New Orleans Housing Committee: No To Lafitte Demolition : NOLA Indymedia

December 10, New Orleans-Today is International Human rights Day, and public housing residents, and their supporters in the Coaliton to Stop Demolition, can claim a victory in stopping the demolition of the Lafitte Public Housing Complex-for now.

After a raucous over-two-hour hearing in an overcrowded, overheated City Hall room, where the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and its selected demo developers blew lots more hot air at the city's Housing Conservation District Review Committee, the committe voted 3-3 on Lafitte's HANO proposed demolition permit-meaning it did not meet approval.

However, after this decision, the committee immediately voted-by a 4-2 margin in each case-to approve demoliton permits for for the 723-unit CJ Peete complex, and the 1550-unit BW Cooper complex.

Another public housing complex slated by HANO for demolition, the 1436-unit St Bernard development, is not in the Conservation District, and so was not included in the committe's deliberations.

Despite the no go vote on the Lafitte complex, HANO and its gang of developers can appleal to the City Council for approval of the demo permit.

Nevertheless, it was one clear victory for the public housing residents, who have been fighting an uphill battle for return to their homes since Katrina forced them out and HANO subsequently refused to allow the vast majority of them back in.

Ironically, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights recognizes housing as a basic human right, and the right of return for all refugees, including internal refugees like New Orleans public housing tenants. New Orleans' public housing residents were almost all African American working class people.

Besides this HANO violation of human rights, the agency-which was taken over by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2002-responded to residents' demands to return to their apartments by instead pushing plans to knock them down.

That plan includes replacing them with "mixed income" housing that would result in an 82% loss of low income public housing in the city, at a cost of $400,000 per unit.

After a rally and press conference in front of City Hall Monday morning, over 100 people filed inside for a 10 o'clock meeting of the housing committee. The Coalition had put out a call for national and international support, since HANO/HUD recently let it be known that the bulldozers could start rolling by December 15. As a result, people came from near and far to help stop the demolitons.

Inside in the overfilled lobby, Martin Suber of Peoples Hurricane Relief, one of the many groups in the Coaliton, told the crowd that organizers had asked for a larger meeting room, and that the proposed public housing demoliton discussion be moved to the top of the agenda. "There'll be no business as usual while people are being threatened with the loss of their homes forever," he said.

The group first moved to meet in the City Council chambers, on the ground floor, but eventually agreed to meet in a room on the 8th floor. That room, across from the Office of Homeland Security, turned out to be too small. More than half of the people did not have seats. In addition, there were no microphones, making it often difficult if not impossible to hear what was going on up front. Frequent requests by people for speakers to talk louder were ignored by the committe chairman.

After the meeting had droned on awhile with its original agenda, which had the public housing demo discussion listed last, Bill Quigley, the public housing residents' attorney, and a profesor at Loyola University School of Law, asked that the residents be heard.

Quigley's previous appearance at City Hall last Thursday resulted in his head being bashed into a wall in City Council chambers by a "security" during a protest of that body's refusal to act on a request to stop the demolitions.

The committee asked that two other pending demo cases to be heard first. One is for Lockett School, of historic importance to NO's African American community. The other is for the former site of Linday Boggs hospital. After some discussion, because both cases were both of interest to public housing folks, both applicants said they would wait until the next meeting for their hearings.

The committe chair next announced that HANO, the demo applicant for bringing down the pubic housing complexes, would present its case first. It's customary for the applicant to go first.

Not this time though. Voices raised up , signs and banners waved, fingers pointed, and when the dust cleared the public housing tenants and their advocates finally had their chance to speak.

Debra Falls, formerly of Lafitte, told the committee she was "here for everybody. There's no place to live. We can't afford the rents now."

Samuel Jackson, who said he used to live at BW Cooper, called for a corruption investigation into HUD's boss, Alphonso Jackson, and blasted the one person HUD/HANO board consisting of Donald Barbera, that makes decisions "for thousands of people. Half of the homeless are from public housing, living across from City Hall [where an encampment has been growing, and is threatened with imminent eviction] and living under the freeway [at Claiborne and Canal] now. I want to know why Barbera can't make a decision to help working class people and show some kind of heart."

Addressing HANO, Sharon Jasper, a former St. Bernard resident, declared "We didn't have the right to participate in what happened after we were forced out by the flood. You had the opportunity to do what you wanted to do for years--force us out forever, and you've been trying to keep us out since the day you made that decision.

"What do you have for us? Our mayor, our city council has done nothing," she said, as a mayor's rep and several city council members looked on.

"Our people are dying [from stress related causes]," she went on. "We're sick of going to funerals every day.

"Open up your hearts. We want to come home. Look at the diamonds on your hands from all the bribes you took. We want our homes back. We're all human beings. We're all US citizens. Treat us like that."

Next two reps from building preservation groups spoke. Both groups had been invited to and did participate in HANO'HUD's discussions of how to redevelop the city's public housing. Both reps reported that HANO/HUD did not want to hear any proposals except for total demolition, even though the reps tried to introduce alternative ways to redevelop the structures.

City resident Jean Maven followed that testimony by pointing out that the garden apartment model used for NO's public housing in the 1940s and 50s-the very structures HUD/HANO is so intent on tearing down now-is what HUD is favoring today in other places.

"Don't throw them away.Don't keep people out of this city for another five years," she urged the committee. "People will sit down and converse about it. Just give us time. You can't just take these buildings down. There's not even a Master Plan yet."

Bill Quigley spoke next. He revealed that a city ordinance provides that each building proposed for demolition is supposed to be inspected before the demo hearing. "Have you inspected each of the 207 buildings proposed for demolilton" [at Lafitte, CJ Peete and BW Cooper]?" he asked. The committee couldn't say yes to that.

Quigley also said that HANO/HUD might have interested developers, but no
one of them had actually signed a contract with them.

In additon, Quigley spoke of the architectural significance of the public housing complexes. "The New York Times architecture critic recently wrote of Lafitte as 'some of the finest examples of these kinds of buildings in the US-they should be preserved.' "

Finally Quigley spoke of the impact the demolitions would have on New Orleans housing crisis, "the worst since the Civil War. Hundreds across the street, 12,000 around the city are homeless. Fifty thousand families in FEMA trailers are being kicked out. And 100,000 homeowners have yet to receive their Road Home money. And at this precise time a federal campaign to demolish public housing?"

After a brief recess, HANO/HUD and their developer friends got their chance to put on their dog and pony show. Claiming to be nothing but friends of the poor, they insisted that said poor would lose out on federal housing money, which is contingent on approval of the demolition, if the developers didn't get their-uh, that is-HANO/HUD's demo permits.

Finally the house committee voted, and as soon he was physically able, the chairman immediately adjourned the meeting.

HUD/HANO and its friends left to plot their next moves. And so did the public housing tenants and their supporters. Their sturggle is rapidly becoming not only a local, but also a national and even global movement, because we're all in the same boat, baby, and if we don't stick together we all goin down in that same ol flood again.