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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Temporary Housing after Hurricane Katrina

In Katrina’s aftermath, still a struggle to help, By Shaila Dewan, December 29, 2009, New York Times: “When Renaissance Village, the vast trailer park that housed Hurricane Katrina evacuees outside Baton Rouge, was closing down in May 2008, Theresa August was one of the last to leave. Babbling, singing and wearing a baby’s onesie on her head, she had to be coaxed into packing up the clothes and trash that crammed the trailer she called home. Now, Ms. August, 40, lives in a small apartment in New Orleans that she decorated with flowers and Christmas lights. A team of social workers ensures that she takes her anti-psychosis medication and gets treatment for H.I.V. infection. Still shy and fettered by a speech impediment, she can carry on conversations far more coherently than at any other time since the storm…”