First Came Katrina, Then Came HUD

[babylonsister]

First Came Katrina, Then Came HUD
By Lewis Wallace
In These Times

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Activists battle to save New Orleans public housing. More than 4,500 public housing units in New Orleans are scheduled for demolition.


The temperature in New Orleans was uncharacteristically cold in mid-December, dipping into the 30s. As thousands of homeless people living in encampments huddled in blankets, housing activists from around the country converged on the city to protest the demolition of more than 4,500 units of public housing, once at the epicenter of New Orleans' low-income African-American community.

In late November, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) had approved $30 million in contracts to demolish the B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, Lafitte and St. Bernard projects. Public housing residents, lawyers, religious leaders and activists who attempted to stop the demolitions met police head on. But their efforts succeeded in delaying some demolition and gaining significant national support.

On Dec. 20, however, police fought activists from the Coalition to Protect Public Housing with pepper spray and Tasers on the steps of New Orleans City Hall.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plans to demolish the majority of New Orleans' historic public housing and replace it with so-called mixed-income neighborhoods. The post-Hurricane Katrina environment of government inattention and slashing of public services created an opening for HUD (which has controlled HANO since 2002) to execute a plan it claims was in the works prior to the storm.

Since Katrina, the homeless population of New Orleans has doubled to more than 12,000 people. Despite what the New York Times on Dec. 2 called an "acute rental shortage," HUD plans to spend $762 million to demolish public housing and replace it with only 744 new units of affordable housing. HUD will spend an average of $400,000 for each new mixed-income unit, while statements by HANO'S own insurance company have shown that many of the multiple-unit buildings to be demolished could be repaired for less than $10,000 per building.

A Human Need

"Get these people off the street. It's cold outside!" said Sharon Jaspers, 58, a housing activist and former lifelong resident of the St. Bernard Projects in the 7th Ward. Jaspers, who spoke on the steps of City Hall on Dec. 18, was referring to the dozens of homeless activists and members of Homeless Pride camped out across the street in Duncan Plaza since July 4, 2007 to protest the lack of affordable housing. By mid-December, local charities were helping the hundreds of homeless secure housing after the city announced its intention to fence off the square and kick out residents.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011608H.shtml

[ixion]

1. ah, gentrification, such a beautiful thing...not

I feel sad for those poor people, and sad for the loss of a truly unique American city.

[babylonsister]

2. And this is the result of bureaucracy; it's not helping. Of course,

fat paychecks are at the end of this and the more residents that can be displaced, the fatter the payday.

[ixion]

3. yep, that's the plan... displace them, get them out of town, and get contrators on the dole

400,000 dollars to fix 10k in repairs. The contractors are celebrating, while the people of NOLA freeze in the streets. :(

[izquierdista]

5. Oh, it won't be unique

Once the have and the have-mores figure out the bugs in the plan to eradicate the poor, lower-class, and less than lily-white, they will repeat it with other cities. Soon all American cities will be as vibrant and planned as Epcot Center.

[ixion]

6. exactly... I saw this happen first hand in Key West

It's very sad that these people despise originality so much that they feel the need to sterilize anything real.

[elleng]

4. Shock Doctrine

'pushed through while the citizens of these countries were in shock from disasters or upheavals.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine