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Support for Residents of New Orleans, Louisiana in the Return to their Homes

 

Report from the Area

Following up on a longtime relationship with the city of New Orleans and the Southern University at New Orleans' Race, Gender, and Class Project, Prescott College employees Joan Clingan and Frank Cardamone made two service trips to Louisiana.

 

To read daily journals from the June 2006 visit to Louisiana, please go here:

 

Week 2, June 20 - 26, 2006

Week 1, June 13 - 19, 2006

 

To read daily journals from the September 2005 visit to Louisiana, please go here:

Week 2, September 18 - 25, 2005

Week 1, September 8 - 16, 2005

 

Below is an overview of the specific communities and support opportunities they served in New Orleans and Baker. (The experiences and connections they made are described in detail in the daily journals, which are linked in each section.) You are invited to take immediate direct and meaningful action as you read this information. One phone call and donation from you can make a huge difference in the lives of New Orleans residents who are still displaced by the damage caused by last fall's storms and flooding.

 

How to Help

St. Bernard Neighborhood, New Orleans

Rev. Ken Thibodeaux is the pastor of the newly repaired and reopened Asia Baptist Church in the St. Bernard neighborhood of New Orleans. Joan and Frank were introduced to Ken by Jean Belkhir of SUNO, and were able to connect Ken with Patti Rayner of Heartfelt Foundation. On August 5, 2006 Heartfelt sponsored a party in New Orleans in the Asia Baptist Church parking lot. They provided backpacks, school supplies, and gift certificates for school uniforms to 1,000 school children and their families. This took place at a true Heartfelt-style party complete with animals, water play, live music, food and drinks including snowballs and a "roman candy man" (it's a Louisiana-thing), arts & crafts, and face painting.

 

Please contact Ken and offer your support in any way you can imagine. He can connect you with a specific family if you want to provide direct financial support to someone as they rebuild their life in New Orleans. He would like to know of cities with work and affordable housing for families from the area who are wishing to leave New Orleans. You can make a donation to be directed to the many expenses of rebuilding the neighborhood community, the church, or for a specific individual family.

 

Rev. Kenneth G. Thibodeaux

Asia Baptist Church

1400 Sere Street

New Orleans, LA 70122

 

Renaissance Village, FEMA Trailer City, Baker, Louisiana

Sam Sammartino is a case worker for Catholic Charities, which is serving over 100 families at Renaissance Village, the largest FEMA trailer community in Louisiana. Joan and Frank met Sam through connections made last September at Bethany Baptist Church. They introduced Sam to Patti Rayner of Heartfelt Foundation, which on August 3 went to Baker and provided 1,000 backpacks, school supplies, and certificates for school uniforms to school age kids and their parents. The event was organized with other agencies that provided music, meals, and frozen fruit pops; books for kids of all ages; immunizations from the Office of Public Health; dental screening, checkups, and sealing; refurbished computers; raffles for car seats and DVDs; and registration for FREE Early Head Start and Head Start programs.

 

There are any number of ways you can assist with the work that Catholic Charities and other relief organizations are doing at the FEMA trailer camps. Counselors and educators for summer or after school programs are needed. Furniture or household items are needed as people find housing outside of the village. Formula, diapers, and other sundry items can be donated directly to the Village. And if you want to partner with a family or individual who lives in Renaissance Village and provide ongoing financial support as they make their way through this process, Sam can connect you directly with someone who needs and will welcome and respect your support.

 

Mario "Sam" Sammartino

Catholic Charities

P.O. Box 1668

Baton Rouge, LA 70821-1668

(225) 303-8606

msammartino@ccsbr.org

 

Survivor's Village, New Orleans, Louisiana--IMPORTANT UPDATE, JANUARY 2007

Survivor's Village is a grassroots movement started by residents of public housing in New Orleans, who are demanding the right of return for all New Orleans citizens. Joan and Frank met members at Survivor's Village and attended a meeting of the organizing committee.

 

As of January 15, 2007 members of Mayday NOLA are occupying the St. Bernard Housing Project in active and peaceful resistance to HUD's decision to raze the sound structure rather than repair it. Mayday NOLA has committed to stay in the buildings until an agreement that is satisfactory to a board representative of the residents who requested the action is reached with HUD and HANO.

You can help by writing to your own representatives asking that they endorse and promote the need for public housing in New Orleans as well as all social, educational, and public assistance services that help people in need to get back on their feet.

 

You can assist Survivor's Village in the work they are doing to organize residents of New Orleans' public housing in their fight for right to return.

