Members of the MO/TN Incident Response Teams Urban Search and Rescue teams and local officials help evacuate people trapped in their flooded homes by Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 30, 2005. Floodwaters engulfed much of New Orleans on Tuesday as officials feared a steep death toll and planned to evacuate thousands remaining in shelters after the historic city's defenses were breached by Hurricane Katrina. (UPI Photo/Vincent Laforet/Pool) | License Photo
RECAPTION WITH MORE INFORMATION: In this photo released by NOAA, the top half of the picture look east and shows New Orleans neighborhoods inundated with water east of the 17th Street Canal, which can be seen horizontal on the lower half of the picture. The dry houses at the bottom are in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. The 17th Street Canal levee was breached during Hurricane Katrina, and is located to the left of the picture but not seen. The canal separates Orleans Parish from Jefferson Parish. Photo released on September 1, 2005 and made on August 31, 2005. The wide horizontal water inundated road on the top half of the picture is the tree-line West End Blvd. (UPI Photo/NOAA) | License Photo
An aerial view of the devastation caused by high winds and heavy flooding in the greater New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 30, 2005. Floodwaters engulfed much of New Orleans on Tuesday as officials feared a steep death toll and planned to evacuate thousands remaining in shelters after the historic city's defenses were breached by Hurricane Katrina. (UPI Photo/Vincent Laforet/Pool) | License Photo
Residents stand on a roof top in this aerial photographs of the devastation caused by the high winds and heavy flooding in the greater New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. (UPI Photo/Vincent Laforet/Pool) | License Photo
A man carries a baby through the flooded streets of New Orleans outside the cities Super Dome football stadium on August 31, 2005. Tens of thousands of displaced citizens sought shelter at the dome, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, but have been forced to evacuate as floodwaters continue to rise throughout the area. (UPI Photo/Jeremy L. Grisham/Navy) . | License Photo
U.S. Navy air crewmen assigned to Helicopter Support Unit Pensacola, Fla., survey damage from Hurricane Katrina en route to Stennis Space Center, Miss., on Sept. 1, 2005, after leaving Naval Air Station Pensacola to provide support and relief to victims of the hurricane. The Navy's involvement in the humanitarian assistance operations is led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in conjunction with the Department of Defense. (UPI Photo/Larry W. Kachelhofer/DOD) | License Photo
Hurricane Katrina refugees fill the Astrodome floor in Houston, Texas on Friday, September 2, 2005. (UPI Photo/Chris Carson) | License Photo
Deandra Simon, pregnant and already a mother of two, recieved an MRE and one bottle of water at the convention center in downtown New Orleans on Sept. 2, 2005. Many people there have had little food or water for the last three days. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Affluent whites benefited more than poor blacks from programs meant to help Gulf Coast residents recover from Hurricane Katrina, an official says.
Governments in Mississippi and Louisiana structured rebuilding programs in a way that provided the most help to the most affluent residents, The Washington Post reported Friday.
"The recovery is really the tale of two recoveries," said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. "For people who were well-off before the storm, they are more likely to be back in their homes, back in their jobs and to have access to good healthcare. For those who were poor or struggling to get by before the storm, the opposite is true."
A federal judge found this month Louisiana's program to distribute funds allocated following the 2005 hurricane discriminated against African-American homeowners.
In Mississippi, state officials refused to give rebuilding grants to property owners suffering wind damage, claiming they should have carried private insurance, which hit low-income and African-American homeowners especially hard, the report said.
About $143 billion in federal funding was appropriated to rebuild areas damaged by the hurricane. A recent poll indicated African-Americans are more than twice as likely as whites to say they haven't recovered from the hurricane, the newspaper said.
