Gulf Watch: Locked Outside the Gates

Tasers, Pepper Spray, and Arrests in the Struggle for Affordable Housing in New Orleans

by Bill Quigley
Guest Contributor

In a remarkable symbol of the injustices of post-Katrina reconstruction, hundreds of people were locked out of a public New Orleans City Council meeting addressing demolition of 4,500 public housing apartments. Some were tasered, many pepper sprayed and a dozen arrested.

Outside the chambers, iron gates were chained and padlocked even before the scheduled start.

The scene looked like one of those countries on TV that is undergoing a people’s revolution -- and the similarities were only beginning. (See video here.)

Dozens of uniformed police secured the gates and other entrances. Only developers and those with special permission from council members were allowed in -- the rest were kept locked outside the gates. Despite dozens of open seats in the council chambers, pleas to be allowed in were ignored.

Chants of "Housing is a human right!" and "Let us in!" thundered through the concrete breezeway.

Public housing residents came and spoke out despite an intense campaign of intimidation. Residents were warned by phone that if they publicly opposed the demolitions they would lose all housing assistance. Residents opposed to the demolition had simple demands. If the authorities insisted on spending hundreds of millions to tear down hundreds of structurally sound buildings containing 4,500 public housing subsidized apartments, there should be a guarantee that every resident could return to a similarly subsidized apartment. Alternatively, the government should use the hundreds of millions to repair the apartments so people could come home. Neither alternative was acceptable to HUD. A plan of residents to partner with the AFL-CIO Housing Trust to save their homes was also ignored.

Outside, SWAT team members and police in riot gear and on horses began to arrive as rain started falling. Those locked out included public housing residents, a professor from Southern University, graduate students, the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, ministers, lawyers, law students, homeless people who lived in tents across the street from city hall, affordable housing allies from across the country and dozens of others.

Inside the chambers, Revered Torin Sanders and others insisted that the locked out be allowed to come and stand inside along the walls -- a common practice for over 30 years. No one could recall any City Council locking people out of a public meeting. The request to allow people to stand was denied. The Council then demanded silence from those inside. Those who continued to demand that the others be let in were pointed out by police, physically taken down and arrested. Ironically, some young men were tasered right in front of the speaker's podium.

This was a meeting the council had repeatedly tried to avoid. It was only held after residents (100 percent African American and nearly all mothers and grandmothers) got an emergency court order stopping demolitions until the council acted. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced long ago it was going to demolish 4,500 public housing apartments despite the Katrina crisis of affordable housing no matter what anyone said. HUD had no plans to ask the council or anyone else for approval. The judge said otherwise, so the meeting was scheduled.

Leaders of the U.S. Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, asked that the decision be delayed 60 days so they could try to move forward on Senate Bill 1668 which would resolve many of the demolition problems. This request was backed by New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and Presidential candidates John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Opponents cited the affordable housing crisis in New Orleans. Homeless people camped across from City Hall and for blocks under the interstate. The number of homeless people doubled since Katrina. Thousands of residents in FEMA trailers across the Gulf Coast were being evicted. More on the reasons to oppose demolition can be found here.

Solidarity demonstrations opposing demolition were held in Washington DC, New York, Oakland, Minneapolis, Houston, North Carolina, Maine, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New Jersey, and Boston. Thousands of people across the country contacted city council members. Dozens of community, housing and human rights groups petitioned the Council not to demolish until there was an enforceable requirement of one for one replacement of housing.

But hours before the meeting began, a majority of the council publicly announced on the front page of the local paper that they were going to approve demolition no matter what people said at the meeting. The paper, the developers and others were delighted. Residents and affordable housing allies were not.

Inside, the council started the meeting surrounded by armed police, National Guard and undercover authorities from many law enforcement agencies.

Outside, the locked out could see the people who had been arrested on the inside being dragged away to police wagons. A few of the protestors then pulled open one of the gates. The police started shooting arcs of pepper spray into the crowd. A woman’s scream pierced the chaos as police fired tasers into the crowd. Medics wiped pepper spray from fallen people’s eyes. A young woman who was tasered in the back went into a seizure and was taken to the hospital.

Inside and out, a dozen people were arrested -- most for disturbing the peace. They joined another dozen who had been arrested over the past week in protest actions against the demolitions.

The City Council meeting continued. Supporters of demolition were given careful, courteous attention and softball questions by council members. Opponents less so.

Despite pleas from displaced residents, dozens of community organizations and federal elected officials, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to allow demolition to proceed. In their approval the Council did promise to urge HUD to listen to residents and to work for one for one replacement of affordable housing. Several city council members read from typed statements about their reasons to support demolition: the deplorable state of public housing; the lack of available money for repair; the oral promises of all, the federal government and developers, to do something better for the community.

After the meeting, residents vowed to continue their struggle for affordable housing for everyone and to resist demolitions -- putting their bodies before bulldozers if necessary.

The struggle for affordable housing continues as does the campaign to stop demolition until there is a real right to return and one for one replacement of housing. Residents and local advocates applaud and appreciate the support of allies from across the nation. Critics label national supporters as "outside agitators" -- exactly the same charge leveled at civil rights activists historically. But people understand that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Public housing residents and local affordable housing advocates welcome the humble participation of social justice advocates of whatever age, of whatever race, from whatever place, who join and act in true solidarity.

Residents vow to make sure that the promises made by the Council and the Mayor are enforced. For example, the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, announced that he would not allow HUD to demolish two of the four housing developments until HUD gave documentation of funded plans including one for one replacement of the housing demolished and details of the developments and their plans.

