The true committers of fraud

‘Study Finds Huge Fraud in the Wake of Hurricanes,” read the June 14 New York Times headline. The conclusion was based on a Congressional subcommittee investigation headed by Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican in the House of Representatives.

Did the study look for fraud in the huge contracts handed out like slabs of pork to giant contracting and construction firms and real estate agencies?

No. The subcommittee scrutinized individuals who received money from FEMA—the multi-billion-dollar agency under the Department of Homeland Security that initially offered hurricane survivors a measly $2,000 per family after Katrina, and then reneged on that promise. And that’s just the tip of iceberg of how FEMA callously abandoned the hurricane survivors in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

The study’s findings, based on Gov ernment Accountability Office numbers, showed that $1.4 billion in aid to Hurri canes Katrina and Rita evacuees—a
quarter of the total amount—went to “undeserving” or “bogus” victims. These include 1,000 prisoners and eight people living in one apartment who requested multiple federal aid.

McCaul, a former prosecutor, was reported to be shocked and appalled by the findings.

But what’s really outrageous is that federal officials are planning to demolish 5,000 public-housing buildings for the poor in New Orleans, the city hit hardest when Katrina struck last Aug. 29 because of sub-standard levees. (New York Times, June 15)

This move by the government would sabotage the chance for the mostly poor, Black displaced population to return home, and would worsen their already deepening housing crisis.

Part of FEMA’s sabotage is also its move to cut off housing subsidies for tens of thousands of evacuees by the end of June. At the same time the Department of Housing and Urban Development is eroding the right of housing for the poor under the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program that was first signed into law in 1974.

Is there any doubt where the real fraud is coming from? It’s from the government, with the help of big business, which is doing everything possible to criminalize and demonize the victims of the hurricane.

Why? To make it much easier for greedy, profit-hungry private developers to come into New Orleans to build luxury housing, condos, casinos and mansions, knowing full well that the costs are far out of reach for the poor, Black displaced population. This is tantamount to putting out a welcome sign to wealthy white people to move in and change the city’s economic and political landscape.

But as a Katrina evacuee said, “The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, becoming the homeless of countless other cities.”

Hundreds of displaced residents from the most devastated areas of New Orleans, the Seventh and Ninth Wards, have reportedly braved going over razor-wire fences, risking injuries, to clean up their own homes and apartments, many of which are labeled as uninhabitable.

Nickole Banks from New Orleans summed up the role of the housing authorities this way: “They’re not giving us help and we’re tired of waiting. People want to come home.”