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Hurricanes Illuminate Realities of the Region

Statement of Moises Loza, Executive Director, Housing Assistance Council
given at Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus News Conference
at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
November 8, 2005

Moises Loza, HAC's executive director, addresses the persistant poverty in the Delta Region before giving HAC recommendations.

The recent hurricanes have brought much needed attention to the extensive poverty and housing needs of Gulf region. While much of the attention has focused on New Orleans, the devastation was not limited to this city. Rural communities across the region were destroyed and thousands of rural housing units were lost or seriously damaged. Recent data from the Red Cross reveal that 606,953 housing units were either destroyed, sustained major or minor damage, or are inaccessible due to the storm (Figure 1). Of the 110 counties and parishes designated as disaster areas, 66 are rural and these communities are home to more than 700,000 rural residents.

Racial and economic disparities in the Delta region were not created by the hurricanes; however, they have been illuminated by these recent events. More than half of the affected rural counties are persistent poverty counties, having poverty rates of 20 percent or more since 1960 and most of these counties have minority populations of one-third or more. For 35 years, the Housing Assistance Council has worked with local organizations to increase community capacity and develop affordable housing units in the Mississippi Delta region. HAC will continue to monitor the needs of rural communities and work to address the comprehensive affordable housing needs of the region in collaboration with our local partners.

HAC Recommends

HAC staff are conducting a survey of 37 local organizations working in the Delta region. These organizations were asked to provide information on the most pressing organizational and community needs given the recent disasters. Based on our knowledge of regional demographic trends and our contacts with organizations working in the region, HAC recommends the following.

• Ensure that relief programs are reaching rural residents in need. HAC supports the mortgage moratoriums USDA and HUD have put into place to protect borrowers, as well as other programs designed to meet needs in the devastated region. However, nonprofits have reported that local field offices are often unaware of these allowances and consequently, rural residents are not being served effectively. A concerted effort should be made to communicate what is available and ensure that these programs are reaching rural residents who have been affected by the recent disasters.

• Support and strengthen local capacity. Nonprofit organizations have worked in the region to build affordable housing, create jobs, and meet the human development needs of the local communities they serve. However, the recent disasters have significantly increased the workload of organizations that have limited capacity. Many of HAC’s local partners report having lost computers and other equipment in the recent hurricanes, which limits the ability of these groups to meet local needs. Capacity building efforts should be undertaken to strengthen the nonprofit organizations that exist as well as create new organizations to work in underserved communities. In order to be effective, rebuilding efforts should work through the nonprofit organizations that are community driven, know the region and are aware of the needs of the resident population.

• Include local nonprofits and community residents in the rebuilding. Federal and state governments are working to create solutions for the Delta region. In order to be most effective, these dialogues must include the perspectives of local nonprofits, as these organizations work closely with the communities, understand resident needs, and will be an important delivery mechanism for future programs. Efforts must also be made to include residents who have been affected by the disasters in these decisions and maintain an information network that includes those families that seek to return to their communities as well as those that will remain in their adopted homes.

• Preserve funding levels for needed housing and social programs. Addressing the poverty and housing needs that exist in the Delta region will require extensive federal programs and resources. Programs such as CDBG, Section 515, Section 502, and food stamps will be critical to the revitalization of the region. Regional recovery cannot come at the expense of the very programs that will be needed to rebuild the Delta and other high need communities.

• Design programs with subsidies and supports that are appropriate to the needs of the region. As noted above, poverty in the Delta region is extensive and entrenched. Homeownership and rental programs must be designed with the appropriate level of subsidy to meet the needs of this region. The National Housing Conference and the National Low Income Housing Coalition have outlined a range of housing policy options, including silent mortgages, IDAs, and the extension of housing vouchers, all of which the Housing Assistance Council supports.

• Ensure that temporary housing solutions do not become permanent. FEMA has begun to house thousands of displaced families in manufactured and mobile homes. It is important that these temporary units do not become permanent units for the thousands of families displaced by the recent disasters.

Posted: November 8, 2005