The Senate will continue to be lobbied to pass SB 1668 -- which would really guarantee one for one replacement of housing. It is currently stalled in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee because of opposition by Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter.

Litigation is still pending in state and federal courts to enforce Louisiana and U.S. laws that should protect residents from illegal demolitions. Investigations into the legality of locking people out of a public meeting, the legality of a law passed at such a meeting, the indiscriminate use of tasers and pepper spray, are all ongoing.

Padlocked and chained gates will only amplify the voices of the locked out calling for justice. Pepper spray and tasers illustrate the problems but will not deter people from protesting for just causes. Bulldozers may start up, but just people will resist and create a reality where housing is a real human right.

Stephanie Mingo, a working grandmother who is one of the leaders of the residents, promised to continue the resistance after the meeting: "We did not come this far to turn back now. This fight is far from over. We are not resting until everyone has the right to return home."

Those wanting additional information should look to www.justiceforneworleans.org or www.defendneworleanspublichousing.org.

Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Bill is part of the team of lawyers representing displaced residents of public housing. You can reach him at Quigley@loyno.edu.

Nagin demands data from HUD before some public housing demolitions proceed

In an open letter sent Friday to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called on HUD to provide more details on its redevelopment plans before the city will grant demolition permits for two public housing developments. He wrote:

As you are aware, this has been a highly volatile issue, primarily because it most directly impacts an already vulnerable portion of our population that was made even more so by Hurricane Katrina and the resulting floods. These men, women and children rely upon public assistance for their basic housing needs. Many residents are distrustful that HUD will not move forward as promised and want assurances that there won't be delays in redeveloping the demolished complexes. Many also are concerned that they will not have a "voice" in the redevelopment processes and ultimately that they will be alienated from the communities that they love.

To that end, it is my responsibility as Mayor of this city -- and the responsibility of other local leadership -- to be true public servants and assure our citizenry that the principle established weeks after the storm that every public housing resident has the right to return to better housing will be upheld and that they indeed will have a "voice" in the redevelopment processes.

Nagin said that as a "demonstration of good faith" the city would let HUD proceed "without interruption" to tear down the B.W. Cooper and C.J. Peete developments, where demolition is already underway. But he called on the department to provide "by the end of the year or as soon as possible" redevelopment plans, executed development contracts, redevelopment and re-population timeline, and a signed redevelopment memorandum of understanding with the resident councils.

But before demolition may proceed at the St. Bernard and Lafitte developments, Nagin demanded the following by Feb. 28, 2008:

* that the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans board be expanded from one to three members, including the mayor or his designee and a public housing residents;

* verification of full funding for the Tenant Protection Program;

* evidence of 4,534 actual units made available either through public housing units, affordable units consistent with the mixed-income model or home ownership vouchers;

* documentation of redevelopment financing plans, executed development contracts and signed MOUs with the resident councils.

* evidence of phased redevelopment for the complexes, with a minimum number of 75 interim units at St. Bernard and 94 units at Lafitte to be restored for occupancy within six months.

Nagin also called on Jackson to help the city secure funding to rebuild its affordable housing stock:

I have recently learned of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, or DIRF, as a source of already appropriated funds that the city can use to lessen this affordable housing crisis and burden on our citizens. No further congressional action would be required to access these dollars. This would be purely a policy decision made within FEMA’s leadership.

Secretary Jackson, your assistance in lobbying for these funds at the federal level and with the Congress will not only assist New Orleanians, but, as affordable housing is a critical issue in this nation, can serve as a model for affordable housing provision to other communities across this country.

Will an agency that's been hell-bent to tear down New Orleans' public housing complexes and replace them with mixed-income communities offering less space for the poor comply with the mayor's demands? We shall see.

'Shock Doctrine' author on New Orleans public housing demolitions

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (one of the most important books of 2007, in our opinion), offers her take on the decision to demolish four public housing complexes in New Orleans at Huffington Post:

The final showdown over New Orleans public housing is playing out in dramatic fashion right now. The conflict is a classic example of the “triple shock” formula at the core of the doctrine.

* First came the shock of the original disaster: the flood and the traumatic evacuation.

* Next came the "economic shock therapy": using the window of opportunity opened up by the first shock to push through a rapid-fire attack on the city's public services and spaces, most notably its homes, schools and hospitals.

* Now we see that as residents of New Orleans try to resist these attacks, they are being met with a third shock: the shock of the police baton and the Taser gun, used on the bodies of protestors outside New Orleans City Hall yesterday.

'We gotta hit it at a grassroots level'

Now that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sen. David Vitter, Mayor Ray Nagin and the entire City Council have turned their backs on the struggle to guarantee adequate affordable housing for New Orleans' poorest residents, what happens next?

Protesters have vowed that the fight to demolish some 4,500 public housing units in the city -- where rents have skyrocketed and the homeless population has doubled since Hurricane Katrina -- will continue in the courts and in the streets. But the odds don't look good. It's clear the powers-that-be are committed to tearing down public housing complexes and replacing them with private developments offering fewer slots for the city's poorest residents.

This might be a good time to ponder the words spoken earlier this week by an unlikely hero for New Orleans: actor and French Quarter resident Brad Pitt. He appeared on The Charlie Rose Show on Monday to talk about his Make It Right charity, which is building 150 affordable and environmentally sustainable homes in the city's hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward. While the project cannot meet New Orleans' enormous need for affordable housing, it demonstrates the sort of spirit it will take to rebuild the city justly and equitably in light of the government's decision to abandon the neediest (thanks to People Get Ready for the transcription):

CR: Tell me about New Orleans for you.

