Nevertheless, when an outreach worker asked me if I wanted to go into the dilapidated home , I didn’t hesitate to say “of course”. My curiosity was too overwhelming for any other reply.

Trying my best not to hit my head, I followed the guys under the house to the “secret” entrance, using my Canon: Speedlite 430EX II to give my footsteps reference. I came up through the floor and immediately smelled something reminiscent of defecation and disheartenment.

Sad would be a gross understatement to describe the living conditions of the person who had been living there. Disgusting would be a compliment. There were piles and piles of used toilet tissue scattered in various areas of the house. Feces was thrown, or perhaps wiped, on the walls.  There were huge holes in the ceiling. And there was a sense of the truest despair I have ever encountered.

We visited several more houses that night, and each one had its own unique level of despondency but nothing seemed quite as deplorable as the first. All the same, I am grateful to have had another once in a lifetime experience.

Christy Garrison in front of her 1997 Mitsubishi Diamante, which has been her home for about a year. The car no longer starts, but will have to be moved soon. (Ray Tyler/ NYT Institute)

Christy Garrison’s 1997 silver Mitsubishi Diamante is her most prized possession. It provides her with storage. It’s where she eats. It’s where she sleeps. It is home.

A native of Plaquemines Parish, Garrison is one of Hurricane Katrina’s forgotten castaways, one of the estimated 12,000 homeless people now living on the streets

Wetahanna Trask, 34, a resident of Baronne Street transitional housing, and the program's director, Johnell Williams, sit in the common room as Trask discusses the adjustment period she went through when she lost her home. (Ray Tyler/NYT Institute)

in the city of New Orleans.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, New Orleans’ rate of homelessness is more than four times the national average. And the number of homeless children continues to make up a large proportion of that.

“I don’t want my baby staying in this car,” Garrison said. “She can’t take a bath and go to school. It’s not good for her.”

A soft-spoken woman with striking hazel eyes, the 35-year-old has seen a lot. She used to have a home and was “doing fine until Katrina came and took it.” After the storm, Garrison was staying in Belle Chase, La., in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer on Captain Larry Lane. Her trailer was taken away a year ago, and ever since  Garrison and her daughter Asia, 11, who’s mentally and physically disabled, have been homeless. The father of her other daughter, Shanbriel, 15, has custody of her.

For about a year now, Garrison and Asia have been living in the car, often parking on side streets near apartment complexes and abandoned buildings to sleep. Just two months ago, neighbors called child protection services to report that Garrison was sleeping in the car with her child. Garrison quickly had to make preparations for Asia to stay with some of her father’s relatives to avoid trouble with the authorities.

“I don’t need child protection on my back,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t want them to take my baby.” Of the relatives, she said, “I just need them to keep her until I get on my feet.”

Because of Asia’s disabilities – she has difficulty walking because of a stroke – an emergency shelter wasn’t an option: Being surrounded by large numbers of people and noise triggers bouts of seizures.

“I don’t know where to go, I really don’t,” Garrison said. “That’s why I need my own place.”

The urgency of Garrison’s situation continues to increase by the day. Two weeks ago the car began to overheat and hasn’t started since. The owner of the property where the car is sitting, in Algiers, has told her she has until Friday to move it.

With no transportation, Garrison now has to walk an hour from Algiers to Gretna to search for work. Her search has yet to yield results.

“There are times when I just sit in the car and cry,” she said. “But I have to stay strong for my child’s sake. I can’t just give up because I know she wants to be with me and I want to be with her.”

New Orleans is a foreign place for Garrison. She doesn’t know of many places she can go and has sought help from the few resources she knows of, namely the Red Cross and United Way. She’s also been to Lovetouch Ministries’ shelter in Gretna for help, but the building is currently under renovation.

“A lot of people don’t know what’s really happening in the streets,” said Pastor Joan Powell, founder of Lovetouch Ministries. “There are a lot of families out there that are homeless.”

Powell said that all she can do is refer families to another agency that itself may already be filled.

With the help of Lovetouch, Garrison has filled out an application to be considered for UNITY of Greater New Orleans’ housing voucher program. UNITY is the lead HUD-designated agency for homelessness in the Greater New Orleans area, partnering with 50 other agencies in the area. The agency has only 100 permanent housing vouchers at the moment to give out to qualifying families. While the vouchers are best fit for families, others may qualify for the vouchers as well. UNITY has been taking applications over the past couple of months and is still in the referral process.

