Residents Rally to Re-open St. Bernard Housing Development : NOLA Indymedia

NEW ORLEANS: Residents of the St. Bernard Housing Project rallied today at a press conference at the St. Bernard Development Clinic. Speakers included anti war activist Cindy Shehan as well as many displaced residents of the project.

St. Bernard housing project, located in New Orleans 7th ward was once a bustling neighborhood. While Mayor Ray Nagin and other political leaders are putting out the call for all Hurricane Katrina Survivors to return to the city, St Bernard residents have not been allowed to begin re building their community. Many speculate this is because the city hopes to tear down the project, once considered one of the roughest in the country.

As the rally began, Organizer Jay Arena, of NO HEAT (New Orleans Emergency Housing Team) outlined the following list of displaced resident's demands:

1. Formal commitment from the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) to reopen the St. Bernard Development.
2. HANO needs to prepare to open St. Bernard by April 15, 2006. People have been away long enough.
3. No demolition of the Florida or Desire developments. Homes must be repaired and rebuilt. Do not use the hurricane as a pretext to destroy public housing and other public services.
4. Reopen the St. Bernard health clinic and place health clinics in all the public housing developments. Accept all offers of aide from health care professionals living in the US. Accept all aide offered by Venezuela and Cuba, who offered to send 1500 medical doctors to our city.

"Today I took a tour of the lower ninth ward" Cindy Sheehan told the crowd "Why is it that the corporate media not shown us the images of that war zone?" she asked, "Because the corporate media does not want us to be exposed to the failed policies and incompetence of our government."

Also speaking at the event were many locals including Gloria Irving a 70 year old lifelong St. Bernard Project resident and community activist. "Let us come home and clean up our houses and get back to normal!" she demanded. "We got to live back here!"

Dr Marti Rowland an engineer also spoke at the rally. He shared the results of his study assessing the condition of the St. Bernard Development with regard to re-occupancy. "There is no reason this community should not be allowed to come back" he said.

ONLY THE ELDERLY, DISABLED SHOULD HAVE FREE HOUSING. ALL OTHERS NEED TO SECURE JOBS BEFORE THEY ALLOWED ACCESS TO PUBLIC HOUSING. ALL ABLE BODIED PEOPLE NEED TO WORK NO MORE FREE RIDES