Guess Who Gets to Rebuild in New Orleans?

Mikaela says:
Not poor people!

Here's Democracy Now's summary of the NY Times article:

Over 77,000 Katrina Home Loan Applications Rejected
The New York Times is reporting hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast families are being denied government loans to rebuild homes lost or damaged in Hurricane Katrina. According to the Times, the Small Business Administration -- the federal agency in charge of the main disaster recovery program for businesses and homeowners -- has processed only a third of the 276,000 loan applications it has received. Of those that have been reviewed, the government has rejected 82 percent of home loan applications – over 77,000 rejections. In New Orleans, approved loans appear to be heavily tilted towards wealthy neighborhoods over poor ones. Herbert Mitchell, director of the Small Business Administration’s disaster assistance program, told the Times the government could not risk taxpayer money by lending to people with low incomes or poor credit history. Mitchell said: "We're just dealing with the demographics in the area."

Sounds bad, doesn't it?

Here's what the NY Times article is headlined:

Loans to Homeowners Along Gulf Coast Lag

Lag? Lag? 82% rejection rate is a "lag"? Lag for whom? Not for upper income people! Talk about burying your lead! Talk about blatant whitewashing!

Here's quotes from the actual story that garnered that oh-so-benign headline:

And [the Small Business Administration (S.B.A.)] has rejected 82 percent of those it has reviewed, a higher percentage than in most previous disasters, saying that many would-be borrowers did not have incomes high enough, or credit ratings good enough, to qualify. The rejections came even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency has referred more than two million people, many of them with low incomes, to the S.B.A. to get the loans.
...

To a large degree, that high rejection rate appears to reflect a mismatch between existing government aid programs and the large number of low-income people affected by this year's hurricanes. Despite the widespread poverty in the most damaged regions, the Small Business Administration has not adjusted its creditworthiness standards, which are roughly comparable to a bank's.

In fact, the loans that have been approved appear to be flowing to wealthy neighborhoods in New Orleans but not to poor ones, according to a list of loans released by the government and mapped by The New York Times.

Remember what the government's own report found about bank funding: It's racist.

Sounds like a good model for the SBA!

To read alternative ways to rebuild, remember m-pyre's suggestions here and here and here and here. Needless to say, it ain't lookin' good! Uh, Congress? Can we do something? Quickly?

P.S. Bush just asked for another $1.5 billion. He says it's for rebuilding the levees. Who do you think that's really for? I'm guessing not poor, black homeowners. I'm thinking business owners. Safe bet, no? I bet you anything New Orleans is going to get a whole slew of new sports stadiums and a new downtown harbor a la Boston.