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For Immediate Release
August, 29 2008, 10:18am EDT
Contact:
Taylor Materio 202-662-1530 x.227
taylor@nlihc.org
Statement of the Katrina Housing Group on the Third Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
WASHINGTON
Three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast of the United States causing the destruction of hundreds of thousands of homes and the displacement of millions of people, a severe affordable housing crisis continues in the Gulf Coast states. Let us hope that Tropical Storm Gustav does not develop into a storm that causes further harm to the people of the Gulf Coast.
17,000 families still live in FEMA trailers, though many of these trailers have been proven to be toxic to human beings. 28,000 families who now rely on federal rent assistance will face a new crisis in six months, when that assistance is scheduled to end, because there are no affordable units to rent in their communities. Many more in need of housing aid have been cut off wrongfully. Homelessness in New Orleans is at record levels. Poor people whose homes were damaged in rural Texas and Alabama are still waiting for promised assistance to make repairs, and many in Louisiana who got some rebuilding help did not receive enough to complete the repairs necessary to make their homes livable. Thousands of residents in Mississippi were told they would get no help because, although their homes were battered by hurricane-force winds, they received no flood damage. Thousands of HUD-assisted units remain closed and neglected, while thousands of others have been demolished and not replaced. Families remain separated and once beloved communities are forever lost.
As extraordinary as the disaster of Katrina and Rita was, the failure of the recovery to rebuild the homes of the lowest income people is even more so. Poor planning, red-tape, mismanagement, and disregard of the needs of the lowest income families characterize the rebuilding efforts.
We, the members of the Katrina Housing Group, call for a renewed federal commitment to a housing recovery that includes all people who were displaced and room for everyone who wants to come home.
The Katrina Housing Group is composed of dozens of national and local non-profits, faith-based, legal service groups and organizations, which have met weekly since September 2005 to advocate on a federal policy response and to inform those communities that continue to struggle in the hurricanes' aftermath.
As we reflect on the fateful day of August 29, 2005, we remain steadfast in our advocacy, buoyed by the unwavering resolve and sheer will of the residents of the Gulf Coast. It is their continued determination to remake and better their communities, in the face of overwhelming odds, which offers hope for a better future.
But they cannot build that future alone. The rest of us, and our government, must help them. Congress must increase its oversight of the funding it has already provided to make sure that those most in need are truly being helped. Congress must also appropriate enough additional funds to finish the rebuilding job so that all of those displaced can have a home to return to.
We call on the Obama and McCain Campaigns to articulate what their respective administrations will do to assure decent and affordable homes in the neighborhoods of their choosing for all people who lost their homes to Katrina and Rita and to promise the people of the Gulf Coast that help and hope are on the way.
The Katrina Housing Group is convened by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Members include:
National Organizations
ACORN
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Amnesty International
Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
Asian American Justice Center
Caddell Chapman, Inc.
Catholic Charities USA
Coan and Lyons
Enterprise Community Partners
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Everywhere Now Public Housing Residents Organization Together (ENPHRONT)
Fannie Mae
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Habitat for Humanity International
Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP
Hip Hop Caucus
Jesuit Conference in America
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
National Affordable Housing Management Association
National AIDS Housing Coalition
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Association for the Mentally Ill
National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
National Community Reinvestment Coalition
National Council on Independent Living
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Housing Conference
National Housing Law Project
National Housing Trust
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
National Leased Housing Association
National Low Income Housing Coalition
National Policy and Action Council on Homelessness
NETWORK: A Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Oxfam America
Policy Link
Presbyterian Church, USA
Public Interest Law Project
Technical Assistance Collaborative
Travelers Aid International
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
United Way of America
Volunteers of America
Gulf Coast/Other Organizations
Alabama Appleseed
Alabama Arise
Bayou Clinic
Biloxi NAACP
Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of New Orleans
Coastal Women for Change
Christopher Homes, Inc.
City of Houston
Collaborative Solutions
Common Ground Solutions
Enterprise Corporation of the Delta
Fair Housing Center, Inc.
