Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005

For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Trisha Miller
(202) 294-3547
August 24, 2006

Stories From Katrina Survivors - One Year Later
Free Housing Workshop Held For Those Still in Need of Housing Assistance

(Gulfport, MS) - One year later, the majority of Gulf Coast hurricane survivors are still mired in bureaucratic roadblocks to recovery. The storm's latest victims are public housing residents who face displacement from the apartments that survived Katrina.

In response to this new crisis, the Lawyers' Committee and the Mississippi Center for Justice are hosting a workshop for public housing residents in Gulfport. The workshop will be held at the Isaiah Fredericks Community Center in North Gulfport, 3312 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., Saturday, August 26.

The absolute number of people without adequate housing in the Gulf Coast is staggering. In Mississippi alone, 65,000 homes were destroyed by the hurricane. Without legal help and housing alternatives, families remain on the verge of homelessness.

Phyllis Kimbell has lived in Gulfport public housing for more than three decades. A disabled mother of seven children, four of which have served in Iraq, Ms. Kimbell's home was repaired after Hurricane Katrina and is currently habitable and in good condition. Earlier this month, the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority announced plans to sell or transfer Ms. Kimbell's public housing complex. If approved, this plan would displace Ms. Kimbell and over 1,000 other residents and force them into a rental market that is already stretched thin.

“The housing workshop is one way we are working to ensure that the government's reconstruction and recovery efforts meet the needs of those hardest hit by last year's hurricanes. Providing decent housing for families is vital to preserving the work force, history, and cultural heritage of the Gulf Coast,” said Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

Over the past year, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights has provided free legal assistance to more than 1,000 Coastal Mississippi families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.

For more information on the Lawyers' Committee, visit us at
www.lawyerscommittee.org


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