Community Groups Storm and Take Over New Orleans HUD Office

[RagingInMiami]

Source: Press release (nothing on the news yet)

Several community organizations, including Power U Center and the Miami Worker's Center from Miami, took over the US HUD administrative office in New Orleans today, Friday August 31, 2007 at around 12:30pm. The groups are in New Orleans to commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The groups and residents are demanding that HUD open St Bernard's Parish housing project, which serves low-income Black residents. Two years after the area was evacuated in the post-Katrina floods,the housing project remains empty. Residents and groups have been prevented from rehabilitating and filling the vacant units, and the federal government has refused to do so.

US military vehicles, including armed Hummers, have surrounded the 25 people encamped inside, who refused to leave the building unless HUD officials acquiesce to community demands.The community effort to open St. Bernard's Parish is symbolic effort of the dislocated Black community of New Orleans to return to home. Residents such as former public housing residents have been met ignored, criminalized and otherwise excluded from the rebuilding of New Orleans

No link yet.

---

I just received this in an email and did a quick google check and came up with nothing, so it is that fresh. RIM

[underpants]

1. Wow

You don't see that everyday

[Oilwellian]

2. Yes, send in the armed mercs

Just like they do in Iraq.

[jdlh8894]

3. Strange

I was under the impression that all military vehicles were in Iraq

[HeeBGBz]

4. So this happened 10 minutes ago?

It's 12:39 local time.

[RagingInMiami]

6. I think it happened at 12:30 eastern time

[trashcanistanista]

5. Holy Shit!

I want pictures of armed hummers surrounding American citizens. I want this on CNN Now!

[backscatter712]

37. You expect too much of our corporate lapdog media.

They're still trying to figure out how to spin it so the protesters look like a bunch of nuts.

[JawJaw]

38. Bizarre

Living in UK, but can get CNN, Fox and CBS nightly news.

However, I learned more about REAL people in the US and the issues they face watching frikken Al-JAZEERA!

Check out their programme "Main St USA" - there was an extremely informative programme on the Chicago housing projects the other night.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/Templates/Postings/AJIFreeTemplatePage.aspx?FRAMELESS=false&NRNODEGUID=%7bCCA33224-25C5-4D70-A739-45DFB0036180%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2fNR%2fexeres%2fCCA33224-25C5-4D70-A739-45DFB0036180%2ehtm&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest

Not a hatchet-job on all thing US, as some might expect - but an exploration of issues and opinions that the lapdog media buries under the patio.

Also some interesting AJ stuff on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish

[superconnected]

7. Citizen heros who stand up.

I hope they don't get killed.

[snappyturtle]

8. Thanks for the heads up! I'm surprised it hasn''t happened before

now. These residents have been more than patient.

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Good. I hope there are more actions like this coming.

n/t

[RagingInMiami]

10. From the Times-Picayune

About two dozen protesters entered the Gentilly offices of the Housing Authority of New Orleans at about midday Friday, refusing to budge while public housing residents remain shut out of their former complexes two years after Hurricane Katrina.

The scene at 4100 Touro St. appeared peaceful at 12:30 p.m., but New Orleans police and National Guard troops have sealed off the streets surrounding the HANO building while negotiators try to remove the protesters without using force, an officer said.

HANO employees remain in the building as the sit-in continues.

About 2,000 public housing families remain shut out of their former homes, many of which were laid to waste by the floodwaters of Aug. 29, 2005. In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would demolish the city's four largest developments: St. Bernard, Lafitte, C.J. Peete and the B.W. Cooper, which is partially reoccupied.

HUD insists it has put a roof over the heads of every public housing tenant. The protesters Friday included critics, most of whom have never lived in public housing but show up periodically to complain about HANO.

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/08/protesters_enter_hano_offices.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. There's some rabid hate in the comments.

I'm talking frothing at the mouth rabid hate.

[Suich]

22. Man, no kidding!

They're pretty bad in the Miami Herald comments down thread, too.

[rodeodance]

17. Too bad this didn't happen yesterday-----as a Welcome to Bushco

[OwnedByFerrets]

24. This is important......K & R........nt

[KamaAina]

31. "HUD insists it has put a roof over the heads of every public housing tenant"

That roof, even if it's in New Orleans and not temporary housing elsewhere, is likely to be on top of a trailer made with materials so toxic the indoor air quality can be dozens of times worse than federal standards.

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2007/07/reparations-dam.html

They now admit that they're trying to kill us, and have been for a while.

