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KATRINA ADDITIONAL FACTS – May 10, 2007

• Number of teachers that Louisiana’s state-run Recovery School District was short for 2007: 70
• Percent drop in enrollment of Louisiana state public colleges and universities from fall 2005 to fall 2006: 12
• Damage sustained by local nonprofit health centers in Louisiana and Mississippi: $60 million
• The number of adult inpatient psychiatric beds in post- Katrina New Orleans, compared to a pre-storm high of 234: 17
• When New Orleans’ University Hospital reopened in November 2006, the number of its 575 pre-storm beds available: 85
• Over 107,000 people have applied for aid under Louisiana’s “Road Home Program,” yet just over 630 closings have been held to date.
• There are not adequate programs to help renters in Louisiana and Mississippi although they constituted nearly half of those displaced by Katrina. In New Orleans, average rents are up 45 percent from pre-Katrina levels.
• Despite the region’s severe affordable housing crisis, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), which is in HUD receivership, plan to raze almost 5,000 public housing units in the city, even though they did not suffer significant storm damage.
• The number of children is outstripping capacity, with students facing packed classrooms, few special-education services and a lack of books. This January, New Orleans public schools placed 300 students on waiting list because they had no room, sparking lawsuits by public education advocates.

# posted by Jon Easton : 12:11 PM  3 comments