SURVIVORS VILLAGE
Media contact:
Endesha Juakali / survivorsvillage at gmail dot com / 504.239.2907 or 504.284.6975
Stephanie Mingo / vmingo at bellsouth dot net / 504.529.3171
January 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
New Orleans, LA (January 15, 2007) – With mops and buckets in hand, displaced residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Project will go through the barbed wire fence surrounding their homes to clean and rehabilitate them. On Monday, January 15, Martin Luther King Day, the residents will rally at 12:00pm at Bynum Drugs Store, 3838 St. Bernard Ave, and then enter the property to restore their homes at 12:30.
"Our homes are livable, and we are cleaning them out so that we can live in them," says Sharon Seans Jasper, a St. Bernard resident and organizer." We will not let the city destroy them."
"The residents who will be cleaning their apartments have current leases and therefore have a legal right to enter their homes," says rally organizer Endesha Juakali of Survivors Village. "However, the police may not honor this right. Therefore public housing residents will be evoking the spirit of Dr. King on this Martin Luther King Day."
HANO and HUD plan to demolish over 5000 units of affordable public housing, housing that is desperately needed for families that wish to move back to New Orleans. In a market where rents have increased between 70 and 300 percent since Katrina, inflated rents and the lack of subsidized housing has been a major factor in preventing evacuees from returning to their homes. Finding private landlords that accept housing vouchers is extremely difficult, and finding affordable housing without subsidization is nearly impossible for public housing recipients.
HUD's own cost analysis reveals that their plan to demolish and rebuild will waste taxpayers' money. A recent motion for summary judgment filed in a current suit to reopen the development (available at: http://justiceforneworleans.org) cites HUD documents that show the demolition and redevelopment of public housing "will end up costing over $175 million more than extensively modernizing the developments, and upwards of $450 million more than simply repairing them would cost." The motion also argues that the demolitions have racial implications. "Prior to Katrina over 5,100 African-American families lived in New Orleans' public housing. Nearly 14 months later, only approximately 1,000 have been allowed to return. HANO's actions clearly have disproportionately harmed African-Americans and have lead to the overall decline in the city's African American population since Katrina."
Despite overwhelming support for the re-opening of public housing, HANO and HUD have consistently ignored public opinion and advocated for its demolition. HANO has received a resounding and unquestionable "NO!" to their plans from public housing residents at their recent court-mandated 'resident consultation meeting.' Angry residents accused HANO of "ethnic cleansing," and told them "being poor is not a crime."
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UPDATE: The blogger from Note From The Book, who is from the St. Bernard neighborhood in New Orleans, was there at yesterday's events. He has two posts about it, here and here.
Book also was blogging during Katrina and in the immediate aftermath. See especially his story of his experiences during Katrina.
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.. all i can say about this is that It was a great experience