On average, a quarter of the residents of U.S. But urban poverty is not exclusive to New Orleans pre- or post-Katrina. Thousands of poor New Orleanians who’ve come back are jobless and living in government-constructed trailers. Sixty percent of the houses and businesses in New Orleans still don’t have electricity. One year later, recovery is proceeding slowly, especially in those same poor neighborhoods. When the levees broke in New Orleans last summer, the low-lying, poorest areas of that city were the first to flood and the worst devastated. His insights remain unusually helpful now as we all continue to process Hurricane Katrina’s spiritual and societal lessons.įrom American Public Media, this is Speaking of Faith, public radio’s conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. He’s worked as a doctor to the homeless and studied the sources of urban poverty for two decades. David Hilfiker, in the days following Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina one year ago, then-director of FEMA Michael Brown said, ‘We’re seeing people we didn’t know existed.’ The world was shocked by images of residents of a great American city left to fend for themselves in subhuman conditions after a natural disaster. Martin Luther King said, you know, “None of us is well until all of us are well.” When we live in a society with such deep injustice as ours, you suffer spiritually. DAVID HILFIKER: We live so easily in a society in which other people don’t have a chance, and there’s something wrong with that. He lives creatively and constructively with questions many of us began to ask in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.ĭR. Two decades ago he left a Midwestern medical practice to work and live with his family and with the homeless in Washington, D.C. With helpful clarity, my guest today, David Hilfiker, tells the story of how concentrated poverty and racial isolation came to be in cities like New Orleans. One year ago this month, Hurricane Katrina brought horrific pictures of urban poverty into all of our living rooms.
KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: I’m Krista Tippett.
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