Until then, Garrison can only hope and wait.

“I’m just praying I get something,” she said.

But as Garrison and others wait, the number of homeless families continues to increase.

Connie Andry, the director of homeless services for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, has also noticed the rise of families seeking assistance following the storm.

Twenty-five years ago, when Andry opened one of the first homeless shelters for families, she noted three main causes of the homelessness crisis: the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the economics of low wages and the lack of affordable housing. Today, Andry still notices these as common denominators with an added factor – the remnants of Hurricane Katrina.

“People just don’t have enough money to live off,” Andry explained. “It is very costly to live and the wages don’t match. Since Katrina, everything’s gone up.”

Affordable housing is very difficult to come by, Andry said. Four years ago, a two-bedroom apartment would cost about $600 a month; now they average between $900 and $1,000.

Clarence White, an outreach worker with UNITY of Greater New Orleans, climbs from underneath an abandoned house to find mentally and physically ill homeless people, in hopes of providing them help. (Ray Tyler/NYT Institute)

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, a UNITY partner, operates four transitional housing programs for homeless families that allow women with children to stay in a unit as long as they’re working and saving up to eventually move out on their own. Additionally, they provide a number of outreach services that focus on prevention of homelessness.

Wetahanna Trask, 34, is one of the 15 adult residents at Baronne Street Transitional Housing, a program operated by Catholic Charities. There, residents must have some source of income and pay anywhere between $50 and $200 a month for their stay. She and her 16-year-old daughter, Cierra, and twin 2-year-old boys, Devone and Devonte, came to Baronne Street Transitional Housing nine months ago, with a referral from an emergency shelter where they had been staying.

Like Garrison, Trask was living independently before  Katrina and at one point even held down two waitress jobs, at Shoney’s and IHOP. Trask’s home wasn’t damaged, but when she returned, the landlord had some other news for her.

“When I came back my landlord met me on the step, saying he was increasing the rent by like $200,” she said. “I couldn’t afford that.”

Three weeks later, Trask received an eviction notice and has been “bouncing around” since. Despite her situation, it took time to dawn on her that she was in fact homeless.

“The last thing you want to think is you really are homeless,” Trask explained. “I got comfortable staying at my sister’s or my cousin’s house. But it still wasn’t mine. It took a while for me to realize that we were actually homeless.”

And when Trask finally realized it, it hit her hard. In 2007, after falling into a deep depression, she tried to commit suicide.

“It took a toll on my pride, my womanhood and motherhood,” she said. “I just wondered,  Why can’t I get this together?’ ”

Now enrolled in classes to prepare for her General Education Development test, Trask is thankful for the help she’s received from the staff and caseworkers.

“I found a friend. That’s been my uplift because I hadn’t had a friend in many years.”

Three UNITY outreach workers, Mike Miller, Shamus Rohn and Clarence White, are also on a mission to help those needing a friend. As part of the UNITY Welcome Home project, twice a week the trio goes out in search for the “sickest of the sick,” those staying in abandoned buildings throughout the city, with the goal to get them needed medical care and eventually off the streets.

Many of these people are mentally and physically disabled and may be suffering from substance abuse as well. Because of their chronic illnesses, it’s often difficult for them to stay in emergency shelters, Miller said.

After surveying abandoned buildings during the day, looking for any signs of inhabitants, the workers make a note of the buildings and make plans to come back at night when they’re most likely to find someone.

Tuesday and Thursday nights, carrying flashlights and cups of black coffee, the group head out in search of their newest clients. The people they seek are usually at the most severe end of the spectrum, such as a 27-year-old mentally retarded woman with a history of a crack cocaine addiction who’s also believed to be five months pregnant.

She’s been staying in an abandoned house in Algiers with a group of other men and women. The only way to get inside is to climb up under the house and through a hole in the floor.

The workers called out, announcing themselves: “UNITY outreach, anybody home?”

Someone shuffled through the bushes, but it was not who they were looking for.

Stanley Lee Jefferson, 42, has been staying in this abandoned house for three years now. He says the woman they were looking for left with the rest of the group.

