Katrina Displacement Permanently Reduces New Orleans' Black Population by 100,000

By late 2005, an estimated 393,000 Black residents had been displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. By 2010, the city's Black population had fallen by approximately 100,000 from its pre-storm level of roughly 325,000 — a reduction of over 30 percent. Policies like the Road Home program and the demolition of public housing projects made return harder for lower-income Black residents.