Andrew Wakefield Journal

Day 1

Flying into Gulfport, one can see some piles of debris, blue plastic roofs, and even some small areas still flooded. I arrived a few hours before the rest of the U of M group, and while waiting I struck up a conversation with a parking attendant on duty. He told me that he rode out Hurricane Katrina from his trailer just north of Gulfport and although he "only" had about three feet worth of water damage, he knows a lot of people whose homes were destroyed, as well as, people who lost their lives. Many people left before Katrina hit, but many others stayed and faced the inevitable, not realizing just how big and devastating Katrina would become.

Driving through Gulfport to the church that will be our home for the next week, we see stores, restaurants, churches, and offices open, lots of traffic, and people out and about, all of which seem to hide the devastation. Yet, we also pass large piles of debris, completely destroyed homes, others still standing with the blue FEMA plastic roofs, mounds of trees and brush uprooted, and boarded up buildings. There's nothing to say about the destruction, and I found that we all reacted with silence.

I'm really excited for the coming week and look forward to using my legal education for something 'real', but I can only imagine what we'll actually witness through our work with Mississippi Center for Justice. I got a small glimpse of the types of stories we'll hear in my conversation with the parking attendant, and it is to hear people's stories and witness the devastation that is still so prevalent that brought me here to Gulfport. Yet, I also anticipate being inspired by the people we'll meet, and even the church we're staying represents the hope that must exist for continued recovery and rebuilding. Gulfport's First United Methodist Church has opened its doors to groups of volunteers ever since Katrina ended, and we were told on our arrival that the church's choir will be cooking dinner for us later this week. Tomorrow our work begins, and I can only imagine what this week will bring.

Attorneys from the Mississippi Center for Justice have told us that even six months after the storm, there is still no specific documentation of what the actual status of rental housing is in southern Mississippi regarding what housing has been destroyed, what has been repaired, and what is still being utilized despite its physical condition that renders it uninhabitable. Our main project for the week will be to record such information by traveling to as many rental housing complexes as possible, both subsidized and unsubsidized units, to survey their current condition. We will speak with managers to find out what they have done, or still need to do for repairs. More importantly, we will speak with as many tenants as possible to get the real scope on their living conditions and how they have been treated by their landlords in the aftermath of the storm. The Justice Center will ultimately use this documentation to establish a clear picture of the state of housing in southern Mississippi, and will present this information to the governor in advocating for greater resource allocation. The Center will also use this documentation to fight any illegal evictions and other landlord tenants' issues that have arisen since Katrina.

Mid-week

We've now been working on the Mississippi Center for Justice's housing survey project for a few days, and I'm still in awe of the destruction around us, as we drive from complex to complex through southern Mississippi. There is remarkable difference in the current condition of many of the apartment complexes we have encountered. While some sustained tremendous damage, such as a broken roof from wind and falling trees, many feet of flooding, and broken windows, they are almost completely repaired and occupied by tenants, other complexes, which may have sustained the same levels of damage, still look like they haven't been touched since the hurricane ended, even though people continue to live in them. I saw a woman's apartment in one complex that was infected with ants and roaches, especially in the kitchen, and still had the same moldy carpeting that had been under water when the unit flooded. She pointed out to me that her landlord had repainted her living room walls, yet you could still see the bulging water marks. This woman, as well as the other tenants of the complex, was poor and black, and it seems as though most of the apartments we've seen in need of the most work are those occupied by poor African-Americans.

A disaster like Katrina brings into a sharp focus the imbedded segregation and racial inequity of our society. The ultimate purpose of our work with the Justice Center is to expose such inequity. It seems as though the 'best' or most renovated and repaired apartments are those occupied by white tenants, who, more or less, are somewhat better off financially. The apartments for the poor, typically those that are subsidized through public housing or section 8 vouchers, seem to still need so much work, even just to remove the debris and infestation that exists. And more disturbing than the physical condition of some of these apartments is the realization that people are living in them -- families and young kids -- living in apartments infected with roaches, still moldy from water damage, and surrounded by trash and debris. Many residents have said that their landlords have done all they can to investigate the condition of their buildings and make repairs accordingly. But others report their landlords have tried to evict them or cut off their leases, and it has been only through sheer will, desperation, and a lack of any other alternatives, that they have stayed, only to enter an existence where hope seems all but lost.

Driving along highway 90 from Cadet Point to Gulfport, I was amazed by the enormity of the destruction along the entire route. House after house and building after building have been either completely destroyed or severely damaged, and it is striking to read messages such as "Looters will be shot." Piles of debris lay along the road waiting pick up, but there seem to be more stretches of land in which cleanup hasn't even begun. And this is six months after the hurricane -- I can't even imagine what it looked like the morning after. All I could think of was that if you were to stop on the highway and look at perhaps a block's worth of land, this must be comparable to what Ground Zero looked like right after the World Trade Center attacks. Yet, here, this block's worth of destruction extends mile after mile after mile. And after a while, I found myself becoming desensitized because it all looks the same -- block after block of severely damaged buildings, large piles of debris, and torn and twisted trees and brush.

Despite the seemingly hopelessness, I'm inspired by residents who, although have suffered more loss than I may ever know, do what they can to better their condition, rather than simply wait for help that seemingly will never come. Once such resident is Ms. Prince whom I met at an apartment complex in which probably only half of the units were habitable, while many others were boarded up and had severe roof damage. Ms. Prince's unit has a huge hole in the ceiling outside of its front door, lacks heating or air conditioning, and has moldy carpeting. She told me that although her landlord has repaired many of the problems of her neighbors' units, she feels that her landlord has purposely refused to fix her unit's problems because she is a foreigner. Ms. Prince also said she was denied any financial assistance from FEMA, has been forced to pay higher rent since Katrina, and has not been able to leave because she has no means of transportation since her car was destroyed by the storm. Yet, she has worked to repair and clean up her unit, and while I was speaking with her she was bleaching her carpet to remove the mold. She has filled her apartment with beautiful flowers, albeit it plastic flowers, which add wonderful color and character to her unit. She said people like coming over to her place because of her flowers, and it was clear that she takes tremendous pride in them. I was so pleased to speak with her, although I also felt disappointed that all I could do for her was give her information and contacts for the Justice Center for her potential discrimination claims. People like Ms. Prince seem to be doing everything right, but they need actual, physical help to fully recover from Katrina.

Final Reflection

The video clips on TV and pictures in the paper hardly do justice for the reality of the destruction caused by Katrina. I was expecting to see gutted buildings and debris, but it didn't hit me until we drove along the gulf coast or inland from county to county that I was truly struck by the sheer enormity of the destruction, mile after mile, and neighborhood after neighborhood. And by speaking with tenants and hearing their stories, I realized just how devastating Katrina was for residents of Gulfport, Biloxi, and other cities in southern Mississippi.

Working for the Mississippi Justice Center, we drove to and surveyed over 110 rental housing complexes in southern Mississippi to document the destruction and state of repair. The stories we heard of survival certainly make the stress of law school pale in comparison. The enormity of Katrina was simply beyond the comprehension of many residents, and therefore, although many left, many others stayed in their homes or community shelters, to ride out the storm, just as many had ridden out what had previously been the most destructive hurricane for the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Camille in 1969.

Returning to their homes immediately after Katrina, residents were faced with roof and window damage, major flooding, problems with mold and roaches, and even backed-up raw sewage. Not surprisingly, many of the apartment complexes we surveyed were empty, some completely vacant and awaiting either complete renovation or gutting. However, many units, despite their damage, had been deemed habitable, and therefore residents had been allowed to return. Yet, one wonders how some of these could possibly be considered livable. One apartment I saw was completed infected with roaches in its kitchen and had back-up sewage problems in its bathroom. Another had large bulges in its walls and ceiling caused by water damage, along with moldy carpeting that had been completely under water when the unit flooded and had yet to be replaced. Still, another unit lacked a roof six months after Katrina, even though its tenants returned. We saw too many of these conditions in southern Mississippi and our work of documenting these rental units will hopefully bring more state and federal resources into the area for recovery.

Yet seeing these conditions was only part of our work. Perhaps more important was speaking with tenants and hearing their stories of survival, as well as theirs feelings of being exploited and manipulated in Katrina's aftermath. We met a Puerto Rican man, who was one of the few tenants left in his complex as his unit avoided major damage, who said his landlord was continually threatening him with eviction and racial slurs, even though he had a valid lease, which he clung to with all his strength. Another woman also complained of racial discrimination by her white landlord against the complex's black residents, and she was so eager to speak with us as she believed that we could somehow fix her situation. Yet, all we could do for such tenants was listen and provide them with information and contacts for the legal aid attorneys at the Justice Center.

Listening is so important but it also felt useless at times. The people we met need real help -- they need repaired or at least sanitary homes, new furniture and appliances, financial resources, and jobs. One woman told me that she and her boyfriend each worked full time, but since they could only find minimum wage jobs, their combined income was hardly enough to meet the increased rent of their subsidized apartment after Katrina. This woman seems to do everything right -- she works, she raises her kids as well as she can, she has faith, and she has worked really hard to clean up her home. Yet, Katrina took everything from her and she needs real help. It was humbling to hear her survival story and daily struggles, and I found myself feeling so angry when she pointed out the large hole in the part of the roof above her son's bedroom, which had only been covered with a blue FEMA plastic cover in the past week. This woman deserves more than what she has, and she deserves more than what her country has given her in to rebuild her life.

Ultimately, the surveying we did will be used by the Justice Center in its advocacy for additional resources and funding from the state government. Since Katrina, this is the first actual survey that has sought to document individual housing complexes in order to paint an accurate picture of the state's housing conditions. The Justice Center will incorporate our documentation into its ongoing advocacy efforts. Further, by speaking with individual tenants and providing outreach to them, our work will hopefully allow many of their discrimination and unfair treatment claims to be addressed by the Justice Center and affiliated legal aid organizations. Yet, these goals, despite being so important for the ongoing recovery efforts, also seem overly broad. The tenants we met and complexes we saw need immediate, physical assistance -- repair, financial resources, new furniture, new homes. Even six months later, so much still needs to be done, and it's a recovery that will take years to complete.