broad representation of women on decision-making bodies that address disaster recovery, and any future bodies formed for pre-disaster planning.

Women in the Wake of the Storm: Examining the Post-Katrina Realities of the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is available online at www.iwpr.org/pdf/D481.pdf

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research conducts rigorous research and disseminates its findings to address the needs of women, promote public dialogue, and strengthen families, communities, and societies. IWPR focuses on issues of poverty and welfare, employment and earnings, work and family, health and safety, and women’s civic and political participation.

Soroptimist, headquartered in Philadelphia, works to improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world. The organization funded the IWPR study to shed light on the disproportionate effects of natural disasters on women and girls. For more information, visit http://www.soroptimist.org.

Institute For Women’s Policy Research, 1707 L Street, N.W., Suite 750, Washington, DC 20036 (202) 785-5100 – Press Release http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/D481release.pdf

Examining the Post-Katrina Realities of the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast – the full report can be downloaded from http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/D481.pdf