<p>"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) – Warped wooden floors and ruined desks have been stripped out of Xavier University’s main campus building. Its 4,000 students are scattered across the nation. Half the faculty and staff have been laid off.</p>
<p>The nation’s only historically black and Roman Catholic college, which expected to be celebrating its 180th anniversary this year, was battered to the brink of financial collapse by Hurricane Katrina…</p>
<p>Founded in 1825 by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the liberal arts college has built a reputation for black students seeking medical careers. It sends more black undergraduates to medical school than any other university in the nation. It is also tops in graduating black pharmacists.</p>
<p>Administrators estimate losses at more than $90 million in storm damage and lost tuition and scholarship revenue, a devastating sum for a school whose endowment is only $52 million.</p>
<p>On the topic of New Orleans, I have been struck by the number of residents who do not plan to go back. (Or at least that is what they say now.) I have a feeling that everything in NOLA is going to be smaller for a very long time - neighborhoods, schools (and that would include Tulane and Loyola), hospitals, and so on.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, neither our “compassionate Conservative” Prez nor our “compassionate liberal” opposition has proposed anything in the way of a plan to house the 700,000 low-income individuals seeking long-term housing, most of whom are never returning to NOLA. </p>
<p>As I said more than two months ago, this is the real test of “national resolve” and both parties get a resounding “F”.</p>
<p>That’s part of the story. The bigger part is that all of the cities where large numbers of NOLA evacuees have gone (most with Democratic mayors, I might add) have long waiting lists for publicly supported housing, or for housing vouchers, or there is no housing to spend the vouchers on. So why would they want to give NOLA evacuees call on an almost non-existent resource?</p>
<p>The ‘future of NOLA’ situation is going to be a sticky wicket, largely for political reasons, as alluded to earlier.</p>
<p>Yes, if Democrat mayors have to choose between providing housing $$ for Katrina victims and their own constituents, we all know who they will prefer.</p>
<p>Republicans are anticipating a smaller NOLA like your hungry uncle who’s wife can’t cook, gets excited about Thanksgiving dinner at Granny’s table.</p>
<p>Don’t know that she has responded specifically to the HBCU situation.</p>
<p>Tulane/Loyola/Dillard/Xavier are mutually supporting each other, with Tulane and Loyola offering space, support, etc. to the two HBCU’s. How much this can do to address the huge needs of Xavier and Dillard if they are to survive, I don’t know. As I understand it, Tulane will effectively be housing Dillard; had this not been the case, Dillard was considering moving to Atlanta. The information I have heard is that Xavier will house its own classes (or some of them) sometime this winter/spring. Again, how its financial resources will survive this blow, I don’t know - one way or the other.</p>
<p>It is looking like Tulane will retain well over 90% of its students, based on current info. Registration for Spring classes occurs this week and, of course, January 17 when classes begin will give the final word. Among 1500 Freshmen who have responded, 28 have said they are not returning (this stat is unofficial, I believe, but reported to me by a parent who attended a presentation made on campus last weekend). Tulane retained all but one of its full-time faculty.</p>
<p>President Cowen of Tulane, who is also a member of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, reported a few weeks ago that the then-current population of the city was about 50,000 (only ~10%), and that he expects the population in a year to be around 200,000. Beyond that, I haven’t heard anything.</p>
<p>Just a few factoids or near-factoids re points people have been making on this thread.</p>
<p>The folks in HOuston who are on the multi-year wait for housing are really steamed that some of the NO evacuees are being jumped ahead of them.</p>
<p>Mini is right. So called compassionate conservatism is flunking. It is sort of like the promised aids funds for Africa. At times good talk, but no action.</p>
<p>Hoping Oprah or some NBA players will do more is nice, but…</p>
<p>New Orleans shows the bs of the conservatives trying to use the pittance of private charity (giving out of the goodness of your heart, which does give warm fuzzies to the giver) as a reason why they can be compassionate while cutting public funds for HEW.</p>
<p>FEMA and insurance cos. are earning an “F-.” One family that my Maine company has personal ties with has started rebuilding with the $$ we raised in a Live/Silent Auction. They have received nada from FEMA, nada from insurance although they have done all the legwork/paperwork. As she said, “FEMA provides us daily opportunities to practice patience.”</p>
<p>One family was quoted on NPR this morning that FEMA has painted an X on their driveway where the temporary housing trailer will go, but can’t give them any idea of when it will arrive. Laughably poor managment. If it didn’t hurt to laugh. :mad:</p>
<p>One huge problem down here (primarily MS, but I doubt that it is different in LA) is reluctance to take the money that FEMA/insurance companies are offering - this reluctance is both on the part of individuals and the local/state governments. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying these folks aren’t justified in refusing at this point, but keep that in mind when you hear people complaining about insurance and inaction on FEMA’s part.
For example, housing costs have gone up so much in our area, as well as already being high in Houston/Atl, that the FEMA vouchers don’t cover the cost - FEMA vouchers are based on some sort of average cost. But, since Heaven forbid that anyone ever gouge the Feds, the rules say that landlords cannot charge/collect more than FEMA allows, so, even if your housing shortfall is say $100/month and you can afford to pay the shortfall, landlords won’t take the vouchers because they don’t cover market value, and they can’t legally charge you for the shortfall - now that makes NO sense.
