NEW ORLEANS — Eyewitness News reported that the New Orleans Police Department plans to increase the number of officers on the street. 40 of those officers will be based in the 9th Ward and New Orleans East, but some said that's not enough.
Today about 80,000 people call New Orleans East home, but many said the services aren’t here.
Councilman Oliver Thomas said Hope Six, a housing program that launched in the mid-90s changed public housing, but then Katrina hit. He's now asking, “Why haven’t we adjusted our plan to deal with demographic shift.”
“The demographic that used to live in the core of the city those big six housing projects, post Hope 6 and post Katrina, where do they live now, Apartment complexes in Algiers and Apartment complexes in the East,” Thomas said.
He said the storm forced people to move, but the services didn’t move with them. He said, “All the agencies that service them United Way, Urban League, Volunteers of America, state social service agencies… Guess what all their agencies are still downtown.”
Katherine Sanders, Vice President from the Kenilworth Home Owners Association said the East has been forgotten.
“Where are the facilities out here in the East. Where is the help coming and when is it coming?” Sanders said.
She said social services are in dire need, "...Anything and everything just about we have to go to another city to get it.”
Mark Moody, President of the Eastover Property Owners Association said after Katrina, the city needs to bring back Six Flags.
“It would bring opportunities, it would bring jobs, it would re-invigorate New Orleans East,” Moody said.
“What Hurricane did was devastate the East and it never recovered.”
According to council, the 27 subdivisions in New Orleans East represent one of the largest populations of African Americans and middle and upper class of any district in the state.
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