Public Housing Coming Down In New Orleans

In City With Rising Homeless Population After Katrina, Outcry Arises Over Tearing Down Units

(CBS/AP)  In a city with a rising homeless population, where two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita many residents are still without a roof over their heads, and where many admit there is a crisis in the availability of affordable housing, the government is knocking down houses.

It is not as simple a matter as bureaucratic bungling or poor timing, although heated comments by people on both sides of the issue reveal how raw emotions can get when bulldozers take down buildings which could be renovated to house some of the city's 12,000 homeless.

The nexus of protests this week is the B.W. Cooper public housing units, 14 buildings which had been ordered demolished two years ago, before the storm.

The demolition is part of a $750 million plan by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to tear down about 4,500 public housing units at four of the city's largest complexes and replace them with mixed-income neighborhoods.

Two thousand of the Cooper housing units have been occupied since Katrina. But those residents now ask where they will go.

Activists say the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) acted rashly to move forward with the destruction, without allowing public housing residents the option to renovate these buildings to provide new housing.

Members of HANO and some Cooper residents said the demolition was part of a plan that had been in place since before Katrina and was not the demolition that was approved after the storm.

The decision to knock down additional complexes has consistently met with protests.

"The units that are being demolished at B.W. Cooper, which is a resident-managed site, are a part of the demolition of 14 buildings that were scheduled to be eliminated before Hurricane Katrina," said Donald Jackson of HANO. "HANO approved the demolition on July 2005 to de-densify this site. Both the residents and management of B.W. Cooper were included in this process."

Demolition at both the B.W. Cooper and C.J. Peete housing complexes was approved earlier this week. The city council is widely expected to give the go-ahead to demolishing one or two other complexes as well.

But passions are high in New Orleans, where homelessness has almost doubled since hurricanes ravaged the city, and citizens are desperate for affordable housing.

Opponents are suspicious of HUD because the redevelopment plans - following a model used around the country to break up concentrations of poverty - call for a reduction in subsidized housing and allow commercial development on the sites.

There is also distrust about who ultimately benefits from rebuilding, following the St. Thomas redevelopment. After that complex was torn down in 2001, fewer low-income housing units were built, and land was sold off for a Wal-Mart superstore. More than 800 families were displaced.

Tessua Faulk, a 31-year-old teacher, grew up in the St. Thomas development, and saw some of her old neighbors left homeless from its development.

"They were too slick about the whole process, the so-called 'rebuilding,'" Faulk said as she watched the protesters chant "Housing is a human right!" and stare down demolition crews at B.W. Cooper. "It needs to be a two-way street: Residents need to be involved from the beginning, every step of the way," she said.

In a statement released Wednesday evening, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) said the he and several colleagues had called for HUD to halt all public housing demolition in the city.

Jefferson said he supports redevelopment of public housing, but wants HUD to find a place to house these residents while such redevelopment takes place.

"It is imperative that a solution to housing public housing residents be determined before demolition begins," Jefferson said. "...Without a plan that allows for complete replacement housing, HUD has completely disregarded the rights of rent-paying residents."

HANO, which is run by federal housing officials, has argued that many residents of subsidized housing favor demolishing old and crime-plagued public housing complexes so they can be replaced by new homes for the poor.

The legal fight began in June 2006 when a lawsuit was filed to force officials to reopen thousands of units closed after Katrina and guarantee former residents get affordable housing in the city.

In court documents filed last week, HANO said a poll found that 70 percent of former residents at one development liked the agency's plans. HANO added that some of the very people named as plaintiffs in the 2006 lawsuit now support the agency's efforts.

"I think it's a good thing to consider tearing down those complexes. They are no longer livable for anyone," one resident says in an affidavit, according to court documents.

The agency also contends many residents displaced by Katrina are unwilling to return to New Orleans because they have found better places to live.

Protesters have marched on Mayor Ray Nagin's home and disrupted City Council proceedings with chants. A march on the HUD offices in Washington, D.C., also was planned for Thursday.

On Wednesday, about 50 protesters temporarily halted crews from demolishing buildings at the B.W. Cooper site. CBS Affiliate WWL noted that license plates indicated that some protesters had come from Ohio, Kentucky and Massachusetts.

Norman Taylor, a community liaison for B.W. Cooper, argued that the protestors were not only interested in the well-being of tenants: "All these outside people coming here, protesting the demolition of public housing, are here because they don't want people in public housing living in their neighborhoods," he said.

