|
Forest Park Apartment Residents Pressure Complex's Management Into Conce
by Miike Howells
Friday, Oct. 21, 2005 at 5:55 PM
howellsfreedom@aol.com 504-587-0080
Forest Park Apartment Residents Pressure Complex's Management Into Concessions!
Forest Park Apartment Residents Pressure
Complex's Management Into Concessions!
Residents of Forest Park Apartments, as a result of a fightback to defend access to affordable housing in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, have secured a series of concessions from the management of the Algiers housing complex. These concessions include pushing the request that residents vacate the complex from October 14, as originally demanded, to October 31. Management has also agreed to sign a written agreement that guarantees displaced residents will be allowed to return to the complex, when renovation work is completed, with no increase in rent. This position by the management of Forest Park marks a retreat from their previous position not to enter into any negotiations with the Forest Park Tenants Association. Up to this point, the management of the complex refused to guarantee that residents would be allowed to return with rent fees unchanged.
Why did management retreat from its previous refusal to negotiate with residents? There can be no doubt that the protest action of October 14, which C3 and other activists were instrumental in helping build, and the legal pressure on Forest Park that grew out of the protest movement forced management's hand. A lawyer from the Loyola Law Clinic, Judson Mitchell, is examining the document to ensure that anything accepted by the Forest Park Tenants Association is legally binding. This is a step forward, but just a step forward.
Tenants are still faced with the problem of temporary dislocation. According to Charlestine Jones, spokesperson for the Forest Park Tenants Association, renovation to the complex, according to its management, may take several months. Where do residents go in the meantime? This is a big, big problem given the scarcity of affordable housing in post-Katrina New Orleans and the fact that many of the residents of Forest Park are on section 8. Any suggestions?
Still, the retreat on the part of the management of Forest Park is a sign that struggles from below in our hurricane ravaged community can yield positive results for working class people. Let's learn from this struggle.
Mike Howells
|