On any given night, the group may find just whom they’re looking for, or have no success at all.

Preparing to call it a night, they ran into a former client, Terry White. White has lupus and after Katrina she was living in abandoned houses after the city cleared out the I-10 overpass. The 46-year-old had been homeless for the past three years as well. Last year UNITY was able to get White medical and housing assistance. For six months now, White has been staying in a two-bedroom house in the Seventh Ward thanks to a permanent housing voucher from UNITY.

“It’s wonderful,” White said, smiling. “I knew they’d eventually help me.”

Jason Fraud of South Coast Solar works on a Holy Cross housing project that seeks to reduce the cost of energy in New Orleans. (Kenneth Hawkins/NYT Institute)

A project that seeks to curb the city’s energy appetite is one step closer to helping residents return to the Lower Ninth Ward.

“This initiative is setting the standard for green initiatives in New Orleans,” said Belinda Little-Wood, from the Louisiana Office of Recovery.

The project, located in the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward, consists of five single-family homes, a community center and an 18-unit apartment building.

Global Green USA, a company focused on renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction technology, began the project, along with financial assistance from actor Brad Pitt, as a design contest in 2006. More than 125 designers submitted proposals before the winning design was awarded to Matthew Berman and Andrew Kotchen of Workshop/APD from New York.

On Wednesday, organizers held a community event to celebrate the installation of solar panels. The event, attended by several dozen people, was held in conjunction with South Coast Solar, a local New Orleans company that provides panels and other solar-powered systems, and the Louisiana Clean Tech Network, a statewide nonprofit that provides job training.

With the installation of the solar panels, the exteriors of the first two homes are nearly complete.

“The addition of two solar energy systems will provide approximately 3,500 kilowatt hours a month and save residents approximately $50 a month on their bill,” said Troy A. Von Otnott, president of South Coast Solar.

In order to capture as much solar energy as they can, builders slanted the homes’ roofs towards the south and installed 12 panels on each home. The features should help residents use 75 percent less energy than other buildings, according to Global Green’s Web site.

In addition to helping residents, the installation also allowed students from the Louisiana Clean Tech Network the opportunity to participate.

“I am glad to participate because I know that I am contributing to the solar movement here in New Orleans,” said Julio Cardozaza, a trainee. Since January 2008, six classes have been completed by Louisiana CleanTech students.

Members of the community were also allowed to view the installation, 20 people at a time, by climbing scaffolding that was erected for the event.

The single-family houses are set to go on the market next month and will be available to residents of the Lower Ninth Ward who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. Exact prices are not yet available, but an announcement will be made next month.

Little-Wood called New Orleans the testing ground, a laboratory to show how green projects can work.

“Global Green is really setting the standard and being one of the leaders in the greening of New Orleans,” she said. “This initiative will be the focus of economic development for the next 20 years.”

Raymond Breaux, a former Global Green USA worker who came to the event on Wednesday, seconded the idea.

“This is what we should have been doing all along,” he said.

“Alternative energies are more viable.  What we are doing now is the current, but green is the future. New Orleans is the epicenter of the green initiative.  It’s important that we keep the city alive in the right way.”

In his last annual State of the City address, delivered on May 20, Nagin noted that Iberville’s redevelopment would not be a “total demolition.” Plans call for larger apartments, enhanced landscaping and a regular street grid.

“I believe it’s all for the good for what the project has been through for Katrina,” said Lester Jackson, 62, a lifelong Iberville resident.

Maggie Merrill, mayoral policy director for the city of New Orleans, said much planning for the site remained, including the number of units. “There is no master plan yet, and because of the quality of life issues that are there, we want to help improve it,” she said. Merrill said it is uncertain when groundbreaking will begin on Iberville and that it will largely depend on the financing available for the project.

In December 2007, Nagin approved the demolition of three of the four housing projects in New Orleans: Saint Bernard, C.J. Peete and B.W. Cooper, followed by Lafitte in early 2008.

For the Iberville project, the city will seek to have community input. A resident advisory committee will work with designers to create a master plan for the community, Nagin said in his address.

Merrill said the committee is being formed to make sure the needs and wants of the community are being met.

“A lot of times residents know better about what needs to be done than the people from the outside,” Merrill said.