Protestors vowed to continue disrupting work there and at other sites around the city.

Law professor Bill Quigley is one of the attorneys representing 4,000 people displaced from public housing after Katrina. He is leading a federal civil rights lawsuit against HUD and HANO.

"We've got people being kicked out of FEMA trailers all across the Guld Coast, we've tens of thousands of home owners who haven’t gotten their Road Home [a Louisiana housing recovery fund] money yet, and so there's a big affordable housing crisis," he told WWL correspondent Susan Edwards.

"In a housing crisis, you shouldn’t be tearing housing down."

[ianlou]

The culture and atmosphere of New Orleans was not created, it has developed over hundreds of years with the families who have lived there for generations as rich, poor and middle class American''s.

Without these people returning to New Orleans, the place will never by the same.

Any attempt at recreation will make New Orleans look like Disney Land.

[gheemaster38]

it''''s about time!!!!
These homes are rat infested, mold covered health hazards. I know because my house HAD to come down, I didn''''t want it to, but one strong wind and my home would have crumbled to the ground. Please let them build you a brand new home with no rats or mold. My god what are you people thinking?

The problem is that the "New homes" will only go to the rich. Not the poor or homeless. NO will become another Beverly Hills, CA with overpriced homes-That is until the next flood..

[staafl]

Are people living in these units now? No. So is anyone being tossed out? No. Gotta ask - if there''s no housing, are there any jobs? Shouldn''t people just move? Stuff happens. Have you lived in the same place your whole life? Read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. It basically says come here and give it a shot - it''s better than where you were. That applies in this situation too. It doesn''t say to plant your butt in one place and ask for government help to stay there. I''m over here in Houston working & paying taxes - but hopefully not for federal housing for people to stay in NO. Get real!

[rockingbee]

I think a lot of people are commenting on this without firsthand knowledge of the situation. I can''t take sides on this because I don''t have enough information to make a rational comment. I hope that whatever decision is made will eventually relieve the homeless situation in New Orleans, but I do agree that people should be trying to solve the problem instead of sitting around waiting for someone to do something. Hopefully the local government is helping people to help themselves.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by bb19631 at 04:02 PM

That''s it. Blame the victims. That''s all you worthless people are good for. Solutions? You aint got none!

[runningralph]

tburzio,
As a matter of fact Ray Nagin was the man who got on TV and told everybody there was a mandatory evacuation. Everybody was told to leave. He was not responsible for what happened after that. There is no law making the mayor responsible for private citizens'' transportation. They were told not to go to the superdome because the last time they went there they ruined the place. Tore up seats, used the whole place as a toilet. They cry about being poor, but I see a bunch of fat women with babies.

[michellem99-2009]

This is an issue nation wide. Stop the greed. Public housing NEED to go up NOT down.

[kindrox]

* What I want to know is, why people are still living in New Orleans if their is no housing? Move on people. You can make a better life elsewhere, where their is housing. Stop whining about what you don''''t have. Look for solutions. You need to start helping yourselves. No more handouts. Sorry, but its the truth. *

I find it unbelievable that someone would choose to live underwater, and then demand money when the inevitable happens.

[rudy654-2009]

I wonder if Al Sharpton will be done with his IRS audits to lead this march. Posted by Klingon69 at 02:59 PM

Who knows? Maybe you should listen more to Limbaugh.

[bb19631]

What I want to know is, why people are still living in New Orleans if their is no housing? Move on people. You can make a better life elsewhere, where their is housing. Stop whining about what you don''t have. Look for solutions. You need to start helping yourselves. No more handouts. Sorry, but its the truth.

[marcodele]

Affordable housing in New Orleans is still a very real problem. But so is an entire generation raised on the entitlement system. It is sad that people are willing to live in squalor as long as it''s free.

[tburzio]

Wasn''t it Mayor Nagin that sent the people to the Super Dome, and then abandoned them to their fate because he couldn''t find union drivers for the city bus fleet (stored nearby)...

[pghlady3]

it''s about time!!!!
These homes are rat infested, mold covered health hazards. I know because my house HAD to come down, I didn''t want it to, but one strong wind and my home would have crumbled to the ground. Please let them build you a brand new home with no rats or mold. My god what are you people thinking?

[klingon69]

"Protesters have marched on Mayor Ray Nagin''s home and disrupted City Council proceedings with chants. A march on the HUD offices in Washington, D.C., also was planned for Thursday."

I wonder if Al Sharpton will be done with his IRS audits to lead this march.