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The Co-op
Experience
December 2007
In the Public
Interest: Rebuilding New Orleans
by Jennifer
Schlissel '09
Like many others, I witnessed the dramatic images in the wake of
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and wanted to contribute to efforts to
rebuild New Orleans. I decided to work with New Orleans Legal
Assistance in their Housing Law Unit. This afforded me a unique
view
of the many challenges low-income residents of New Orleans face in
their efforts to return home.
Every client assisted by the New Orleans Legal Assistance office has
been directly or indirectly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Although the population of post-Katrina New Orleans is half its
previous size, the incidence of homelessness and domestic violence has
more than doubled. The office assists a high percentage of displaced
residents who, in trying to return home, face difficulties finding a
home, a job and schools for their children.
After the Hurricane, the city, along with the state and federal
government, has selectively allocated resources to less damaged areas
where residents have been encouraged to return. This is evidenced by
where roads have been repaved, trash collection resumed, street signs
reposted, and schools reopened. It is impossible to examine our
response to post-Katrina New Orleans without examining the racial
significance of which neighborhoods were destroyed and where a lower
percentage of residents have returned. To truly rebuild New Orleans, it
is important for all residents to have equal access to housing, water
and electric resources, and education and job opportunities.
As a legal intern in the Housing Unit, I have worked on general
housing-related matters such as client evictions, landlord-tenant
disputes, successions and clearing titles to land. Much of these
problems have worsened in post-Katrina New Orleans as there is a
shortage of adequate, affordable housing, family support networks have
been spread all over the country, and many recorded documents were lost
in the storm. I have assisted clients applying for and continuing to
receive FEMA rental assistance, money from the Road Home program,
transferring their Section 8 or Disaster Vouchers to other cities and
back to New Orleans, and struggling to secure deeply affordable housing
in this city.
This coop has provided many opportunities to address problems facing
individual clients and ways to implement large-scale policy changes,
such as how disaster relief aid is distributed.
It is in the public interest to help rebuild New Orleans, not because
New Orleans is a beautifully historic city or because it has fabulous
jazz and Mardi Gras festivals, but because those who call it home
deserve to have assistance rebuilding their communities.
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