The Center for Social Inclusion
released their monthly “New Orleans Recovery Report Card” for May 2007. The Report Card, an advocacy tool for
monitoring rebuilding progress, assigns a grade for the 13 New Orleans planning districts based on
performance in five categories: economy, utilities, health, housing, and public
education.
May’s report still
looks dismal with not much improvement over previous months, especially in
the categories of health, rental housing and public education, which each received
an “F” grade overall. In health and
public education, all but three of the planning districts received an “F”
grade; in rental housing all but four received an “F.”
Other details from May’s Report Card:
- Only 25 of 447 registered "family child-care"
homes have reopened since hurricane Katrina. Together with child care
centers, less than 30% of total pre-Katrina capacity is available. - The Road Home Program will stop accepting applications at
the end of July, ending what was viewed by many as an example of "worst
practice" in rebuilding housing and a complete failure as a recovery
program. - With Charity Hospital still closed,
area hospitals are feeling the financial burden of treating the
uninsured. Officials at Slidell Memorial say they treated almost 20% more
uninsured patients from 2005 to 2006 and St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington spent a record
$21 million on uninsured patients in 2006.
In other New Orleans news, the Sun Herald reported on
June 15, that New Orleans city leaders are
turning to foreign countries, such as Saudi Arabia, for help to rebuild as
federal hurricane-recovery dollars from FEMA are slow to flow.
"As of June 8, the city said it had received just over half
of the $320 million FEMA has obligated for rebuilding city infrastructure and
emergency response-related costs. The city has estimated its damage at far more
than that – at least $1 billion."
Printer-friendly version
