Homeless
and with a disability in New Orleans
by
Sherry Gray
Of 118 New Orleans
residents left homeless in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a
high percentage were persons with disabilities underserved by both
government and private social service agencies. Many of these homeless
will not go to shelters due to personal or medical limitations. Other
solutions must be found which incorporate employment opportunities,
physical and mental health care, chemical dependency treatment and
life skills training.
A survey was carried out in February 2008 by a consortium of organizations,
including UNITY of Greater New Orleans and the Common Ground Institute
of New York. The survey was conducted at the Claiborne Encampment,
an area beneath the Claiborne Avenue Bridge in New Orleans’ Ninth
Ward. There an estimated 150 displaced persons currently live in
tents or sleep on mats in the open air. A copy of the press release
announcing the findings can be found on UNITY’s web page: www.unitygno.org.
Common Ground Institute reported that, “Before Hurricane Katrina,
one person camped there; afterward, an entire tent city of 150 lived
under that bridge. Fully 80 percent have disabilities, yet many of
them work and pay taxes.”
Twenty-three of those surveyed had three or more disabling conditions.
Another 20 were listed as having two disabling conditions, including
substance addiction, mental illness, or a physical disability. Sixty
percent of those surveyed were displaced from housing due to Katrina;
another 30 percent became homeless after losing Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) assistance. Of those surveyed, 75 percent had no health
insurance. Nineteen people surveyed were veterans, but only three of
the veterans had VA benefits and another eight had VA insurance.
“The strategy for the Claiborne camp must address the fact that most
of its residents have mental or physical disabilities,” said Martha J.
Kegel, Executive Director of UNITY, as quoted in The Times-Picayune on February
28, 2008. “Many disabled people will not go to emergency shelter,
cannot sleep with dozens of people in an enclosed room or cannot
comply with shelter rules.... Most of the Claiborne residents lived
in the New Orleans area before Katrina. They wanted to come home,
even though they have no home. We resolve to keep working in partnership
with the entire community until the most vulnerable of our neighbors
again has a home.”
UNITY staff member Frances
Misenheimer pointed to the Duncan Plaza Re-Housing Initiative as
a hopeful example for the Claiborne Encampment. In November and December
2007, 278 people living in tents and cardboard houses in New Orleans’ Duncan Plaza were moved to short-term
or permanent housing within a four-week period by a consortium that
included federal, state, and city government agencies, 27 nonprofit
organizations, and 69 community partners, including churches, hotels,
and foundations. Currently, according to Kegel, 233 of Duncan Plaza’s
former residents are living in their own homes, most receiving assistance
to help them pay rent, with social service agencies cooperating to
provide disability and employment services to those who qualified.
Nonetheless, the need for
housing remains high. Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law
professor at Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, wrote
in the April 2008 issue of Coastal Post Online that, “Government
reports confirm that half of the working poor, elderly and disabled
that lived in New Orleans before Katrina has not returned. Because
of critical shortages in low-cost housing, few now expect tens of
thousands of poor and working people to ever be able to return home….
Before Katrina, there were 12,870 disabled workers receiving Social
Security Disability in New Orleans, now there are 5,350 – 59
percent less.” (www.coastalpost.com/08/04/10.html)
USA Today reported that the “estimated 12,000 homeless accounts
for four percent of New Orleans’ estimated population of 302,000… The
New Orleans’ rate is more than four times that of most U.S. cities,
which have homeless populations of less than one percent.” (Rick
Jervis, “New Orleans’ Homeless Rate Swells to 1 in 25,” March
16, 2008)
The Associated Press reported
that “hurricanes Katrina and Rita
destroyed 41,000 apartments affordable to people earning less than
the area’s median income, and only 43 percent will be rebuilt
under federal programs. Prospects are bleakest for those earning less
than $26,150….only 16 percent of housing affordable to them
is scheduled for federally funded redevelopment.” (John Moreno
Gonzales, “U.N. Weighs in against Demolishing Public Housing,” February
28, 2008)
In the face of this overwhelming
need, New Orleans area service agencies struggle to provide housing
and other services, for both the populations they are serving and
their own employees. Suzanne H. Bourgeois, Program Director at Volunteers
of America of Greater New Orleans (VOAGNO) said, “As
of present, affordable housing is a tremendous issue...Rents are
still very high, in some cases tripled after Katrina.”