Located next to the French Quarter, the Iberville neighborhood is steeped in culture that dates to the late 19^th century, when it was called Storyville. As a famous jazz district in the early 1900s, the area was known for its restaurants and clubs; in the 1940s it became a site for public housing.

Currently, there are 629 units in the Iberville housing development. Wayne Woods, chairman of the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, said that there has been no discussion on whether the community will be mixed-income.

However, in his address, Nagin said the goal is to move toward mixed-income housing, which allows people with different income levels to reside in one area.

Such arrangements can have both a positive and negative impact on a community, with an integrated economy as one of the biggest pluses, said Stephen Filmanowicz, communications director for the Congress of New Urbanism. However, he noted that it could push out some current residents.

 ”Over time it’s best to have as much public housing there as there was before to minimize displacement,” Filmanowicz  said.

 Although reaction by residents about the proposed plans has been mixed, Jackson said that having a mixed-income community is like a rainbow.

“During the storm there were people of all economic backgrounds coming together,” he said. “A new beginning will cause people to have a different attitude because of everything they have been through. I think it could be a motivational tool.”

It is a trend with a growing audience;  approximately 3.7 million Americans traveled 120 miles or more from their homes in 2007 to volunteer, according to a 2007 study by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency. And a survey by researchers at the University of California San Diego Extension found that  40 percent of Americans said they were willing to spend several weeks on volunteer vacations.

This combination of vacation and volunteer work has been dubbed “voluntourism,” and it  is a welcome boost in cities like New Orleans, where rebuilding efforts continue. While the current economic crunch may be slowing down tourism nationally, those who follow the voluntourism industry say interest remains strong.

Following the devastation caused by Katrina in 2005, voluntourism emerged in New Orleans, but it was not until 2006 that people began to track its impact, said David Clemmons, founder of VolunTourism.org, a Web site that coordinates voluntourism programs.

More than 5 million hours of work have been put in by voluntourists in an effort to help rebuild areas damaged by the storm, according to  the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

“People want more for their money now on vacation, they don’t want to just have fun and waste money,” said Grace Wilson, a spokeswoman with the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, a private agency. “And you can do that in New Orleans in a way you can’t anywhere else.”

Nearly four years after Katrina hit the city, thousands of homes still need to be rebuilt, and there is no shortage of other recovery-related projects.

Kristen Lamoureaux, director of  the International Institute of Tourism Studies at George Washington University, said  three major groups are driving the increased interest in voluntourism:  baby boomers, college students and families.

Lamoureaux said that baby boomers have more disposable income and a desire to have what she calls “active” vacations. These aren’t extended service efforts though; according to the University of California  survey, 23 percent of baby boomers said one week is ideal for a voluntourism trip, and 36 percent said they prefer to stay in North America.

With college students, the connection may be even stronger, Lamoureaux said.

“Volunteering is almost engraved in their education,” she said.

Educational  programs  that push community service in middle and high school carry over to college and encourage students to serve others, she said. In the University of California survey, 45 percent of college students said that they would be willing to spend several weeks on a voluntourism trip and that they would be willing to go to Africa.

Across the nation, many universities have opportunities, such as Alternative Spring Break, allowing students to volunteer and experience the culture of a different city.

Though voluntourism is less popular with families, Lamoureaux said, some parents are choosing voluntourism in an effort to help their children see the “bigger picture.”

That picture is starkly apparent in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, one of the areas hit hardest by Katrina. Volunteers from across the world have flocked to the battered neighborhood over the past three years, but there is still much work to be done to restore the community.

On a recent weekday morning, one of those volunteers, Brandon Buitenhuys, was doing his part to help restore a piece of the community through his work at the Lower Ninth Ward Community Village Center. But Buitenhuys was also on vacation.

Standing silent and looking out over the center’s backyard, where he had helped clear debris, he said, “It looks really good.” Buitenhuys, 20, from Andover, Mass., said he considers New Orleans to be a vacation spot where he can “get away” but also a place where he can make a difference.  He has made several trips to New Orleans since the storm to help on recovery projects, he said.

Mack McClendon, executive director of the Lower Ninth Ward Village Center, said volunteers like  Buitenhuys “help keep things going” in the recovery process.

