The population of New Orleans was steadily decreasing, between the years 2000 and 2005, 30,000 (6%) of the population left New Orleans in search of a better life (4). The population decline shows us that before Hurricane Katrina, residents were already considering leaving the city, some factors pushing them to leave the city include poverty and unemployment (5). According to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 23% of the population lived in poverty, which may be due to the unemployment rate of nearly 12% (5). With an unemployment rate twice the national norm and nearly a quarter of the population living in poverty, the city of New Orleans has faced many factors that have prevented it from solving the decline of its population before Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the storm, nearly 400,000 residents were displaced from homes located too close to safe areas or other states. The population remaining in the city fell to a few thousand (6). A month after the disaster, when levee breaches were repaired and floodwaters were pumped out of the city, residents were allowed to return to what remained of their homes. The first reliable estimate of New Orleans' population after Hurricane Katrina was an "American Community Survey." The survey predicts that by early 2006, around a third of the population, or 158,000 people, would have returned. In mid-2006, the city