BP: To me it's one of our most unique cities. I find it to be absolutely authentic. You can't attribute it to any era, or any trend. They are their own thing. There's just a great vibrant community, and I think it'd be a real shame for American culture to lose that.

CR: Do you think there's a risk that we lose it?

BP: Listen, they have such spirit, and they're such fighters, I really don't think so. But it seems to be the approach has been let 'em die on the vine. …

CR: What's the problem? Why haven't those in positions of power done more?

BP: I don't know. They've certainly taken their eye off the ball. It's certainly illuminated -- the actual event, the storm itself -- that there is a -- I'm going to be polite about it -- a portion of our society that is being undervalued, and still being undervalued. …

CR: Poor and minority?

BP: Absolutely. Absolutely. We can talk all we want about education, and health, but until we get it right down there, we're not going to get it right anywhere.

CR: Eliminate an underclass in America?

BP: Yes, or at least treat with a sense of fairness and dignity, instead of as an afterthought. And I thought there was something we could do about this. This is not as I like it. So, listen, I wish this would have been taken care of at a federal level, or a state level, even at a local level, but if this be the case, you know, where we gotta hit it at a grassroots level, so be it. I mean, this is where we Americans are great. Sometimes it takes us to make the call, and they'll follow.

Chaos erupts in New Orleans as council OKs public housing demolitions

Violence broke out today at New Orleans City Hall as council met to consider the demolition of four public housing complexes. At 4:39 p.m., members voted unanimously to approve the tear-downs, the Times-Picayune reports:

"We have the opportunity to make our home a place that all New Orleanians can point to with pride," says Arnie Fielkow, the council president. "It's my hope that the word 'project' will never again be used in place of what should be 'transitional homes.' Every citizen deserves a safe and affordable place to raise a family."

Hundreds of citizens showed up for today's 10 a.m. meeting -- some three hours early -- but only 278 were allowed inside. When protesters who were shut out tried to force their way in through a gate, police hit them with chemical spray and stun guns, according to various news reports.

Bill Quigley, a Loyola law professor who sued on behalf of public housing residents to halt the tear-downs, was among the protesters locked out of the meeting this morning. He told the Associated Press that he would consider filing suit over the incident, which he says may have violated public meeting laws.

Among those who did not show up for today's meeting was Mayor Ray Nagin, even though his office is in the same building as council chambers. However, he submitted a letter asking the council to approve the demolitions with conditions, including redevelopment to take place immediately after demolition and the one-person board of directors for the Housing Authority of New Orleans expanded to three, including the mayor or designee and a public housing resident.

The demolition is part of a $750 million plan by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace about 4,500 public housing units with private, mixed-income neighborhoods that offer fewer slots for the extremely poor. The House passed legislation that would have mandated one-to-one replacement of all demolished public housing units, but similar legislation is stalled in the Senate due to the objections of Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

(Photo of medics helping protesters hit with chemical spray by Darwin BondGraham/New Orleans Independent Media Center)

N.Y. Times wrong about New Orleans being 'left behind'

By Dr. Lance Hill
Guest Contributor

Adam Nossiter, writing for the New York Times, makes the startling claim that since displaced black voters failed to vote in large numbers in the city-wide election last fall, "the decision was made: there was no going back. Life in New Orleans was over." Nossiter would have us believe that the black Diaspora of more than 250,000 is now a permanent fact of life. There is, of course, no research indicating a relationship between absentee voting and the rate of return. Indeed, Nossiter does not cite a single demographer or social scientist nor a single study that supports his assertion that "thousands of former New Orleanians" made the decision to forsake their former homes in the last year. Proof for his claims amounts to a handful of his own interviews with a few displaced residents. The dangerous implication of Nossiter's commentary is that we need not provide housing, healthcare, education, or employment in New Orleans for the displaced since they have already decided not to return. The same thinking in the first months after Katrina caused state officials to drastically underestimate the number of returning students in January of 2006, a tragic mistake that led to the virtual collapse of public education for the city's poor for 18 months.

Contrary evidence abounds that thousands of people will return in the next few years -- with greater needs than ever before. Indeed, 32,000 students are currently enrolled in public schools in New Orleans -- approximately half the pre-Katrina number, and school officials say students are returning since September at the rate of nearly 1,000 a month. Business reports in the Times-Picayune indicate that newly-built apartments are leased as fast as they come on line in New Orleans East. In the the next five years, $869 million dollars will be invested in 45,000 units of affordable housing, which will become a magnet for the thousands of displaced citizens living on federal Section 8 housing vouchers in cities like Houston that have virtually no subsidized housing available. Eighty-five percent of flood-damaged homeowners have elected to keep their properties rather than sell to the state in the Road Home program, opting to eventually resettle in their homes or sell to new residents. Many have justifiably postponed their plans to return given that flood protection constructed since Katrina has followed the color line -- protecting predominantly white neighborhoods while leaving black neighborhoods susceptible to flooding until levees are finished in 2011.

Voting patterns, especially in the unprecedented forced evacuation of 450,000 people, are not a reliable indicator of displaced people's plans. Low voter turn-out for displaced blacks reflects frustration with complex absentee ballot requirements and the burden of driving hundred of miles to cast a single vote. That disaffected voters feel frustrated and angry after two years of trying to return to their families and protect their electoral gains does not mean they will not return; only that they will return frustrated and angry.