Henry Waxman: Another FEMA official wrote, the office of general counsel has advised 'We do not do testing, because it would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue.' Early in the process, due to the perseverance of a pregnant mother with a four month old child, FEMA did test one occupied trailer. The results showed that their trailer had formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum workplace exposure levels recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The mother evacuated the trailer. FEMA then stopped testing other trailers."

[Magleetis]

11. Not

a single mention on any of the local NO stations. http://neworleanswebsites.com/cat/ne/lt/lt.html

One would think this would be big news.

[jdlh8894]

12. Typical Internet

My Dad and Grandads(on both sides) told me a long time ago,"believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear or read"

[coalition_unwilling]

13. Marvin Gaye also sang words to that effect in one of his more

famous songs (title of which escapes me right now).

[FiveGoodMen]

23. Heard it Through the Grapevine

People say believe half of what you see,
Son, and none of what you hear.
I can't help bein' confused
If it's true please tell me dear?
Do you plan to let me go
For the other guy you loved before?

[loudsue]

15. Should this be the "Woodstock" of the liberal movement?? Solidarity?

Maybe we all need to take a road trip to NOLA this weekend, and stand in solidarity with those who refuse to be marginalized. We went to Crawford with Cindy! Maybe it's time to put our politics where the rubber meets the road!

Let's go join 'em!!

:kick:

[otherlander]

36. I wish I could go, I really do.

If I had a driver's liscense and wouldn't be reported as a runaway. Still another year until that happens though. Another kick for solidarity:

:kick:

Correct me if I'm wrong, since I wasn't around at the time, but wasn't our Woodstock, well... Woodstock? :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I can't remember where, but I saw a news segment once about

how many of the apartments in that housing project (or another one much like it) were undamaged, but the owners weren't allowed back in. The theory was that land developers were hoping to tear the apartments down and build luxury condos.

[RagingInMiami]

18. From The Miami Herald

About 30 housing activists, including some from Miami, briefly took over the main office of the Housing Authority of New Orleans on Friday and were surrounded by police and military.

They stayed about two hours and left about 2:45 p.m. -- after learning that local housing officials were out of town.

''This was a good place for us to make a demand about people being allowed back into public housing,'' said Denise Perry, executive director of the Power U Center for Social Change, reached by cellphone inside the building in New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood.

The city's housing department is run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is also attempting to seize control of the troubled Miami-Dade Housing Agency.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/221774.html

[KamaAina]

19. St. Bernard project is in New Orleans, not neighboring St. Bernard Parish

it's along, surprise, St. Bernard Ave. There is nothing in St. Bernard Parish (county) that serves low-income Black residents, and never has been, because the white-flight residents there (it's down past the Lower Ninth Ward) do whatever they can to keep them out.

[Lost4words]

20. This is GREAT! We should take local HUD offices in support!

8643!

[KamaAina]

21. Also, this is the local housing authority office

not the actual HUD office. The confusion arises from the fact that HANO (Housing Authority of New Orleans) has been under HUD receivership for a few years now -- allegedly at the request of none other than mayor C. Ray Nagin!

[Jack Rabbit]

25. Power to the people

Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix
From the website of the University of Southern California

[valerief]

26. Double Guantanamo Wow! I'm impressed. nt

[Yukari Yakumo]

27. More linkage

WWLTV (NO CBS Affiliate) - http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl083107tphano.8c385df8.html
-- (Front page no less)

All I can say is about damn time.

[midnight]

28. It's evening here and I'm just reading that this happened this

afternoon. Is everyone allright? Bring these people in and help them find housing. Hopefully something good will come from this action today.

[appleannie1]

29. link

http://www.floridaworkforcehousing.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=916

[cui bono]

30. Good. We need more of this type of civil disobedience.

In fact, military recruiting offices might be a good idea.

[Raksha]

32. Great news!!! It's about time the dispossed of NOLA

stood up for their rights and refused to take no for an answer. Long past time, in fact.

[salib]

33. Then why are WE mot there to support them?

Huh?

[MasonJar]

34. Good for them. Now maybe someone in DC will pay attention.

[backscatter712]

35. Bout time the revolution started.

Could this be our Bastille Day?

[intheflow]

39. They need to do this in Mississippi, too.

No public housing has been rebuilt there, and HUD has plans to tear down the few existing, habitable units to build new at some undisclosed time in the future. Mississippi Housing Autority said the federal money to build is only to build new, not revamp old. :grr:

Thanks for posting, Raging. Feels like forever since I've seen you around DU. :hi:

[lala_rawraw]

40. why is the military surrounding

a public building on the streets of a US city to deal with a law enforcement issue?

[TheWatcher]

41. Because you live in a Police State.

All Hail The King's Men.