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GUESTS: Jeffrey Buchanan, Communications Officer for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and Co-author of the report “Where did the Katrina money go?” Darryl Malek-Wiley, Environmental Justice Organizer with Sierra Club

On the eve of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, organizers and residents of New Orleans are demanding rights for displaced residents. A two-day, “Bring Our People Home,” event organized by the New Orleans Survivor Council as well as other organizations will call for government restoration of public housing so that many families can finally return home. The commemorative event is just one sign of many that New Orleans residents and Katrina victims feel that the pace of rebuilding the Gulf Coast is too slow. Critics of recovery efforts assail the federal policies of the past two years as a reason why many Katrina survivors have not been able to return to their homes and to their lives. In the lower ninth ward district, hit hard by the hurricane, residents and activists are still struggling to rebuild and victims are still seeking to come back. Only seven percent of the neighborhoods former residents have made their way back. Hundreds of homes, more so than in any other part of the city, were slated to be demolished in the neighborhood before New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was forced to call for a moratorium.

For more information, visit http://www.southernstudies.org/BlueprintShort.pdf and www.helpholycross.org