Some volunteers who came in the beginning have returned several times.  ”I find that most amazing, because they could easily say, ‘It was four years ago, get over it,’” McClendon said. But instead, he said, “they keep coming.”

In some ways, this commitment is helping to connect voluntourists and residents.

“A few days ago, I stepped outside of the center and one of the neighbors across the street said, ‘You back already, huh?’,” Buitenhuys said laughing. “It feels like home here.”

As voluntourism thrives and evolves, the expectations of some volunteers have changed, said Denise Thornton, founder and president of Beacon of Hope, an organization that was created in 2006 to help homeowners whose houses were destroyed by Katrina. Some of the volunteers now also seek more interaction with the people they are helping.

“Before, people came in with a giving heart,” Thornton said, but now they  are asking for more, like the opportunity to meet those they are helping. In return, the sponsoring organizations have a hope of their own – that the voluntourists keep coming.

“We hope they not only get an experience but go back home with a story about New Orleans and help people understand we are open for business and that there is still a lot of rebuilding to be done,” said Aleis Tusa, a spokeswoman for New Orleans Habitat for Humanity, which has relied on more than 75,000 volunteers to build more than 200 homes since the storm.

Quantifying the exact number of voluntourists to the Crescent City is  hard, but officials estimate that of the 7.1 million tourists in 2007, approximately 6 percent were voluntourists.

“It’s absolutely helping to bring more money into the city,” said Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman with the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a state agency. Visitors who spend money on food, housing and other needs all help contribute to the local economy, she said.

“It’s two-fold because people are spending money and are helping to make it a more livable place so residents can come back and live,” she said. According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, New Orleans is currently at 72 percent of its pre-storm population.

Several luxury hotels are incorporating voluntourism into their businesses by offering service-oriented packages.

For example, the Ritz-Carlton connects guests, whether as individuals or groups staying for special events, with Habitat for Humanity projects.

For $100 over the room fee at the Ritz-Carlton, guests are provided with lunch and transportation between the hotel and construction site, said Char Shroeder, director for public relations for the  New Orleans hotel. Schroeder said that guests can sign up for the service online when booking their accommodations.

Ritz-Carlton guests can also purchase “Give Back Getaways” packages. Starting at $1,100 a night and requiring a two-night minimum stay, the first day of the Crescent City package is dedicated to volunteer work followed by a day of spa treatments. “Bring Back the Big Easy” starts at $259 a night and a donation is made to Operation Sudden Impact, which replants trees in damaged areas.

At various Marriott hotels in New Orleans, the “Big Easy Spirit to Serve Voluntourism Getaway” includes a $50 donation to Habitat for Humanity and a list of recommendations of various volunteer organizations.

While the national economic slump has not bypassed New Orleans, local volunteer organizations said that the number of volunteers and voluntourists has remained stable. This is despite soaring national unemployment and anecdotal evidence that Americans are generally being more frugal with their disposable income when it comes to luxuries like vacations.

Some organizations have said they believe that President Obama’s charge to Americans to become more involved in their communities will help the trend grow.

“I think the question will be in what direction it grows,” VolunTourism.org founder Clemmons said.  He said it could either remain a blend between volunteering and vacation or become an experience more like the Peace Corps.

Patrick Kelley, program coordinator for the United Way in Seattle and a voluntourist himself, said the trips are ultimately more of a learning experience and less of a vacation. He first got involved when he was on the board of an organization sending a volunteer group to Mississippi and later participated in Katrina Corps, a two-year-old organization that mobilizes volunteers.

“Every time I come down here I learn something different,” Kelley said. “People are so appreciative and I don’t think that they realize they are giving something back to me.”

 The plan had  been rejected by the St. Bernard Parish Planning Committee. It is  at the heart of a  debate between parish residents and developers.

During the meeting, Councilman Wayne J. Landry, without going into detail, announced that the appeal would not be heard. In an interview after the meeting, Landry said he received the paperwork late Monday night, giving the council inadequate time to review it. With this rejection, Landry said, the developers have two options: give up or return to the planning committee, which had already denied developers access to the tracts of land needed to begin construction.

John Relman, an attorney representing the Dallas-based developers, Provident Realty Advisors, said he was confused about the decision. “There was no clear articulation for the denial,” Relman said. “We still don’t know why we were denied.”  Relman did not say how the developers plan to move forward.