Lance Hill is the executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University.

Public housing demolition decision handed to New Orleans City Council

The plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit to block demolition of public housing complexes in New Orleans reached an agreement in court Friday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans that the teardowns won't proceed unless the City Council grants permits for the work. Council members are expected to take up the matter in their regular meeting this Thursday.

The agreement allows HANO to proceed with demolition work that was approved before Hurricane Katrina at the B.W. Cooper complex, while halting work at the C.J. Peete, Lafitte and St. Bernard developments. It also gives HANO a deadline of 5 p.m. today to provide the plaintiffs with legal proof that the agency has complied with Louisiana law in hiring companies for the demolition work. The lawsuit charges that HANO has ignored a statute requiring public bids for contractor selection.

Also on Friday, Congressional leaders weighed in on the planned teardowns, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sending a letter to President Bush asking for an immediate 60-day moratorium on the demolitions, which are being pushed by HUD despite the city's urgent shortage of affordable housing. Pelosi and Reid offered to work with the administration to craft a plan for replacement housing, writing:

Given the City's housing needs and the current availability of these affordable housing resources, we are extremely disappointed by the Department's insistence on moving ahead with this demolition despite insufficient resources to make up the clear loss of affordable housing. For the Federal government to reduce affordable housing units at a time when the City is desperate for this very type of housing is a misuse of taxpayer funds and runs counter to the mission of the Department, not to mention the core values that we share. Additionally, HANO has not completed a promised survey of displaced residents and has indicated that this important document now will not be ready until late January at the earliest. HANO has also not provided meaningful opportunity for residents to collect their belongings. The additional sixty days would allow for the resolution of these and other essential issues, including the completion of a comprehensive plan for HANO redevelopment of all affordable units, and replacement of any units proposed for demolition.

More than 100 organizations across the Gulf Coast and the nation have voiced opposition to the demolition plans; for a complete list, visit the website of Defend New Orleans Public Housing. Among those opposing demolition is Bishop Charles Jenkins of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, who in an open letter to the New Orleans City Council called on members to "reclaim and renew existing Federal Housing Projects as temporary and dignified homes" until replacement housing is developed.

Demolition opponents are also battling HUD over the facts behind the teardown. For example, a story in yesterday's New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that "[f]ederal officials, in partnership with developers, are pushing a plan that will demolish 4,500 units of traditional public housing, replacing them with 3,343 units of public housing and 900 market rate rental units." But the plan's opponents point out that HUD's and HANO's own numbers state that fewer than 800 units of traditional public housing will be built to replace what's torn down. To get the 3,343 figure, HUD is apparently counting over 2,000 existing public housing units that are not yet slated for demolition.

A new PolicyLink analysis [PDF] of HUD's progress in restoring subsidized homes in New Orleans since Katrina found that the agency has approved resources to rebuild just over a third of those homes, leaving few affordable options for senior citizens, people with disabilities and the working poor. At the same time, the analysis notes, the agency has put forth no comprehensive plan for addressing the loss of affordable units.

Meanwhile, a federal criminal probe continues into HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson's role in awarding contracts for the redevelopment of New Orleans public housing. The National Journal reports that investigators appear to be focusing on Jackson's ties to William Hairston, a stucco contractor from Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Jackson has a vacation home. Hairston was paid more than $485,000 for working as a construction manager at HANO over an 18-month period that ended in June.

In interviews earlier this year, Hairston told National Journal that Jackson had helped him land the work in January 2006. But in testimony before Congress and in statements to the HUD Inspector General, Jackson said that he had no role in department contracting decisions. Concerns have also been raised over the award of one HANO redevelopment contract to Atlanta-based Columbia Residential, which owes Jackson somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000 for past work.

Trailer troubles mount as FEMA tarries with tests

The federal government has known there were toxic levels of formaldehyde in temporary trailers provided to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina at least as far back as April 2006. That's when the Sierra Club released the results of tests it conducted on Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers in Mississippi showing that the cancer-causing chemical was present at dangerously elevated concentrations. The group also found similar problems in tests of FEMA trailers in Louisiana and Alabama.

Following heated congressional hearings in July, FEMA leaders said that they would work with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct their own tests of trailer air quality. But it wasn't until yesterday that the agencies announced they would begin air sampling in 500 trailers starting next Friday, Dec. 21. The testing is expected to take about five weeks, with the findings to be released some time in early 2008.

In a posting to the Toxic Trailers website, Becky Gillette of the Mississippi Sierra Club says that at this point in time more tests are not the answer:

Instead of another round of testing, FEMA needs to immediately purchase some formaldehyde free emergency housing. That type of housing is available. Since the problem has already been well established, why is FEMA being so slow to act to replenish the stock of housing needed for emergencies from manufacturers willing to use building materials that don’t make people sick?

Another issue is remediation. With FEMA having purchased more than $1 billion worth of these campers, it should be joining with the CDC to evaluate various remediation tools for reducing formaldehyde to safe levels.

Gillette also raises concerns about why FEMA -- after having promised it would undertake tests back in July -- waited five months to get started:

...[I]t is troubling that FEMA/CDC have decided to undertake this testing at the time of year when formaldehyde emissions would be expected to be at their lowest levels. Formaldehyde outgassing increases with heat or humidity, so it seems no "accident" that FEMA -- which promise[d] last summer to quickly begin a testing program -- has delayed and delayed until the coldest weather of the year.

