Can't Ignore Poverty and Class in Slow Katrina Response-or in Meaningful Recovery, Says Church World Service Head

Article from Church World Service:

NEW YORK--As the country continues to question to what degree race and class were reflected in slow federal response to Katrina's desperate and dying victims in New Orleans, the Executive Director of humanitarian agency Church World Service claims race and poverty both were factors, decries blaming of the victims, and says poverty and class must be considered in "meaningful long-range recovery."

Appearing on MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann on Sunday (Sept 11), humanitarian agency Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough stated, "No doubt race is an important factor in the Gulf Coast . . . but class is also a critical factor.

"As we looked at Katrina," McCullough said, "we were concerned about people of color," but McCullough said the debate now should be focused "more broadly on poverty and class."

McCullough, an African American, said New Orleanian survivors were "people victimized by the authorities" who had failed to "use the resources at their disposal."

He said the way governmental responses have unfolded "give us an opportunity to see whether the government acts as a safety net," which McCullough said should be the case but didn't happen quickly enough with Katrina.

McCullough said, however, that the disaster has "reopened to discussion the issues of race and poverty in a positive way. This should help us as Americans to look at the responsibility of one for the other," he said, and "our expectations of government."

Today, McCullough says, "It's absolutely necessary that we as a nation pay attention to the issues of class, of poverty, in how we now turn to the long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region and Katrina's survivors.

"The way we assist Katrina's most vulnerable survivors in rebuilding their lives over the long haul will be a litmus test--and can be a model--of how we must proceed as a nation in closing the gaping divide in this country.

"The world is watching us," he said. McCullough visited Louisiana days after Katrina struck and after the flooding of New Orleans, performing early assessment for CWS's response and to rescue members of his own family who had been in New Orleans.

McCullough says CWS is focusing on long-term recovery for the Gulf Coast and now bringing the agency's experience in international refugee resettlement to bear to assist those hurricane evacuees who want to or have resettled elsewhere, "to help make sure that these doubly traumatized citizens are not forgotten as a class."

CWS is the only agency responding to the Katrina disaster that has both an international and domestic emergency response unit and a refugee and resettlement unit.

Global CWS's expanded efforts for this unprecedented U.S. disaster include responding to meet immediate needs, organizing for long-term recovery at multiple faith community levels, and addressing assistance to relocated individuals across the country.

The agency's particular focus is on long-term recovery assistance for vulnerable populations.