Twice Displaced: Katrina and the Redevelopment of the Magnolia

University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Fall 12-18-2015 Twice Displaced: Katrina and the Redevelopment of the Magnolia Gabriella A. Garza University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Garza, Gabriella A., "Twice Displaced: Katrina and the Redevelopment of the Magnolia" (2015). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2075. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2075 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Twice Displaced: Katrina and the Redevelopment of the Magnolia A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology By Gabriella Garza B.A. San Francisco State University, 2012 December 2015 Acknowledgements I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to my mentor and chair throughout this process, Dr. Pam Jenkins. Without her continued support, patience, encouragement, guidance, and mentorship, this project would not have been possible. There were many times this year where I felt like giving up and stopped believing in myself, and her support never waivered. She has done more than her share to ensure that I completed this thesis. I would like to thank committee members Dr. Vern Baxter and Dr. Anna Brand for their valuable insights, guidance, and ideas that helped this project evolve and move along. I would also like to thank Rachel Breunlin of the Department of Anthropology for valuable information that enriched and changed the course of this work. I am so thankful, of course, for those who decided to participate in interviews for this project. I thank them for taking time out of their schedules to tell me their stories of life during and after living at the Magnolia Projects. I could not have made it through this journey without the love and support of my family and friends. This was by no means an easy feat for me, and they stuck by me through difficult times. I am eternally grateful for the role everyone listed here played in my completion of this journey. ii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Review of the Literature ................................................................................................................... 15 Gaps in the Literature .................................................................................................................... 31 Research Design ................................................................................................................................... 32 Findings ................................................................................................................................................... 46 References .............................................................................................................................................. 86 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................. 91 Vita ............................................................................................................................................................. 92 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Wolf (2007) ......................................................................................................................... 12 iv List of Tables Table 1: Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 41 Table 2: YouTube Videos and Photographs ............................................................................... 42 Table 3: Newspaper Articles............................................................................................................ 43 Table 4: Themes and Data ................................................................................................................ 79 v Abstract Where and how to house the urban poor remains a controversial issue. Public housing residents are particularly vulnerable. Issues of race, class and gender intersect in their lives. Public-private partnerships in urban redevelopment projects and a focus on issues that arise from concentrated poverty gave rise to HOPE VI policy aimed at deconcentrating poverty via public housing demolition and redevelopment. In New Orleans, the effects of Hurricane Katrina further complicate this contested process. The purpose of this case study is to understand how residents experienced and framed the process of displacement brought on by disaster and the redevelopment of the Magnolia projects, comparing those who returned to the revitalized project to those who did not. The data I collected are 4 semi-structured interviews and one focus group with residents, 56 newspaper articles, 25 YouTube videos, and 60 photos. Doing so uncovered nuanced resident narratives often left out of public housing redevelopment decisions. Keywords: C.J. Peete, demolition, displacement, New Orleans, projects, public housing, redevelopment vi Introduction The question of where and how to house the poor in urban areas has historically been divisive and controversial. This debate is bound by issues of race, class, and gender. In fact, race and class are strong indicators of where public housing projects were built in the United States. The median income and percentage of African Americans present in a neighborhood in 1950 are reliable predictors of a public housing project being built in that neighborhood (Goetz 2000). Therefore, while the urban issue of housing the poor is obviously one of socioeconomic status, it is also about race. Studies have also shown the obstacles to securing affordable housing that low- income women of color are faced with. From the initial campaigns of slum clearance to make way for public housing to our present reimagination of public housing in the United States, the displacement involved in these processes is a central issue. The poor in urban areas already face the various effects of social inequalities, such as difficulty securing housing, and also find their communities and housing under the threat of demolition and displacement. In addition to the social inequality that low-income people of color in the city face, there are a number of social problems that directly affect this population. Violent crime as a social problem of the poor is a major political talking point. Other issues are joblessness, single-parent households, lack of social mobility, healthcare disparities, financial hardships (e.g. less likely to get a loan/higher interest), and housing issues. Beginning in the 20th century, American cities experienced an industrial boom in the north, attracting black migrants from the south in search of better opportunities and an escape from racism. Racial tensions in the north came to a head as the black population climbed, exposing deeply ingrained racial prejudice and prompting white flight from neighborhoods where any blacks were present. As poverty concentrated in urban neighborhoods, several federal policy initiatives were advanced to house the poor that involved building large complexes that inevitably deteriorated, socially and physically, as a result of state neglect and disinvestment. The two main policies that initiated the construction of public housing were the Housing Acts of 1937 and 1949. These first public housing projects were built on slum clearance (Vale 2013). Though the Housing Act of 1937 promised to help the worst off of the poor, it did not. In Purging the Poorest, Vale argues that the first projects were selective, leaving the poorest on the margins. It was mainly upwardly mobile working poor who were admitted to 1 the first projects. Public housing was seen as transitional housing to get working families on their feet. Then, in the 1960s, legislation was passed to ease up on this de facto distinction of “deserving” and “undeserving” poor. This resulted in disinvestment and state neglect. The projects then became symbols of concentrated poverty and the problems that accompany it. Public housing was no longer a stepping-stone to a better life. It became more permanent housing for the poor, and shifts in the economy soon followed that further disadvantaged low- income black families in urban areas. For example, many manufacturing

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