Katrina One Year Later - Housing: Welcoming Katrina's Victims Back Home

Since Hurricane Katrina overtook New Orleans and caused hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents to relocate, many families have struggled to obtain the kind of housing necessary to help them rebuild their lives and their communities.Barriers such as residential segregation, housing discrimination, and prohibitively high housing costs persist. These problems limit opportunity for millions nationally, and could hamper the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region. Attending to the housing needs of communities that have been most affected by these barriers -- such as people of color and low-income residents -- will help to build a stronger, more equitable Gulf Coast. This fact sheet reviews evidence of housing-opportunity barriers both prior to and after the storm, and summarizes some effective policies to reduce these barriers and expand opportunity