Katrina-scattered Families Rebuild Separately And Together

HOUSTON (AP) — Bunk beds dominate the narrow living room of Chevelle Washington's modest three-bedroom brick townhouse apartment. Because I had an up- and downstairs. An estimated 1.5 million Gulf Coast residents fled Katrina, scattering like wind-tossed seeds to all 50 states. The black population has dropped from nearly 67 percent in 2000 to 59 percent today; whites, once about one-quarter of residents, now account for nearly a third. The people who have not returned have been disproportionately African-American, renters, low-income, single mothers and persons with disabilities, says Lori Peek, an associate professor of sociology at Colorado State University and co-editor, with University of South Carolina psychologist Lynn Weber, of the book, Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora. Since the storm, rents in the Crescent City have skyrocketed — up 33 percent for a one-bedroom apartment and 41 percent for a two-bedroom. About a 10-minute drive east, brother Rene's restaurant, Sleepy's Po Boys, offers fellow Katrina refugees a taste of home. Despite obvious progress, "It's still that sense of death in the air," says Champernell, 45, night manager at a hotel. Chevelle talked of a friend who moved her family back — only to have three of her boys killed in a drive-by shooting, victims of apparent mistaken identity. Much as she loves her hometown, it's not worth the risk. [...] she says, "It would never be home again." [...] off the field, it seemed he was forever trying to dodge tensions — like the taunt "N-O!" that the Houston kids would shout whenever New Orleans refugees passed in the hallways.

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