Relman attempted to make a lengthy presentation to the council, but Landry cut him short, citing a two-minute speaking limit for public comments. 

Developers argue that the complex will provide struggling New Orleans residents with an affordable place to live, while neighbors say it will lead to an increase in crime and a decrease in surrounding property values. The 72-unit complexes would reserve 50 percent of their space for tenants who make about $35,000 or less annually, and 20 percent for those who make less than $20,000 per year.

“The first and foremost concern is for our own safety and welfare,” said Dana Arcement, a licensed real estate broker and parish resident. “We, as a community, are not in favor of those types of developments here. We pride ourselves in single-family home ownership and we do not want these developments to be built here because all they do is perpetuate drugs and crimes. ”

Several residents spoke up during the tense meeting to voice their disapproval of the project.

“We have been ambushed by Katrina and we don’t want to be ambushed again,” said Polly Boudreaux, president of the Lexington Place Civic Corporation, a housing association. “We have made great strides. We struggled to build our neighborhood back to pre-Katrina. We don’t need more drugs and more crime.”

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, which supports the plan, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

After the meeting, some residents questioned the developers’ motives.  “They have nothing else to look out for but their own self interest, their own enrichment on this,” Arcement said. “They do not care about the citizens of this parish.”

Doug Reed, who said he owns several apartment complexes in the area, pointed to his inability to find tenants.  He says the proposed units would add more housing  to a neighborhood that is still struggling to fill empty buildings. “You have to look at the need,” he said.

Residents say that pre-Katrina, the parish suffered from the types of crime that the mixed income housing complex would bring back.

“We’ve been through it,” Arcement said. “Katrina wiped all that out. We’re looking for a clean slate here. We are looking for a new beginning. We are not a dumping ground, either, for low-income developments to be built here. We just do not want it.”

Reed denied, as The Times-Picayune reported on Tuesday, that race issues are fueling the tensions. “We aren’t talking about race issues here. We are talking about dense rentals,” he said. “We know there is a need for that but we just don’t like this plan. It’s not about ‘not in my back yard’ it’s about ‘do it in a better setting that managed is properly.’”

“We have white trash in this parish, white criminals in this parish,” Arcement said. “We don’t want them living here to protect the best interests of all our residents.”

Anthony Cohen protests for housing for the homeless outside of City Hall in New Orleans on May 21, 2009. Cohen has been homeless since 2005. (Kenneth Hawkins/The New York Times Student Journalism)

During his final State of the City address on Wednesday, Mayor C. Ray Nagin discussed the issues he believed were most important to rebuilding New Orleans:  construction, redeveloping housing, economic development and safety.

Reacting on Thursday to Nagin’s speech,  Jackie Clarkson, president of the City Council, said that the mayor gave an address that showed that although New Orleans had a lot of work to do  ”the city is still recovering and will reach a full recovery.” 

An issue that Nagin said is preventing the city from reaching full recovery is racial division. He called race a problem that the city must solve, or he fears “we may lose our balance forever.”

Robert Whelan, a visiting professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington and a former professor at the University of New Orleans, said that he was impressed by Nagin’s comments on race, calling them eloquent.   

“It’s a classic issue, and he made many good points,” Whelan said.

However, Whelan did dispute one of Nagin’s observations.  ”I’m not picking at Nagin, but he compared New Orleans to Atlanta and the two fail in comparison,” he said. Whelan said that in the 1960s, cities like Atlanta were working to desegregate their school systems and New Orleans didn’t do the same. He also said that New Orleans needs to focus on urban development if it wants to improve race relations. 

He said that in 1946, under Mayor de Lesseps S. Morrison, the city worked on an urban development housing plan that would have benefited black residents. The plan didn’t go into effect  because of complaints from local white politicians. Whelan said the city didn’t begin urban renewal  until 1964.

Outside of City Hall a  day after the State of the City address, Anthony Cohen, 50, said he didn’t believe his issue was on the mayor’s agenda.

 Cohen was  holding a hand-lettered sign, the city’s name not spelled exactly right,  that read, “Low Income Housing For Homeless More Jobs in New Oleans.”