While FEMA is just beginning to get a handle on a serious problem brought to its attention more than a year and a half ago, new problems with Katrina trailers are coming to light that also demand the agency's action.

In the Institute's August 2007 report titled "Blueprint for Gulf Renewal: The Katrina Crisis and a Community Agenda for Action," [PDF] Sharon Hanshaw, executive director of Mississippi's Coastal Women for Change, described how many of FEMA trailers have become infested with mold, compounding formaldehyde-related health problems and forcing cash-strapped survivors to continuously replace ruined possessions.

Last month, KNOE-TV in Monroe, La. investigated further, documenting a design flaw in FEMA's mobile homes that could lead to a buildup of potentially toxic mold levels. It also found that FEMA had been selling the flawed homes to the public in spite of the test results. One science building expert who examined the inside walls of two FEMA homes in Ouachita Parish, La. found one type of mold spore at up to 30,000 times the levels found outside, indicating a wall exposed to excessive moisture levels.

Formaldehyde and mold are not the only threats facing FEMA trailer residents, either. Another is fire.

An investigative report in New Orleans' latest Gambit Weekly newspaper found that trailer occupants face a high risk of injury or death due to fires and explosions that occur when gas fumes from propane burners build up inside the units and are accidentally ignited. The paper found that at least five Louisianans have been killed and nine injured by such incidents since January 2006. While trailer occupants are to blame for some of the fires, other incidents were caused by improper installation and maintenance by FEMA contractors:

A recent review of video-recorded meetings of the Louisiana LP Gas Commission (LPGC) Board shows prime contractors -- engineering firms such as the Shaw Group, CH2M Hill and Fluor Inc. -- also lacked sufficient understanding of propane systems when they received FEMA contracts worth several hundred-million dollars to install tens of thousands of trailers for storm victims. Setting up the trailers improperly increases the risk of explosions and fires, and LPGC regulations explicitly recognize this. ...

...It was before this board that the major three contractors for FEMA trailer installation and maintenance in Louisiana had to answer allegations they did not have the proper certification or permits to work on propane systems when they undertook no-bid, "price plus fixed-fee" federal contracts to provide housing for hurricane victims. Board records indicate none of the three had even applied for such certifications or permits until half a year later, after they were cited by LPGC inspectors. By that time, at least 80,000 trailers had already been installed. The violations were discovered after LPGC inspectors looked into the companies' operations in response to news reports about a surge in trailer explosions in the state.

One LPGC inspector told Gambit that working with the government contractors was "like dealing with used car salesmen on the seedy side of town." Are these really the kind of operators to whom taxpayers should be handing millions of dollars in no-bid contracts?

Protests heat up as NOLA housing teardowns begin

As demolition crews dispatched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began tearing down the 14 brick buildings that make up the B.W. Cooper public housing complex in New Orleans yesterday, about 500 protesters tried to block a crane while chanting, "Housing is a human right."

This morning protesters planned to rally at New Orleans City Hall and from there march to HUD's offices to voice opposition to the demolitions, which are scheduled to continue Saturday at three other public housing complexes across the city.

There is also a protest over the demolitions planned for this afternoon at HUD's offices in Washington, D.C. Among those involved in that action are the Advancement Project, Hip-Hop Caucus, Code Pink and New Orleans public housing residents.

New Orleans has been experiencing a serious shortage of affordable housing since Hurricane Katrina. While HUD says it will replace the demolished complexes with mixed-income developments, the new developments will offer fewer slots for the poor. Under the current plans, 4,600 public housing units will be demolished and replaced with only 744 low-income apartments, for a net loss of more than 3,800 low-income units, according to a demolition factsheet from the Defend New Orleans Public Housing website.

A political standoff over legislation to require replacement housing for the demolished units continues between bill sponsor Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and her colleague Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). In September, following months of negotiations, Vitter and HUD abruptly announced their opposition to Landrieu's proposal, which has the support not only of housing activists and faith leaders but also of business groups worried that the lack of affordable housing is slowing rebuilding efforts.

Meanwhile, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson remains under investigation over whether he lied about his involvement in agency contracting decisions. Jackson helped to arrange high-paying contract work for friends and associates at HUD-controlled housing authorities in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands.

UPDATE: Those protesting the public housing teardown in New Orleans now have a presidential candidate on their side: Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) this week called on HUD to reverse its demolition plan.

"Knocking down historic and livable housing today that withstood the winds of Katrina with the bulldozers of Bush is counterproductive to the goal of giving residents a home to which to return," Edwards said in a statement. "Decentralizing poverty by encouraging new mixed-income [development] makes a lot of sense -- I've proposed creating 1 million new housing vouchers to do exactly that. But eliminating housing where people could live in a city where a desperate shortage of shelter exists makes no sense at all."

(Photo of B.W. Cooper demolition courtesy of New Orleans Indymedia)

Public housing teardown held up in New Orleans

A New Orleans city committee yesterday refused to approve demolition of one of the four public housing complexes as part of a redevelopment plan being pushed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Times-Picayune reports. Though the Housing Conservation District Review Committee approved demolition of the C.J. Peete and B.W. Cooper complexes, it deadlocked over the demolition of the Lafitte development, which means the matter now goes before the City Council. The St. Bernard development is also slated for demolition.

More than 100 people crowded into a City Hall conference room for the meeting, with protesters holding a banner that said "Housing is a human right." Illustrating the intense emotions surrounding the demolition plans, posters have been appearing around the city threatening, "For every public housing unit destroyed, a condo will be destroyed." They are signed by "the angry and the powerless."