VOAGNO, a nonprofit faith organization that provides housing and other
social services to citizens in need in 16 south Louisiana parishes
(www.voagno.org), evacuated more than 125 residents and direct support
professionals from supported living houses in New Orleans during Katrina.
After successfully overcoming the initial evacuation challenge, the
organization was confronted with the longer-term challenge of finding
suitable replacement housing for their residents and staff.
Finding housing space is only
the first problem New Orleans agencies like VOAGNO have in providing
services for persons with disabilities. The second, according to
Bourgeois is “lack of direct support
workforce. We are not seeing many qualified folks that are interested
in the type of dedication this work requires and needs. Weekend shifts
are almost impossible to cover. I believe lots of folks can go out
into industry and make more money. I also believe we have some capacity
issues within our current waiver system. The state [of Louisiana]
has released an increase of waiver slots, but providers are having
difficulty securing staff.”
The Wage Facts page on the
Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council Direct Support Professionals
website states that “Louisiana ranks
last in the nation in direct support professional wages and benefits.” (www.la-dsp.org/dspla.php)
As Suzanne Bourgeois added “I do not believe our legislators
have a true picture of the important role that direct support staff
has…the impact of that on services to those with disabilities.”
Readers who want to help can
donate funds to nonprofit and charitable organizations working in
south Louisiana, or volunteer with an organization working to alleviate
these issues. Most important, though, is to increase public awareness
and government attention to this critical situation. Even non-citizens
of Louisiana can have a voice by writing to their Congressional representatives
and letting them know that providing affordable housing, supported
employment and housing initiatives for the city’s most vulnerable,
and a living wage for social service employees, is critical to providing
a humane environment for all citizens, those with and without disabilities,
in New Orleans and around the country.
The dedication of VOAGNO’s direct service providers in New Orleans—themselves
rendered homeless by Katrina—to their clients, as well as the
critical shortage of housing, has been carefully documented in a 2007
report by the Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC)
at the University of Minnesota, You Know that It’s Got to be
Dedication that I am Still Here: The Experiences of Direct Support
Professionals during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Aftermath, and
accompanied by an emotional and inspiring video entitled “Higher
Ground,” directed by RTC’s Jerry Smith.
The RTC project was undertaken on behalf of VOAGNO and funded by the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Network
of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR).
ANCOR is distributing the
video as part of its National Advocacy Campaign, “You
Need to Know Me,” which highlights personal stories of dedication
and heroism from direct support professionals around the country. Visit
the Campaign’s web page at youneedtoknowme.org.
Readers are also reminded
to be prepared for disasters. Reminding us to consider carefully
the implications of the New Orleans situation for other communities,
Glen W. White, Director of the Research and Training Center on
Independent Living at the University of Kansas and co-author of
the report, Assessing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Persons
with Disabilities, www.rtcil.org,
wrote recently that “the disaster that struck New Orleans is
a ‘canary in the coal mine.’ We have volatility in our
lives due to natural events, crumbling infrastructure and more contentious
foreign relations. How a disaster impacts people with disabilities
can be studied here and proactive steps taken to alleviate in other
situations.” ![]()
Disaster preparation resources
Online and print resources for disaster preparation are
available. The Center for Disability and Special Needs Preparedness,
based in Washington, DC, has publications and information
available through its website:
www.disabilitypreparedness.org
ANCOR has an emergency preparedness page on its website: www.ancor.org/
The American Red Cross has a booklet, Disaster Preparedness
for Persons with Disabilities, available at: www.redcross.org/
The DRM WebWatcher lists a number of resources, including
links to FEMA publications, at:
www.disabilityresources.org/
Disastersrus.org encourages
everyone to “have a plan” on
its website at: www.disastersrus.org/
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