The Fish Foundation news and events

After two weeks in New Orleans, we found plenty of reasons for despair, but some real causes for hope.

1) The good and bad of bureaucracy.
State and local reconstruction efforts in New Orleans are moving at a snail's pace. You could blame Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, or the Bush administration, but that's not really going to solve the problems of people who can't rebuild their homes. The state-run Road Home program, which grants federal relief money to homeowners who want to return and rebuild, is in a shambles. At a recent Senate subcomittee investigating Road Home's problems, one community leader testified that the most recent Road Home grant applicants would likely wait *seven years* before receiving a check. Right now, Road Home has a projected shortfall of three billion dollars, and Bush administration officials appear unlikely to give more money to the program. (You can read more about the hearings here.)

However, the fact that municipal and federal government are slow to help means that big change can come from below -- from grassroots organizations and community activists. In New York, we're used to a high level of bureaucracy and top-down control. You only need to look at our local government's response to 9/11 to realize that a high degree of coordination, planning and execution went into rebuilding lower Manhattan and our financial infrastructure. In New Orleans, that kind of coordination is pretty much absent. So there are some big shoes to fill when it comes to rebuilding impoverished communities down there, and we met plenty of people -- grassroots organizers and impassioned residents all -- who are stepping in to meet that need. New Orleans is a city of entrepreneurs and can-do people. It was heartening to meet people who are putting together positive ways of rebuilding communities, whether that's getting better food to the poor, or organizing them to take back their homes and schools.

2) New Orleans don't like poor (black) people.
Surprised? Don't be. After decades of getting a bad rap as the murder capital of the country, New Orleans is doing its best to prevent certain kinds of residents from coming back. We didn't believe it until we saw it with our own eyes. Before the storm, the housing projects in New Orleans were nearly 100% black. Now, they're 100% empty. These buildings -- many of which received almost no flood damage -- are completely boarded up to prevent people from returning. Landlords are charging Manhattan-type rents in private apartment complexes, taking advantage of the rental housing shortage. And in areas like the Ninth Ward, which were primarily populated by black homeowners, it's prohibitively expensive to rebuild thanks to skyrocketing insurance and construction costs. Only communities with some wealth or community infrastructure before the storm have been able to bounce back. Driving through the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Wards, we saw that these communities really have no small businesses to rebuild around. Financial education and small business development could go a long way to making these communities viable again. Local government and moneyed interests are using the storm to their advantage. Now, more than ever, it's the time to help the displaced poor take their homes back and build stronger communities. Karrie's Aunt Shirley said it best -- "We're ready to move back home, but I don't know if New Orleans is ready for us to come back."

New Orleans is a place that's ripe with opportunities for new models of growth. After a catastrophe like Katrina, the one thing we heard over and over was that people were more receptive to new ideas -- any ideas that would help rebuild, despite the disinterest of the government. We're already planning a longer trip later this year to do more outreach and find more organizations to help. In the meantime, we'll be updating this space with more information on the people and organizations who are doing great grassroots work in the areas affected by Katrina. FISHNET is coming along well, so soon you'll be able to communicate and donate to the organizations we've found.