Four years ago, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast, unveiling a long-standing history of discrimination and need for better planning. While music festivals, parades and large scale youth gatherings bring large numbers to The Big Easy, some former public housing residents are still wondering if they’ll ever get the chance to return to the place they once called home. It is important both to remember the events that followed the storm and to recognize the problems that still affect low-income working families in New Orleans and the surrounding region. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research continues to document and analyze the circumstances and stories of women displaced by the flooding after Hurricane Katrina and by the demolition of the “Big Four” public housing developments. Survivors of the storm have found themselves without crucial supports, often abandoned by the system and struggling to stay afloat economically years after the disaster occurred.
View IWPR’s research on the women of the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita here