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Oct. 13, 2006

Final Report on the
Summer 2006 Survey
of Central City

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ........................................................................4

Executive Summary........................................................................5

Introduction ................................................................................9

Recovery Action Learning Laboratory .............................................9

History of Central City...............................................................9

Crime in Central City .............................................................. 12

Descriptive Statistics .................................................................... 16

Demographics ....................................................................... 16

Special Groups ........................................................................... 24

Crime and Safety ........................................................................ 33

Hoffman Triangle ........................................................................ 42

Limitations and Lessons Learned ...................................................... 45

Limitations .......................................................................... 45

Non response ..................................................................... 45

Female headed households..................................................... 46

Clusters ........................................................................... 47

Lessons Learned .................................................................... 48

Non-response ..................................................................... 48

Female headed households..................................................... 49

Clusters ........................................................................... 49

References ................................................................................ 50

Annex A: Methodology .................................................................. 51

Sampling Scheme ................................................................... 51

Weighting............................................................................ 51

Design weights ................................................................... 51

Non-response weights........................................................... 52

Overall weighting ................................................................ 54

Analysis .............................................................................. 55

Central City Population Estimate ................................................ 55

Annex B: Tables .......................................................................... 57

Descriptive Statistics ................................................................. 57

Female-headed Households ......................................................... 78

Owners/Tenants....................................................................... 86

Employed/Unemployed/Retired .................................................... 94

New/Longtime Residents ............................................................ 99

Presence of School-aged Children .................................................107

Hoffman Triangle ....................................................................111

Annex C: Maps...........................................................................119

Map 1: Central City Survey.......................................................119

Map 2: Occupancy .................................................................120

Map 3: Ownership .................................................................121

Map 4: Flooding....................................................................122

Map 5: African American ........................................................123

Map 6: Caucasian .................................................................124

Map 7: Hispanic ...................................................................125

Map 8: New Residents............................................................126

Map 9: Schools ....................................................................127

Map 10: Child Care ...............................................................128

Map 11: Safety ....................................................................129

Map 12: Health Care ..............................................................130

Map 13: Access to Information about Available Resources..................131

Map 14: Community Center .....................................................132

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Baptist Community Ministries for your support of this
study.

Primary Authors:
Jeff Coates, MPH – Recovery Action Learning Laboratory
Maya Matthews-Sterling, MPH – Recovery Action Learning Laboratory
Adam Papendieck, MPH – Recovery Action Learning Laboratory

Co-Author:
Megan Dieterich

Assistance with Data Analysis and Editing By:
Todd Noletto
Aaron Wise
Jennifer Weiss

Technical Assistance Provided By:
Dr. Nancy Mock, Tulane University School of Public Health
Joshua Rodd, MPH – The Payson Center for International Development and

Technology Transfer

Executive Summary

Increasing violence and slow development during the repopulation of Central

City following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has directed public focus towards

this historical neighborhood. Recovery Action Learning Laboratory (RALLY) was

solicited to expand its pilot needs assessment. The pilot needs assessment was

initiated for the Department of Justice’s Weed and Seed Project in May and

June of 2006. The assessment was extended on behalf of Baptist Community

Ministries (BCM) in August of 2006, for the purpose of increasing the sample

size of the household survey and developing a more sophisticated

understanding of the area known as the Hoffman Triangle.

An equal probability cluster survey was implemented for this study. Central

City was divided into 131 clusters of approximately equal size, and 33 clusters

were randomly selected. Within selected clusters, every inhabited household

was included. The sampling scheme, along with adjustments for survey non-

response, allows the findings from this survey to be generalized to the overall

population of returned households in Central City.

A population estimate of 9,582 people was calculated using the number of

residences in Central City from the 2000 Census, the occupancy rate within

clusters (stratified by response group and flood depth), and the average

household size (stratified by response group). A total of 218 household surveys

were conducted. Among the respondents surveyed, 84.9% were African

American, 8.7% were Caucasian and 2.8% were Hispanic. Almost half of the

households reported having a pre-Katrina monthly income of less than $2,000,

and a third of the responding households reported having a decline in income

following the hurricanes. With 17% of the households reporting to have no one

employed within their household, jobs and job training were seen as one

priority for rebuilding by the responding households.

The repopulation of Central City has, for the most part, been by homeowners,

and it appears that many tenants have not yet returned to the neighborhood.

Pre-Katrina, over 80% of Central City residents were renters. Currently, only

58.4% of the households surveyed are tenants. Many of the tenants in Central

City reported being ill-equipped for another hurricane. Nearly eighty percent

(79.4%) of tenants reported that they did not have renters insurance and 82.6%

stated that they did not have flood insurance.

Health and healthcare services are a great concern for many households in

Central City. Over 50% of households surveyed, reported a disruption in health

care resulting from Hurricane Katrina, and a quarter (25.4%) of the households

indicated they no longer have health insurance following the hurricane. Over

forty-percent of responding households indicate that their household has had

difficulty accessing assistance programs and 36.1% report that opportunities for

social support is a great problem since returning to New Orleans. This lack of

services and insurance has resulted in an increase in the vulnerability of

households surveyed in Central City, from which, 43.5% reported having at

least one member that has a chronic illness or disability. Physical disabilities

were most frequently cited as the type of illness or disability within the

household, at 65.7%.

Another, possible vulnerable group within Central City are female-headed

households. At least fifteen percent (14.7%) of the households surveyed can be

classified as female-headed households. Half of these female-headed

households reported a decrease in income following Katrina and 41.7% of these

households stated a loss of health insurance post-Katrina. More than half of

the households (58.3%) also reported having a disruption in their health care

and over forty percent (41.7%) indicated problems fulfilling regular eating

habits.

Central City has embraced many new residents following Hurricane Katrina.

Over twenty-five percent of the households surveyed are new to the

neighborhood. Of the new households, none appear to be homeowners.

However, in some important respects, new households seemed to fair better

than those households that lived in Central City prior to the storm. New

households reported an increase in income post-Katrina and indicated they are

less likely to be deficient in common household amenities. Long-time

residents--defined as those households who lived in Central City prior to the

storm--reported having more issues with health and health care as compared to

the new households. Close to half (47.9%) of longtime households reported

having a chronic illness or disability, whereas, only one third (34.0%) of new

households reported having an ill or disabled member in their household.

Almost thirty percent (29.1%) of longtime households reported lacking

prescription drugs or medicines that they need, while only 17.3% of the new

households reported this being a problem.

Many households expressed anxiety about the increase in crime in Central City,

and overall, people are feeling less safe. Prior to Katrina, 83.1% of the

responding households expressed feeling safe in their neighborhood out alone

during the day and 68.5% felt safe alone at night. Following Katrina, only

60.7% felt safe during the day and mere 34.8% felt safe out alone in Central

City during the night. Responding households indicated that crime prevention

is a high priority for them when it comes to rebuilding their neighborhood.

More than 66% of female-headed households reported that safety is a problem

in Central City after Katrina, compared to 30.8% of male-only households and

59.6% of mixed-sex households. When respondents addressed the question of

how to deal with the crime, the top responses were, educating the youth

(88.5%), improving police techniques (87.2%), and increasing police presence

(86.2%). Overwhelmingly (86.9%), responding households felt that a Safe Haven

should be established in Central City.

The Hoffman Triangle was of special interest to many of the partners dedicated

to rebuilding Central City. The demographic breakdown of this area differs

slightly from the rest of Central City. Forty-one percent of the responding

households in the Triangle are homeowners, as compared to 32.4% of

households outside of the Triangle that own homes. Only 24.1% are considered

primary tenants in the Triangle, whereas 49.7% of households outside of the

Triangle are primary tenants. In Hoffman Triangle, a mere 16.7% of the

responding households claimed to have an increase in income post-Katrina in

contrast to outside of the Triangle, where more than a quarter of the

households reported an increase.

Almost two-thirds (65.5%) of the responding households in the Triangle

reported a disruption in health care and 51.7% reported losing a job. Outside

the Triangle, 52.7% of households reported disruption in health care and 40.5%

of the households complained of a job loss.

The main limitation to this study was the high non-response rate, constituted

by both household refusals and unavailability to be surveyed. RALLY took

several steps to minimize this non-response, including visiting the non-response

residences multiple times and giving incentive cards for the completion of a

survey. Despite these measures, only 26.4% of the sampled households

responded to the survey. However, investigations into the non-responding

households were carried out in order to facilitate proper weighing for analysis.

Introduction

In August of 2006, RALLY was asked by Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) to

expand its pilot needs assessment conducted for the Department of Justice’s

Weed and Seed project in May and June of 2006. The pilot demonstrated the

viability of household assessments and resulted in validation of a number of

questionnaire items and scales. This expanded needs assessment both

increased the sample size of the household survey conducted earlier in Central

City and fine-tuned a diagnosis of needs in the Hoffman Triangle area by over-

sampling in that part of the neighborhood.

Recovery Action Learning Laboratory

The Recovery Action Learning Laboratory (RALLY) is a not-for-profit corporation

created to support evidence-based decision making in disaster and recovery

settings. RALLY focuses in particular on providing information in support of the

nonprofit sector and also emphasizes primary data collection in the post-

Katrina setting.

RALLY was born from early efforts by Tulane faculty and students to respond to

recovery planning and intervention needs. Several Tulane graduates form the

core team of RALLY. RALLY began conducting neighborhood assessments in

New Orleans in early October of 2005. Since then, RALLY has contracted and

collaborated with a number of nonprofit organizations in New Orleans.

History of Central City

Central City is a neighborhood of New Orleans nestled between the core

of downtown New Orleans and the historic Garden District. Because of its

location “behind” St. Charles Avenue with respect to the river, it was referred

to in the past as the “back of town.”

Formerly a large swampy area on the outskirts of New Orleans, 3-10 feet

below sea level, what is now referred to as “Central City” New Orleans was

developed early in the 19

century. The area directly behind the affluent St.

Charles Avenue was developed first in response to the opening of the New

Orleans & Carrollton Railway (later named the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar.)

Originally, this neighborhood was a center of commerce surrounding the New

Basin Canal and was populated mostly by working class Irish, Italian and

German immigrants. However, with the conclusion of the American Civil War,

many African Americans from rural areas settled in this part of the city

extending the urbanized area all the way back to Claiborne Avenue

This present day Central City now extends beyond South Claiborne into

what is now known as the Hoffman Triangle. The paradigm of typical New

Orleans architecture, the majority of houses in Central City were built in the

“shotgun” style to optimize space and serve mainly as two-family rental

properties, thus creating one of the most densely populated areas of the city.

According to the 2000 census, the Central City neighborhood contains

approximately 8,147 households

. However, the number of households has

significantly dropped after Hurricane Katrina.

Referred to in the past as one of the city’s most racially diverse areas,

Central City's commercial corridor Dryades street (later changed to Oretha

Castle Haley) operated as a racially-mixed and thriving business district that

beginning in the 1830s. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement this area was known

as one of the few areas where African Americans could shop without

discrimination and where people of all races and ethnicities would come from

all over the city to sample over 200 businesses. However at the close of the

1960s and the conclusion of the civil rights movement, business in this area

slowed. Among other factors, it is thought that the of other commercial areas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_City%2C_New_Orleans

http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/2/61/index.html

around New Orleans, as well as the migration of many of the wealthier people

of this area to the suburbs, may have propagated the economic decline of this

once thriving neighborhood

By 1990, the majority of the buildings on Dryades street were blighted or

vacant. This steep decline took the attention of the city, and initiatives to

revitalize the neighborhood were put in place beginning with the renaming of

the street to Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard after a local civil rights activist.

By the year 2000 gradual improvements in the vitality of the neighborhood had

become evident, but the positive momentum of this revival has since been

interrupted by Hurricane Katrina. However, due to its location and elevation,

much attention has been given to the post-Katrina redevelopment of this

area

1,3

Over the past few decades this neighborhood has been dealing with

poverty, low employment rates and high teen birth rates. The 2000 Census

reflected a 49.8% poverty level; 26.5% the households were single parents and

43.9% had not completed high school

. This neighborhood also includes and

borders three New Orleans public housing developments: C.J. Peete

(Magnolia), Guste (Melpomene), and B.W. Cooper (Calliope). However, C.J.

Peete and Guste have been in the process of demolition and redevelopment for

the past decade, a process that has come to a halt post-Katrina. Although

Hurricane Katrina had a profound impact on the neighborhood, many of the

socioeconomic problems persist in Central City and have been exacerbated.

Despite the present social and economic hardships of this area, Central

City is known to be the seat of many of the rich cultural traditions that make

New Orleans unique. Central City is the home to several of the Mardi Gras

Indian tribes which play an integral part in the famous New Orleans Marti Gras

celebration. The Free Southern Theater, a group using the arts to inspire and

support social struggle and fight against racism and exploitation, also

originated in this neighborhood in 1963. Many of the jazz musicians who

http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/2/61/snapshot.html

http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/2/61/income.html

played a role in shaping the now famous New Orleans music once called Central

City home, including King Oliver, Kid Ory, Papa Celestin, Pops Foster, the

Dodds and Shields brothers, Tom Zimmerman, Buddy Bolden and more recently

the rapper Terius Grey (Juvenile).