In his speech, Nagin said that the city has awarded 300 elderly and disabled residents forgivable home-repair loans of up to $35,000, and he  announced that $10 million has been allocated for a second phase of that initiative. 

But despite that, Cohen, who said he has been homeless since 2005, said that there is much more that needs to be done.

Stacey Adams, 25, was one of the few people who Cohen said read his sign and stopped to speak with him instead of walking past.

Adams said the mayor gave a speech that many people expected him to, one that pointed out the positives.

 ”The state of this city is that it is still a great city,” Adams said. “I have been here all my life; no one can really understand New Orleans if they don’t live here. There are so many issues that lie beneath the surface.”

Cohen said that he will continue stand in front of City Hall with his sign.

“He didn’t talk about me,” Cohen said. “I must be a nobody because he didn’t talk about the homeless.”

Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans during his State of the City address Wednesday night. (Mylan Cannon/NYT Institute)

From the beginning of his final State of the City address, Mayor C. Ray Nagin made it clear that he wanted to “set the record straight.”

He painted a picture of a New Orleans that is on a steady track toward recovery four years after Hurricane Katrina, while denouncing the assertion that recovery efforts are moving too slow.

“We have the infrastructure development to support a world-class city,” Nagin said. “Our hurricane protection system is the best it’s ever been, and we’re getting better every day.”

Nagin delivered his speech on Wednesday night in the renovated Mahalia Jackson Theatre, which he called a symbol for the city’s future.

When he delivered his State of the City address in 2008, Nagin didn’t have the backdrop of the nation’s poor economy to worry about. Still, he appeared confident that New Orleans is on track to financial stability.

“We have more than $20 billion in construction that is driving an economic boom,” he said.

Nagin, who will leave office next May after eight years, announced that the city has signed a letter of intent to pay $7.3 million for the Chevron building, which would house the new “green” City Hall.

Redeveloping neighborhoods and housing was also on the mayor’s agenda. According to Nagin, after Katrina the city invested $20 million in housing and that investment has resulted in $200 million in developments and programs.

Recently, 300 elderly and disabled residents were awarded forgivable home-repair loans of up to $35,000. Nagin announced that $10 million has been allocated for the next phase of that initiative.

The mayor also announced that the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the federal Housing and Urban Development department are working together to turn the Iberville housing project, the only project without a modernization plan, into a mixed-income development.

Two gospel groups perform as video of Mayor C. Ray Nagin is projected in the background. (Mylan Cannon/NYT Institute)

He said that construction on the Saint Bernard and C.J. Peete housing projects has begun. Nagin also said that construction on the Lafitte housing project will begin in June or July.

The city continues to confront safety issues, and Nagin said that despite violent incidents , there have been improvements.

According to Nagin, the number of arrests has decreased, from 134,000 in 2004 to 84,000 last year. The number of violent crimes also fell, from 12,000 in 1994 to 3,000 in 2008.

However, he said he still recognizes that there are problems to combat.

“Just a week ago two young boys, barely teenagers, one 13 and the other 14, were unable to resolve a conflict and the tragic result left one dead,” Nagin said.

He used this example to paint a bigger picture of boys who witnessed the horrors of Katrina and grew to believe that no one cared for them. One result, he said, would be violence.

“We have three very combustible collisions colliding: post-Katrina stress, the re-establishment of the drug culture and too many of our youth wanting to be the next American gangster instead of pursuing the American Dream.”

Nagin made an appeal to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, asking him not to shut down the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital. He said that part of the violence in New Orleans can be attributed to mental health issues and that shutting down the hospital will increase violent crimes and suicides.

Nagin also spoke at length about race, an issue he said he believes has torn the city apart.

After Hurricane Katrina, there was controversy over displaced residents who were excluded from the voting process.

“We fought each other, blamed each other, vilified certain leaders, targeted and defamed some, and have come to the point where trust in this city is at a very low level,” Nagin said. “Sorry, but this is the naked truth.”

Although he used the term “naked truth” throughout his address, he chose not to discuss controversial issues facing the city’s government. The mayor did not mention the recent allegations that he received funding for trips from a company linked to former technology chief Greg Meffert. He also didn’t address the controversy that arose after it was discovered that e-mails he sent and received had been deleted by City Hall employees.