In South MS, many (most) people had no flood insurance. Some of these people refused to get flood insurance, others had been told, generally by the mortgage company, that they didn’t need flood insurance - figuring out who is going to pay for these people is a nightmare, and a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general. Also complicating matters, the floodplain maps are to be redrawn, tremendously widening the floodplains (makes sense), but that greatly increases the cost of rebuilding because now your house has to be raised. Local officials want to preserve their communities, but how do you help poor or middle income folks rebuild when the cost has increased dramatically - and when their property is worth big bucks without the house.</p>
<p>A little perspective for people outside the FEMA zone here - remember hurricane Ivan? We were about 3 weeks short of the Ivan anniversary when Katrina struck, many people in the surge zone of Ivan were still wrangling with their insurance companies, and very few had rebuilt - multiply that by thousands, and you get a hint of what Katrina rebuild will be like. Jmmom’s acquaintance is moving very fast.</p>
<p>On the one hand everyone wants things faster but when FEMA tries to expedite buying items and arranging housing they get whipsawed for over-spending. The regular bidding process takes several months and then there is a like time for delivery of large items like trailers. FEMA does not have 1000’s of trailers sitting in warehouses ready to go.<br>
Most people have found decent housing in apts and elsewhere. When you are dealing with 100’s of thousands there will be some slips. I seriously doubt a private group would do much better. The Red Cross had massive problems too. The scale of the need is beyond most systems to absorb but it appears that the vast majority of the people are now housed and fed and ready to move to the next step.</p>
<p>Barrons, is it accurate to say that most folks (victims) have been adequately housed?</p>
<p>Also, my perspective is that while many pundits and victims probably have unrealistic expectations for FEMA, many of the criticisms with regard to planning and common sense are quite valid. Now maybe that’s not the direct fault of FEMA and the blame should be laid at the promulgators of FEMA’s rules and charter. But still, for example, why didn’t FEMA authorize the purchase of trailers in the local communities, rather than ship hundreds of them (at great additional cost) from the midwest and further? This is the kind of example that upsets impartial people.</p>
<p>Barrons - I would think you of all people would understand “market forces”. Whether the 700,000 people have roofs over their heads is not the point. If you push half a million folks into areas where there is already a low-income housing shortage, an interesting thing happens to rental prices. I’m sure you know what that is. When that happens, the incremental increases push largerr numbers of local folks, whose real wages have been falling for decades, out of their units. This has been happening before Katrina (you live in one of the prime locations where this has been taking place), but the drip-drip-drip begins to become a somewhat more forceful trickle. </p>
<p>Then there are government bureaucrats like me who end up trying to help folks pick up the pieces, with time and money that could have gone into building real housing.</p>
<p>cangel - thanks for the “in the trenches” perspective. It is so easy to draw conclusions from one experience (and maybe only a partial report of that experience) and be off the mark. Which is what I did in that FEMA/insurance post. I appreciate the additional insight.</p>
<p>Rents will go up in Houston and other impacted cities. You can’t have such a large disaster without some negative impacts to everyone else. We all paid more for things due to the increase in fuel costs etc.But rents are certainly going up fast here in Seattle too for other market factors. I guess I say so what–that’s life in the big city and things change for all sorts of reasons–some predictable and others a surprise. I know Houston developers will not hesitate to build housing and they can do it faster than FEMA or anyone else, so the market will come around but it will take some time. The problem witht the vouchers is a legal problem–FEMA can’t just say do whatever you like. They probably need to try to get waivers if possible but the housing programs are fairly complex and highly regulated. They look at local income levels, market prices and other factors once a year and set the rates. In a fast moving market the “market” rates will likely lag reality but that’s the law.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m not blaming FEMA - if anything, I’m blaming a combination of shortsighted Democratic Mayors of these cities and the Republican Administration for a compassion liberal/conservatism that doesn’t span past 60 days. There is such a greedy rush to figure out how to make a quick buck off NOLA (either through speculation or government contracts) that neither party wants to admit to the American people that the majority of folks aren’t going back, and the result of that is increased marginal housing/homelessness for everyone. From Republicans, I expected it; from Democrats I say “shame on you”.</p>
<p>I am a Houston resident and live ten minutes from the Dome and Reliant Center. There are so many La. plates still in the city. The private schools where my kids go have taken in a number of newcomers and they show no signs of leaving. Many people say they have no intention of returning to New Orleans, especially those who did not own a home to begin with. </p>
<p>Relations here are generally alright but there have been a few tough moments…incidents at local public schools where Houston kids clashed with the newcomers. There is some mumbling and complaint about residents having to take a back seat when it comes to public housing and, in certain cases, employment. But overall the city has reacted very well. </p>
<p>What is bad is that Houston and the entire state of Texas put out millions of dollars in emergency funds to help these folk and were promised pay back from the feds. Pay back is not coming, at least not yet. This is serious money we’re talking about from the vantage of local government. Politicians are starting to grumble, but swear the money will eventually be paid. Many of my friends who supported Bush (I did not) are now beginning to grumble as well. It will be interesting to see where all this leads.</p>
<p>And I am truly sorry to hear about Xavier. Any news on Dillard?</p>