Meanwhile, HUD officials are blaming public housing defenders for the severe shortage of affordable housing in New Orleans, where rents in some neighborhoods have doubled since Hurricane Katrina, as has the city's homeless population. According to the Times-Picayune, HUD released a two-page statement Monday that said if the lawsuit seeking to halt the demolitions never occurred, "more housing could have already been built." The suit was brought by Loyola law professor and occasional Facing South contributor Bill Quigley.

For more information about the planned teardowns and the actions taking place this week to protest them, visit Defend New Orleans Public Housing, Justice for New Orleans and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund.

(Photo by Craig Morse courtesy of survivorsvillage.com.)

N.C. activists join New Orleans housing fight

About a dozen people gathered outside the offices of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) in Raleigh this afternoon asking her to support the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (S. 1668). The action was one of many taking place across the nation today -- Human Rights Day -- as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development prepares to begin demolishing four large public housing complexes in New Orleans. A lack of affordable housing is slowing the Hurricane Katrina recovery and has contributed to the doubling of the city's homeless population since the storm.

The legislation is being blocked in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee -- of which Dole is a member -- by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) It would require that demolished public housing units be replaced by comparable affordable units or by vouchers to help low-income residents afford private-market rents, which have risen sharply since the disaster.

Among those who spoke at the event were Ajamu Dillahunt, an outreach coordinator with the N.C. Justice Center and an Institute for Southern Studies board member; Chris Kromm, the Institute's executive director; and Nana Nantambu, a displaced New Orleans resident who now lives in Durham, N.C. Nantambu blasted the top-down decision-making process behind the planned public housing demolitions.

"It's a violation of human rights guaranteed by the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to not get the input of persons who were renters or who were displaced from housing developments," she said.

Following a brief press conference outside the Terry Sanford Federal Building, Dillahunt, Kromm and others went inside and visited Dole's office, where the senator's staff invited them to share their concerns about the housing situation on the Gulf Coast and the importance of passing S. 1668. A companion measure, H.R. 1227, passed the House overwhelmingly earlier this year.

Among those attending today's event in Raleigh were members of the N.C. Public Workers Union UE 150. They drew a connection between human rights violations on the Gulf Coast and a North Carolina law prohibiting collective bargaining for public employees, which they say is a violation of workers' human rights.

There are also protests and actions around the worsening New Orleans housing crisis planned this week in Oakland, Calif., Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Cleveland and Boston, among other places. Details can be found here.

At a protest held last Thursday at a New Orleans City Council meeting, Bill Quigley -- an attorney representing public housing residents and an occasional Facing South contributor -- was hauled off in handcuffs after refusing to leave the premises, the Associated Press reports.

For more coverage of the Raleigh event -- including a video of Dillahunt speaking -- visit the Raleigh News & Observer's "Under the Dome" blog. There's also a story about the action on the N.C. Democratic Party's website here.

Sen. Dole urged to support affordable housing for New Orleans

MEDIA ADVISORY

For immediate release: Monday, December 10, 2007

For more information, contact:

Ajamu Dillahunt (856-3194; ajamu@ncjustice.org)
Chris Kromm (419-8311 x26; chris@southernstudies.org)

Katrina Victims, Allies to Hold Press Conference at Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s Office Demanding Homes for New Orleans!

Senate inaction on a key housing bill is worsening skyrocketing homelessness problem

RALEIGH, N.C. – Today, victims of Hurricane Katrina and local advocates will hold a press conference at Sen. Elizabeth Dole's (R-NC) office in Raleigh calling on the senator to take action to save homes in the still-devastated Gulf Coast region.

Homelessness in New Orleans has doubled since Katrina struck in August 2005, according to recent reports, and thousands of families still live in temporary FEMA housing. Yet despite a housing shortage, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has authorized the demolition of more than 4,000 units of public housing in New Orleans – most of it barely damaged by Katrina. The homes are slated to be razed this week, without provisions for replacing them with affordable units.

At the same time, Congressional legislation to help homeowners, renters and public housing residents hurt by Katrina – the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (S. 1668) – has languished for months in the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, on which Sen. Dole sits. A bill with the same name (H.R. 1227) passed overwhelmingly in the House by a vote of 302-125 in March.

"I am asking Senators to find it in their heart and good conscience to support the public housing community in New Orleans and affordable housing for those renters displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita by allowing S. 1668 to move forward," said Nana Nantambu, a displaced New Orleans resident now living in North Carolina.

"When Katrina hit, Washington leaders pledged to do what it takes and stay as long as it takes, to rebuild the Gulf Coast," said Chris Kromm, director of the Durham-based Institute for Southern Studies, which has closely monitored the Katrina recovery. "This holiday season, with thousands of Gulf families on the streets or in cramped FEMA trailers, Sen. Dole and others in the Senate must take action and make good on their promises."

Demonstrations are taking place across the country today – International Human Rights Day – calling on Washington leaders to take action for Katrina families.

WHAT: Press conference calling on Sen. Elizabeth Dole to help New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents get homes

WHEN: 12:45 pm, Monday, Dec. 10 (U.N. Human Rights Day)

WHERE: Sen. Elizabeth Dole's office, 310 New Bern Ave, Raleigh (corner of Person and New Bern)

WHO: Katrina victims in North Carolina, the Institute for Southern Studies, and others concerned about the Gulf Coast housing crisis

For more information on the issue of housing in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Katrina, visit the Institute’s Gulf Watch project: www.southernstudies.org/gulfwatch

Take action to save NOLA public housing

Next Monday, Dec. 10, is international Human Rights Day. It's also the day when activists in New Orleans are calling for actions opposing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to tear down more than 4,600 public housing units in four complexes across the city -- while replacing them with private, mixed-income developments that will set aside only 744 apartments for low-income people.