Florida Legal Assistance
From the Lake to the River: New Orleans Coalition for Legal Aid and Disaster Relief
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
The Justice Center
Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations
Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana Housing Alliance
Lone Star Legal Aid
Memphis Area Legal Services
Mississippi Center for Justice
Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities
Mississippi NAACP
Moving Forward Gulf Coast
New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation
Providence Community Housing
Rich Smith Developers
South Bay Community Alliance, Alabama
Steps Coalition, Mississippi
Texas Appleseed
Texas Low Income Housing Information Service
Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid
United Way Texas
UNITY of New Orleans
Volunteer Mobile, Inc
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is dedicated solely to ending America's affordable housing crisis. Established in 1974 by Cushing N. Dolbeare, NLIHC educates, organizes and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone. NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy and educates the public on housing needs and the strategies for solutions.
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After the Republican Party's decision to terminate subsidies that had significantly reduced healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act for 22 million people, the White House is considering a new way to—officials claim—"help" Americans who face massive medical bills, either due to high-deductible plans that don't cover routine costs or because of emergency expenses.
The proposal, though, could just shift "who [the patients] owe the debt to," as one doctor and researcher told The New York Times, which reported Thursday on the Trump administration's proposal to allow people to take out loans directly from their health insurance companies when they can't afford to pay a hospital or doctor's office out of pocket—and then pay the insurance company back, likely with interest.
"Hard to top this level of dystopia," said one writer in response to the Times report. "Have health insurance through the ACA? The Trump administration is going to turn your health insurer into a loan shark you borrow money from if you can't afford to pay your portion of medical procedures."
As the newspaper was reported, the provision is buried in a 1,121-page final rule issued last month regarding how the ACA will be regulated next year.
The Trump administration is planning to significantly expand the number of Americans who are eligible for high-deductible "catastrophic" health insurance plans that provide no coverage for day-to-day medical expenses.
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By 2028, as Common Dreams reported earlier this year, catastrophic plans with lower premiums could have deductibles as high as $31,000 for families.
The plan to shift more people onto expensive plans that provide less coverage for day-to-day medical care—and to push patients to take out loans from their insurers—comes as about one-third of Americans, even those with insurance, report skipping meals or cutting back on other expenses to afford their medical bills.
The Times reported that at least one major health insurer—UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest—is already equipped to start lending patients money to cover unexpected medical bills. The company operates a bank that administers loans to doctors and offers health savings accounts.
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The advocacy group Protect Our Care said the "suggestion" buried in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' final rule "is not only out of touch, it is cruel—accruing medical debt only adds to families’ financial burdens."
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Elon Musk's net worth surged past $1 trillion on Friday as SpaceX—the rocket company he founded and controls—made its debut on the public market, prompting global revulsion and calls for an aggressive wealth tax to rein in out-of-control inequality.
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Reuters reported Friday that "most of Musk's wealth now rests with SpaceX, where he holds a stake worth roughly $866 billion."
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While Musk's on-paper fortune could drop below the trillion-dollar mark if SpaceX's stock price drops below $135 per share—which is highly possible, as experts argue the company's valuation is absurd—campaigners said Friday that the milestone is an appalling product of a society that has allowed the mega-rich to dictate policy, funneling immense wealth to the very top while millions worldwide face hunger, violent displacement, and preventable disease. Oxfam has estimated that just a 10% tax on Musk's fortune could lift 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.
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Musk's companies, including SpaceX, have relied heavily on and benefited massively from government contracts, subsidies, and research, while paying minimal taxes.
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Musk, whose immense wealth is largely stock appreciation that is not taxed in the US unless shares are sold, paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2018, according to ProPublica. "Between 2014 and 2018, he had a true tax rate of 3.27%," the investigative outlet noted.
Writer Elizabeth Spiers argued Friday that "trillionaires shouldn't exist," noting in a column for The Nation that "as Musk's wealth multiplies, he continues to prosper on the public dime."
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“It’s hard to fathom how deeply evil this is,” said Sen. Chris Murphy.
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The US government advises Americans not to travel to the Central African Republic "for any reason." But it just deported nearly two dozen people to the war-torn country, including several refugees who fled persecution in other nations.
On Friday morning, Human Rights First's deportation flight tracker reported that a plane used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had landed in Accra, Ghana, after departing from Louisiana the previous day and was believed to be en route to the CAR's capital, Bangui.
Per The New York Times on Thursday, the administration was preparing to deport "at least two Iranian women who had sought refuge in the United States" as well as "migrants from Afghanistan and Syria."
According to their lawyers, several of the migrants had received court orders from judges prohibiting their deportation to their home countries, citing the risk of persecution there.
A lawyer for one of the Iranian women told the Times that neither of them has a criminal record and that they both have been granted court protection due to fear of threats to their freedom or lives if they returned to Iran. One is a Christian convert, and the other is a pro-democracy activist.
According to Reuters, just the activist ended up on the flight from Louisiana. But the Christian woman is still at risk, along with another Iranian national.
Human Rights First's @ICEFlightM is monitoring this egregious situation, and we urge our policy makers to decry this life-threatening flight and other deals that send people seeking safety back to the very harms from which they fled.
https://t.co/ABZZMTQNuS
— Human Rights First (@humanrights1st) June 11, 2026
The burden of proof to receive what is known as a “withholding of removal” status from an immigration judge is even higher than that needed for migrants to qualify for asylum.
Those seeking their deportations to be halted must demonstrate that it’s more likely than not that their life or freedom would be threatened if they returned to a specific country due to their race, religion, nationality, or political or social affiliation.
In order to get around orders protecting these migrants from deportation to their home countries, the administration is instead dumping them in what have been described as "third countries."
The flight departed on Thursday is the first US deportation flight to the CAR, which is one of the poorest countries in the world and is reeling from a civil war that's displaced more than a million people both inside and outside the country.
The country is under the State Department's highest travel advisory, warning US citizens not to go there "due to risk of unrest, crime, kidnapping, landmines, health, and terrorism."
This is the @StateDept travel advisory for the Central African Republic.
The United States—a self-proclaimed nation of refuge—is about to send refugees here. https://t.co/uxfexS5S73 pic.twitter.com/pvYyxIQHdN
— Sarah Pierce (@SarahPierceEsq) June 11, 2026
"People on this flight proved to a judge that they were likely to be persecuted in their home countries," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. "This is profoundly unjust."
Human rights law experts Anjli Parrin and Savi Arvey wrote on Wednesday for Just Security that the administration was putting "lives at risk" by sending these migrants to a dangerous country where they know nobody and where basic healthcare infrastructure hardly exists.
They said the administration's deportation of these migrants "is the latest example of its dangerous and potentially life-threatening strategy: using secretive deals with countries to expel asylum seekers and migrants with no legal or personal connection to the places where they are being sent."
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Emily Trostle, a lawyer for the Iranian activist, told Reuters that the migrants facing deportation to the CAR "have absolutely no connection to this place."
“These individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection, and no support network,” she said. “We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled.”
According to Human Rights First's Third Country Deportation Watch, governments around the world have been given $44 million from US taxpayers to receive these migrants. More than 19,000 people, it found, have been deported across 24 countries.
Most of them have been sent to Mexico, but the US has also shipped migrants to some of the poorest, most unstable nations in sub-Saharan Africa, including Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Many have faced arbitrary detention and torture or been returned to the country where they fled persecution.
In order to avoid having to allow over 1,000 Afghans who fought alongside US soldiers to settle as refugees in the US as planned, the Trump administration is reportedly trying to ink a deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to take them instead, but the plan was stalled amid public backlash, and the administration is seeking other options.
It's hard to fathom how deeply evil this is, and that we have people running our country who get sick pleasure from sending women fleeing violence in Iran to an African country in the middle of a brutal civil war. https://t.co/JaN8z2LFI2
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 11, 2026
The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund said on Thursday that the deportation of Iranian nationals was a “potentially fatal action,” as they could face danger in the CAR or be sent back to Iran.
Another person scheduled to be deported to the CAR was an elderly man from Syria, whose immigration attorney, Margaret Stock, told the Times that he had scars all over his body due to torture in his home country.
He is a Sufi Muslim and feared persecution if he returned there, and is in danger of lacking access to care for his diabetes if sent to the CAR. According to Stock, he received an emergency temporary order halting his deportation.
Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee in charge of funding for the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration agencies, responded to the Times report on the deportations with outrage.
"It's hard to fathom how deeply evil this is, and that we have people running our country who get sick pleasure from sending women fleeing violence in Iran to an African country in the middle of a brutal civil war," he said.
Reichlin-Melnick agreed: "Evil is the right word for... taking people who are safe in the United States, who have proven to a judge they would be persecuted in their home country, and dumping them in a random country in the middle of a civil war."
"No previous administration would have done this, despite it likely being legal," he added.
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