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 that we must hold accountable those who abandoned us, and that 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 that plays 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. Our mission is: * 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. * 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.