The decision to demolish these public complexes, which suffered only relatively minor damage [PDF] during Hurricane Katrina, comes as rents across the city have doubled since the storm -- as has the homeless population.

The activists are asking concerned citizens across the country to join the actions in New Orleans or to take action at home. According to a statement from Kali Akuno, director of the Stop the Demolition Coalition:

What is at stake with the demolition of public housing in New Orleans is more than just the loss of housing units: it destroys any possibility for affordable housing in New Orleans for the foreseeable future. Without access to affordable housing, thousands of working class New Orleanians will be denied their human right to return.

Although this situation is unique and urgent in the city of New Orleans, it does not occur in isolation. The plans for redevelopment here are part of a national assault on public housing, in which tens of thousands of homes have been demolished in the past decade.

Organizers are asking supporters from across the country to organize demonstrations at local HUD offices and other government buildings. They are also asking them to make calls to government officials demanding the reopening of public housing in New Orleans. Among those leaders they are asking people to call:

* New Orleans City Council Member Stacy Head, who has been a leading force in pushing for the tear-downs. Her number is 504-658-1020.

* New Orleans City Council Member Shelley Midura, who is being asked to oppose the demolitions and support the reopening of public housing. Her number is 504-658-1010.

* D.H. Griffin, the North Carolina-based contractor hired to demolish the Lafitte complex. For locations of the company's offices across the South, click here. The toll-free number is 888-336-3366.

* U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who's blocking passage of the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (Senate Bill 1668). Sponsored by his colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the measure would require any demolished public housing units to be replaced by other units available to low-income residents. Vitter can be reached in Washington at 202-224-4623 and New Orleans at 504-589-2753.

* Members of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where SB 1668 is currently stuck. They are Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) at 202-224-6361, Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) at 202- 224-5941, Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) at 202-224-5623, Robert Bennett (R-Utah) at 202-224-5444, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at 202-224-2315, Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) at 202-224-4343, Tom Carper (D-Del.) at 202-224-2441, Robert Casey (D-Pa.) at 202-224-6324, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) at 202-224-6142, Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) at 202-224-2823, Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) at 202-224-6342, Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) at 202-224-3424, Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) at 202-224-4224, Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) at 202-224-1638, Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) at 202-224-3041, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) at 202-224-4744, Jack Reed (D-R.I.) at 202-224-4642, Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at 202-224-0420, Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) at 202-224-5744, John Sununu (R-N.H.) at 202-224-2841 and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at 202-224-2644.

Send information about any solidarity actions to action@peopleshurricane.org with "Solidarity" in the subject line. If you have any questions, contact the Stop the Demolition Coalition at action@peopleshurricane.org or call 504-458-3494. For more information on the issues at stake and planned protest actions, visit the websites of Defend New Orleans Public Housing, Justice for New Orleans and the People's Hurricane Relief Fund.

HUD Sends New Orleans Bulldozers and $400,000 Apartments for the Holidays

By Bill Quigley
Guest contributor

On the 12th day before Christmas, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4,600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units -- an 82 percent reduction. HUD is in charge and one HUD employee makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago -- all decisions are made in Washington, DC. HUD plans to build an additional 1,000 market rate and tax credit units -- which will still result in a net loss of 2,700 apartments to New Orleans. The remaining new apartments will cost an average of over $400,000 each!

Affordable housing is at a critical point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated 12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.

In Mississippi, poor and working people are being displaced along the coast to allow casinos to expand and develop shipping and other commercial activities. Two dozen ministers criticized the exclusion of renters and low-income homeowners from post-Katrina assistance: "Sadly we must now bear witness to the reality that our Recovery Effort has failed to include a place at the table ... for our poor and vulnerable."

The bulldozers have not torn down any buildings yet and New Orleans public housing residents vow to resist. "If you try to bulldoze our homes, we're going to fight," promised resident Sharon Jasper. "There's going to be a war in New Orleans."

Resident resistance is being expanded by allies from a coalition of groups who see the destruction of public housing without one-for-one replacement harming all renters and low-income homeowners.

Kali Akuno, of the Coalition to Stop Demolition, explains why many people who do not live in public housing are joining residents in this fight. "In the past two years, New Orleans has faced a series of social crises that have struck a blow to our collective vision for a more just and equitable city, not simply one that is more inviting to elites. Yet, none of these crises has been as uniquely urgent as this. What is at stake with the demolition of public housing in New Orleans is more than just the loss of housing units: it destroys any possibility for affordable housing in New Orleans for the foreseeable future. Without access to affordable housing, thousands of working class New Orleanians will be denied their human right to return."

A federal court has refused to stop the scheduled demolitions. Residents offered evidence to show the three-story garden-style buildings were structurally sound, and pointed out the local housing authority itself documented it would cost much less to repair and retain the apartments than demolish and reconstruct a small fraction of them. The New York Times architecture critic described them as "low scale, narrow footprint and high quality construction." HUD promised to subject plans for demolition to 100 days of scrutiny -- yet approved demolition with no public input in less than two days. The court acknowledged some questions about the fairness of the process but concluded that if the demolitions turn out to be illegal, residents can always recover money damages later.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill that requires one-for-one replacement of any public housing demolished, but Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) has stopped the Senate version cold.

