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William P. Quigley,
Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a
Job at a Living Wage. Temple University Press, 2003
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Leaving the Poor Behind Again!
By Bill Quigley
They are doing it again! My wife and I spent five
days and four nights in a hospital in New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina. We saw people floating dead in the water. We
watched people die waiting for evacuation to places with food,
water, and electricity. We were rescued by boat and waited for
an open pickup truck to take us and dozens of others on a rainy
drive to the underpass where thousands of others waited for a
bus ride to who knows where. You saw the people left behind. The
poor, the sick, the disabled, the prisoners, the low-wage
workers of New Orleans, were all left behind in the evacuation.
Now that New Orleans is re-opening for some, the same people are
being left behind again.
When those in power close the public schools, close public
housing, fire people from their jobs, refuse to provide access
to affordable public healthcare, and close off all avenues for
justice, it is not necessary to erect a sign outside of New
Orleans saying “Poor People Not Allowed To Return.” People
cannot come back in these circumstances and that is exactly what
is happening.
There are 28,000 people still living in shelters in
Louisiana. There are 38,000 public housing apartments in New
Orleans, many in good physical condition. None have been
reopened. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated
that 112,000 low-income homes in New Orleans were damaged by the
hurricane. Yet, local, state and federal authorities are not
committed to re-opening public housing. Louisiana Congressman
Richard Baker (R- LA) said, after the hurricane, “We finally
cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it,
but God did.”
New Orleans public schools enrolled about 60,000 children
before the hurricane. The school board president now estimates
that no schools on the city’s east bank, where the
overwhelming majority of people live, will reopen this academic
school year. Every one of the 13 public schools on the
mostly-dry west bank of New Orleans was changed into charter
schools in an afternoon meeting a few days ago. A member of the
Louisiana state board of education estimated that at most 10,000
students will attend public schools in New Orleans this academic
year.
The City of New Orleans laid off 3,000 workers. The public
school system laid off thousands of its workers. The Archdiocese
of New Orleans laid off 800 workers from its central staff and
countless hundreds of others from its parish schools. The
Housing Authority has laid off its workers. The St. Bernard
Sheriff’s Office laid off half of its workers.
Renters in New Orleans are returning to find their furniture
on the street and strangers living in their apartments at higher
rents – despite an order by the Governor that no one can be
evicted before October 25. Rent in the dry areas have doubled
and tripled.
Environmental chemist Wilma Subra cautions that earth and air
in the New Orleans area appear to be heavily polluted with heavy
metal and organic contaminants from more than 40 oil spills and
extensive mold. The people, Subra stated, are subject to
“double insult – the chemical insult from the sludge and
biological insult from the mold.” Homes built on the
Agriculture Street landfill – a federal toxic site – stewed
for weeks in floodwaters.
Yet, the future of Charity Hospital of New Orleans, the
primary place for free comprehensive medical care in the state
of Louisiana, is under furious debate and discussion and may
never re-open again. Right now, free public healthcare is being
provided by volunteers at grassroots free clinics like Common
Ground – a wonderful and much needed effort but not a
substitute for public healthcare.
The jails and prisons are full and staying full. Despite
orders to release prisoners, state and local corrections
officials are not releasing them unless someone can transport
them out of town. Lawyers have to file lawsuits to force
authorities to release people from prison who have already
served all of their sentences! Judges are setting $100,000 bonds
for people who steal beer out of a vacant house, while landlords
break the law with impunity. People arrested before and after
the hurricane have not even been formally charged by the
prosecutor. Because the evidence room is under water, part of
the police force is discredited, and witnesses are scattered
around the country, everyone knows few will ever see a trial,
yet timid judges are reluctant to follow the constitution and
laws and release them on reasonable bond.
People are making serious money in this hurricane but not the
working and poor people who built and maintained New Orleans.
President Bush lifted the requirement that jobs re-building the
Gulf Coast pay a living wage. The Small Business Administration
has received 1.6 million disaster loan applications and has
approved 9 in Louisiana. A US Senator reported that maintenance
workers at the Superdome are being replaced by out of town
workers who will work for less money and no benefits. He also
reported that seventy-five Louisiana electricians at the Naval
Air Station are being replaced by workers from Kellogg Brown and
Root – a subsidiary of Halliburton
Take it to the courts, you say? The Louisiana Supreme Court
has been closed since the hurricane and is not due to re-open
until at least October 25, 2005. While Texas and Mississippi
have enacted special rules to allow out of state lawyers to come
and help people out, the Louisiana Supreme court has not. Nearly
every person victimized by the hurricane has a price- gouging
story. Yet, the Louisiana Attorney General has filed exactly one
suit for price-gouging – against a campground. Likewise, the
US attorney has prosecuted 3 people for wrongfully seeking $2000
FEMA checks.
No schools. No low-income apartments. No jobs. No healthcare.
No justice.
A final example? You can fly on a plane into New Orleans, but
you cannot take a bus. Greyhound does not service New Orleans at
this time.
You saw the people who were left behind last time. The same
people are being left behind all over again. You raised hell
about the people left behind last time. Please do it again.
Bill Quigley is a professor of law at Loyola University New
Orleans where he directs the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center and
the Law Clinic and teaches Law and Poverty.
Bill can be reached at duprestars@yahoo.com
posted 11 October 2005
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updated 11 December 2007 |
