Mission

To win the right of return with equity and justice for all those displaced as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by building a multi-national mass movement, and to ensure that the civil and human rights of all New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents are respected and implemented throughout the United States

Motto

Building People’s Power in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast

General Line

Political power is the only guarantee of relief

The motto and general line both describe and prescribe our philosophy, politics, and practice. All of what is listed below flows from these lines and from our general program and platform.

* To build and maintain a coordinated network of hurricane and flood survivors, community leaders, organizers and community based organizations with the capacity and organizational infrastructure that can help win the demands of people most impacted by Hurricane Katrina and government neglect.

* To facilitate an organizing process that empowers local, grassroots leadership with national and international support and foster oppressed nationality leadership, particularly Black leadership, with the support of a multi-national alliance. Place special emphasis on the involvement of women, oppressed nationalities, poor, gay, lesbian, queer, and transgender populations, immigrants, indigenous, youth, and people with disabilities in the relief, return and reconstruction process in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

* To create a sustainable space for networking and strategizing that ensures comprehensive movement building and political empowerment.

* To facilitate the return and rebuilding process and ensure local, grassroots leadership and participation in every phase. Ensure mechanisms by which those who want to return to home to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are able to, regardless of economic, geographical, or citizenship status prior to displacement.

About Us

Katrina put a spotlight on the horrors of racism, sexism, national oppression, poverty and environmental destruction in the U.S. After Hurricane Katrina, when it became clear the U.S. government was not going to help displaced communities, in particular Black and other oppressed nationality communities of the Gulf Coast hurt by the storm the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF/OC) was born. Community organizers and concerned people acknowledged, we must hold accountable those who abandoned us and those most adversely affected should have a central role in all aspects of putting our lives back together, individually and collectively.

The purpose of PHRF/OC is to ensure a grassroots hurricane survivors movement lead by people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region play a central role in all decisions made about relief and the rebuilding of their area. PHRF is working to build a People’s movement – a movement of grassroots persons disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the dehumanizing treatment they received from local, state, and federal officials. 

By grassroots, we are referring to those members of our community who are: (1) surviving families of people who perished; (2) surviving families of those who are still missing family members; (3) survivors of the Superdome and Convention Center; (4) survivors of those left on the interstates and the Crescent City Connection; (5) survivors of sexual and law enforcement violence; (6) renters and public housing tenants facing permanent displacement; (7) low income displaced people/survivors of New Orleans and Gulf Coast Region and; (8) displaced people that confront a host of unjust government decisions and policies, including eviction, gentrification, long-term or permanent displacement, lack of adequate resources and information needed to return home.