The Institute for Southern Studies reports the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, S. 1668, sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), had the support of the entire state's delegation and -- until September, when HUD and Vitter suddenly withdrew their backing. There's been much speculation over Vitter's sudden about-face on the measure, especially since he's been reluctant to disclose his objections in much detail.

The Congressional Quarterly Weekly offers partisan politics as one explanation for his actions: "... [P]olitical experts say the senatorial flap is not unexpected, given Louisiana's rough-and-tumble politics and Vitter and Landrieu's chilly relationship. Landrieu is up for re-election next year and has emerged as the GOP's top target among incumbent senators, in part because of the state's rightward shift in recent elections.

"'The fact that Mary Landrieu is widely identified as the most vulnerable Democrat coming into the next election cycle, you certainly don't want to give her big victories in helping the state,' said Kirby Goidel, a professor of political science at Louisiana State University. 'He probably feels safe enough to hold it up as long as it's not too obviously political and he has some policy-related cover. He's a pretty hardball political player.'"

Republican interests are clearly not served by the return of all African-Americans to New Orleans. Louisiana was described before Katrina as a "pink state" -- one that went Democratic some times and Republican others. The tipping point for Louisiana Democrats was the deeply Democratic African-American city of New Orleans. Immediately after the hurricanes struck, one political analyst said, "the Democratic margin of victory in Louisiana is sleeping in the Astrodome in Houston." Tiny turnout by African-American voters in New Orleans in recent elections has led white Republican interests to calculate immediate new political gains. Demolition of thousands of low-income African-American occupied apartments only helps that political and racial dynamic.

But no one will say openly African-American renters are not welcome. Supporters of the destruction of thousands of apartments have come up with a series of stated reasons for their actions, but it clearly looks like political gain and economic enrichment for contractors, lawyers, architects and political friends are the real reasons.

Reduction of crime was supposed to be the main reason for getting rid of thousands of public housing apartments -- yet crime in New Orleans has soared since Katrina, while the thousands of apartments remain shut.

Every one of the displaced families who were living in public housing is African-American. Most all are headed by mothers and grandmothers working low-wage jobs or disabled or retired. Thousands of children lived in the neighborhoods. Race, class and gender are unstated parts of every justification for demolition, especially the call for "mixed-income housing." If the demolitions are allowed to go forward, there will be mixed income housing -- but the mix will not include over 80 percent of the people who lived there.

This absolute lack of any realistic affordable alternative is the main reason people want to return to their public housing neighborhoods -- or be guaranteed one for one replacement of their homes. Absent that, redevelopment will not help the residents or people in the community who need affordable housing.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has his own reasons for pressing ahead with the demolitions. HUD has approved plans to turn over scores of acres of prime public land to private developers for 99-year leases and give hundreds of millions of dollars in direct grants, tax credit subsidies and long-term contracts. One of the developers described it as the biggest tax-credit giveaway in years.

There may be crime in the projects after all -- even if the residents are gone. Consider the following examples:

* Investigative reporter Edward T. Pound, of the National Journal, has uncovered many questionable and several potentially criminal actions by HUD in New Orleans. Pound reported HUD Secretary Jackson worked with, and is owed over $250,000 from, an Atlanta-based company, Columbia Residential. Columbia Residential was part of a team that was awarded a $127 million contract by HUD to develop the St. Bernard housing development. Columbia was also awarded other earlier contracts for as yet undisclosed amounts under still undisclosed circumstances.

* Pound also discovered a golfing buddy and social friend of Secretary Jackson was given a no-bid $175 an hour "emergency" contract with HUD within months of Katrina. The buddy, William Hairston, was ultimately paid more than $485,000 for working at the Housing Authority of New Orleans over an 18-month period.

* A review of the dozens of no-bid contracts approved by HUD in New Orleans shows millions going to politically connected consultants, law firms, architects and insurance brokers.

What is scheduled to happen in New Orleans is happening across the United States. It is just New Orleans offers a more condensed and graphic illustration. The federal government is determined to get out of housing all together and let the private market reign. A 2007 report of the Urban Institute confirms that in the last decade over 78,000 low-income apartments have been demolished by HUD. That is why locals are receiving support and solidarity from residents and housing advocates in Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York.

Destruction of housing for the working poor is also a global scandal as corporations and governments push entire neighborhoods out. In India, traditional fishing villages destroyed by the tsunami are being forcibly moved away from the coast and the land where they lived is being converted to luxury hotels and tourist destinations. The International Alliance of Inhabitants, which opposes the demolitions in New Orleans, points out poor people's neighborhoods are also being taken away in Angola, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Poor and working people in New Orleans and across the globe are living on property that has become valuable for corporations. Accommodating governments are pushing the poor away and turning public property to private. HUD is giving private developers hundreds of millions of public dollars, scores of acres of valuable land, and thousands of public apartments. Happy holidays for them for sure.

For the poor, the holidays are scheduled to bring bulldozers. The demolition is poised to start in New Orleans any day now. Attempts at demolition will be met with just resistance. Whether that resistance is successful or not will determine not only the future of the working poor in New Orleans, but of working poor communities nationally and globally. If the US government is allowed to demolish thousands of much-needed affordable apartments of Katrina victims, what chance do others have?

Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can contact him at Quigley@loyno.edu. Bill is one of the lawyers for displaced residents.


(Photo of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson speaking at a National Association of Home Builders meeting in Orlando, Fla. courtesy of HUD's website)