Crime in Central City

New Orleans has a reputation for being a dangerous city. In 2003 the

New Orleans’s murder rate was nearly eight times the national average of 5.5

per 100,000, and since then it has increased. In 2002 and 2003, New Orleans

had the highest per capita city homicide rate in the United States, with 59

people killed per year per 100,000 citizens—compared to New York City’s rate

of seven per 100,000

. Following a brief post-Katrina lull in the crime rate,

there has been a sharp increase in overall crime, especially murders which

have risen beyond the pre-Katrina baseline. Despite the halved population,

New Orleans is back at the average of 22 murders a month, and as of July (with

21 murders in July) the numbers seem to be on the rise

. With the lull in the

murder rate occurring during August, September has been right back on

average with four murders taking place over Labor Day weekend alone. Sadly,

many New Orleaneans, both pre- and post-Katrina, have come to accept violent

crime as an inevitable part of life. This seems to be especially true in Central

City.

March 21 2006, during a typical New Orleans jazz funeral procession
through Central City held in broad daylight an 18 yr old man opened
fire on the dancing crowd of mourners shooting two men and killing one
before being shot in the leg by a policeman.

Gelinas, N “Who’s Killing New Orleans”, City Journal, Autumn 2005

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/news/pdf/073106_violentjuly.jpg

Ripley, A “Crime Returns to the Big Easy” Time Magazine posted March 21,

2006

Central City has long been one of the city’s more problematic areas in

terms of crime and crime rates. However, post-Katrina, the neighborhood is

now widely regarded as one of the most dangerous parts of the city in terms of

murder and crime. While this change in perception may be partially related to

the devastation of other historically dangerous areas of the city and the

redistribution of the population around the city, there is an obvious trend of

recent murders in Central City.

There were only 17 murders in the first three months of this year.

However, two-thirds of the 53 murders this year in New Orleans occurred

between April 2006 and the end of August, the one year anniversary of Katrina.

One out of every four of these murders took place in Central City. A map

created by the New Orleans police department depicts the location of these

murders with numbered circles in the location. Of the murders listed on this

map all of the victims were men ages 16-27, all deaths were the result of

gunshot wounds

Perhaps the most startling of the recent murders was the quintuple

homicide that took place in Central City on June 17

on the corner of

Josephine and Danneel. Five victims--three of whom were 19 years old, along

with a 16- and 17-year-old—were shot multiple times as reported by local

papers while riding in a Ford Explorer around 4 a.m. They were the apparent

targets of a retaliatory strike by rival gang members. Some place this as the

worst single incident of crime in New Orleans since March 1995 when five

people were murdered in a Ninth Ward home

. The incident prompted Mayor

Nagin and Governor Blanco to request National Guard presence to help the

understaffed police department of New Orleans concentrate more on the crime

“hot spots” of New Orleans such as Central City. Governor Blanco recently

http://www.nola.com/news/pdf/062006_murderchart.pdf

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1205340,00.html

announced that these troops would be staying until the end of the year

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the increase of murders in

this particular neighborhood. Some believe that most of these crimes are drug-

related and are acts of retaliation or quarrels over turf. Police officials have

stated that they believe the landscape of abandoned houses, stretching block

after block, after Hurricane Katrina is being incorporated into a revived drug

trade, with the empty dwellings offering an unexpected convenience to dealers

returning from places like Houston and Atlanta

. Others point to a high level

of desperation amongst those returning to New Orleans.

Although the number of murders continues to rise there is hope on the

horizon. The quintuple murder in June not only gained the attention of the city

and country but it also caused a call to action within the community.

Recently, the people of Central City have started to take a stand against the

violence. On October 6

, 2006 a group of local ministers led by Raphael of the

New Hope Baptist Church all dressed in black suits, white shirts and red ties

marched from a the New Hope Baptist Church to the corner of S. Claiborne and

Martin Luther King Blvd. carrying a sign that simply said “Enough.” There, at

the monument to the slain civil rights leader, they discussed the problems with

the current violence, prayed and declared their mission to bystanders and

passing traffic

Furthermore, the New Orleans branch of the National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) met on the corner of Josephine

and Danneel, the same corner where the five murders occurred in June to

announce an interagency collaboration to combat violent crime. This NAACP

anti-violence committee will include police, community members, church

officials and members of the NAACP. The mission of this committee is to

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Sep/20060917News027.asp

Nossiter, A. “As Life Returns to New Orleans So Does Crime” NY Times, March 30, 2006

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-

17/1160205003253020.xml&coll=1

provide a unified voice and leadership to mobilize collective action to address

violence in the Greater New Orleans Area

www.nolaagainstcrime.com

Descriptive Statistics

Demographics

Based on survey data collected in summer 2006, RALLY estimates that the

current population of Central City is probably between 9,100 and 10,000

people, the best estimate being 9,582 (Table A) The current occupancy rate is

estimated at 32.9%.

Table A: Estimated population and occupancy rate in Central City.

Estimate

Range (95% conf.)

2006*

Central City Population

9582

9,156 - 10,008

Occupancy Rate

32.9%

2000** Central City Population

19072

Occupancy Rate

78.8%

*Figures calculated from RALLY's summer 2006 survey of Central City
**Figures from the 2000 US Census

Surveys were completed with 218 households. Demographics of the

respondents are presented in Annex B, Table 1. The 218 household

respondents reported on the experiences of 630 household members, including

themselves. The number of family members per household ranged from one to

nine; the mean household size was 3.04. Among the respondents surveyed,

84.9% were African American, 8.7% were Caucasian and 2.8% were Hispanic.

These findings do not deviate considerably from the data collected from the

2000 Census. Of the household members reported upon, 7.45% were four years

old or younger. Additionally, 10.46% of household members were 65 years old

or older (Annex B, Table 1). The majority of households (69.5%) contain adults

of both sexes. While 15.9% of households have only male adults and 14.6% of

households have only female adults (Annex B, Table 3). Almost half of the

responding households (48.8%) report having a pre-Katrina household income of

less than $2000 per month (Annex B, Table 1).

Chart A: Percentage of Central City residents by ethnicity and year

reported.

Central City Ethnicity: 2000 Census

84.9

2.7

8.7

African American

Hispanic

Caucasian

Central City Ethnicity 2006

88%

African American

Hispanic

Caucasian

Livelihoods

Hurricane Katrina dramatically affected the livelihoods of many gulf-coast

residents. While the damage all but wiped out some industries it also created

other means by which to make a living. While 33.3% of households surveyed in

Central City reported a decrease in income post-Katrina, 24.1% reported an

increase in their household income. The remainder of the responding

households (39.4%) reported no change in income. When asked if they had any

new sources of income since the hurricane, 42.5% of households reported

receiving money from FEMA, 33.0% stated that they got money from the Red

Cross and 7.9% of the households said that construction work supplied them

with a new source of income (Annex B, Table 4). Only 62.2% of households

reported having at least one member that is employed full time. Seventeen

percent of the remaining households contain no employed members. And,

17.1% report that all members of the household are retired (Annex B, Table 6).

Jobs and job training is seen by the responding households as a priority in

rebuilding Central City (Chart B).

Housing

The households interviewed reported a relatively low percentage of

homeownership (33.6%). However, it should be noted that this percentage has

increased dramatically post-Katrina. The 2000 Census found the percentage of

homeownership in Central City to be 16.3%. These results suggest that

homeowners are more prevalent among the current population of Central City.

Conversely, the percentage of tenants in the neighborhood has dropped. The

2000 Census reported that 83.7% of the Central City population rented their

residences. After hurricane Katrina, only 58.4% of the households stated that

they rented or leased their residence (Annex B, Table 1).

The housing issue is a great concern for many households in Central City.

Thirty-six percent of respondents indicate that since returning to New Orleans

their household has had difficulties accessing information about housing issues.

Many see a connection between renovating homes destroyed by the storm and

the productivity of their neighborhood. One focus group participant, a white

male in his late 30’s, expressed the need for housing in this manner, following

a lengthy discussion on the lack of stores,

But you see, a lot of the problems are the housing. You see a lot of the

housing ain’t here for the people that need them to live here and have
a store to run. They got to have some where to live, to work at that
store. And a lot of these house and stuff….I mean look at them, look at
the neighborhoods, nobody’s in them. They’re not livable, they’re not
getting worked on, there just sitting there.

Housing that is adequate in both quality and quantity is essential for the

revitalization of any community.

Most of the respondents (65.2%) said that the head of household lived at their

current residence prior to Katrina. Eleven percent claimed the head of

household lived in Central City before the hurricane but at a different

residence. And, 19.1% of respondents report that the head of household lived

in New Orleans before the hurricane but in a different neighborhood.

Household size has fluctuated since the storm. Twenty-four percent of

responding households claim to have new members.

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