 

Survivors Village
c/o People Working Together
4712 Ray Ave
New Orleans, LA 70126
(504) 239-2907
(504) 319-3564

 

Summary of the Situation from Color of Change

An organization founded following the flooding in New Orleans called Color of Change sent this update on January 29, 2007. It presents the situation very clearly and succinctly and includes links to news sources verifying the information:

 

On Martin Luther King's birthday, after being shut out of their homes for a year and a half, residents of the St. Bernard housing development in New Orleans took matters into their own hands. They entered their apartments, without permission, to the cheers of hundreds of supporters.1 HUD (Department of Housing and Urban development), the federal agency that's supposed to help provide low-income housing, responded by suing them for monetary damages and asking a judge to throw them out of their homes—homes that are structurally intact and can be made livable with minimal investment.2,3

 

HUD can't—or won't—open up perfectly good housing, but it finds a way to sue the people it's supposed to serve? Join us in demanding that HUD drop its lawsuit and that Congress investigate HUD's plans to destroy public housing in New Orleans.

 

HUD is suing the residents because they stand in the way of HUD's plan to destroy four of New Orleans' major public housing communities. HUD wants to demolish 4500 units of low-income housing and replace them with just 800 units, less than half of which would be designated as low-income—that's about one new affordable housing unit for every ten destroyed.

 

HUD has tried to justify the plan by saying that the buildings are so damaged that they are dangerous to residents. That isn't true. Faculty from the Architecture Department at MIT filed papers in court saying there was no structural damage that justified demolition. In fact, the buildings are far superior to the buildings that would replace them.4

 

HUD has also said it would cost more to repair the buildings than to rebuild them. That isn't true either. The cost to demolish and rebuild public housing would be over $1.04 billion. Just a third of that would be enough to clean up and even totally modernize the buildings.5

 

Pushing poor people out

HUD's plan would put money in the pockets of private developers while permanently displacing thousands of low-income residents, in clear violation of HUD's mission, which, in addition to fostering home ownership, is to "…increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination."6

 

After months of organizing, marching in the streets, and fighting in court, the residents of the St. Bernard public housing development took the battle to save their community one step further. They celebrated Martin Luther King Day by going home and cleaning up from the hurricane and government neglect. The residents are proving that their units are livable and making real what every politician has said is their right: the right to return. And the main force standing in their way is the federal agency that's supposed to be on their side.

 

Congress needs to exercise its oversight responsibility with HUD. Join us in demanding that it does while letting the residents of the St. Bernard development know we stand with them. One minute of your time can make a difference.

 

Thank You and Peace,

-- James, Van, Clarissa, Gabriel, Liat, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
   January 29th, 2007

 

References:

1. Housing agencies sue to remove protesters, The Times Picayune, 1-23-07
http://www.colorofchange.org/ref/hud_1.html

 

New Orleans tussles over public housing, Los Angeles Times, 1-23-07
http://www.colorofchange.org/ref/hud_2.html

 

2. New Orleans: HUD Policies Limiting Housing for Poor, Truthout, 12-29-06
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/67/24786

 

3. Condition of the Four New Orleans Housing Projects Slated for Demolition, Gulf Coast Fair Housing Network

http://fairhousingnetwork.org/node/10

 

4. Ibid.

 

5. Affordable Housing Fact Sheet, Loyola Law Clinic
http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/index.php?module=article&view=72

 

6. Department of Housing and Urban Development Mission Statement
http://www.hud.gov/library/bookshelf12/hudmission.cfm

 

7. Ideas & Trends: Unbuilding: All Fall Down, New York Times, 11-19-06
http://www.colorofchange.org/hud/arch.htm

 

ACORN

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a national volunteer organization made up of and serving low- and moderate-income families, doing social justice and community building work. ACORN in New Orleans has gutted over 1,200 homes, helping residents get on track to rebuild. They also helped New Orleans residents who are outside of Louisiana vote in the recent elections. Their work is entirely dependent on volunteers and donations.

 

You can make a donation to ACORN of any amount or provide in-kind donation of the materials and tools needed to do this work. Through ACORN you can adopt a house in New Orleans with your relatives, church, work, or other local community group, and finance the gutting and cleaning—you can provide the first step to get a family back in their home! You can also volunteer your own time, or take your class, to do this work with ACORN in New Orleans—their web page includes everything you need to know to prepare to go to New Orleans and volunteer gutting houses.

 

ACORN Institute - Hurricane Recovery and Rebuilding Fund

1024 Elysian Fields Avenue

New Orleans, LA 70117

(800) 790-2290

(504) 943-0044, ext. 187

rebuild@acorn.org

donate@acorn.org

 

Heartfelt Foundation

Heartfelt does ongoing community service projects in California and around the world. In early August 2006 they did two back-to-school projects at the Asia Baptist Church in New Orleans and at Renaissance Village in Baker. This included providing backpacks and school supplies to 1,000 children in each location, as well as gift certificates for their parents to get school uniforms.

 

Heartfelt would welcome your time as a volunteer as well as donations to Katrina relief or any of its programs.

 

The Heartfelt Foundation
2101 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 117
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 829-7857
Fax:(310) 829-7208
serve@heartfelt.org

 

How to Stay Informed

In the year following the receding of the flood water in New Orleans, it has not been made clear in local and national news sources just how long a journey there is before the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region are back on their feet physically and economically. Perhaps far more significant is the amount of work in store for those long-time residents of the area who are trying to return to their home. Many residents of New Orleans who were displaced, mostly working class and black, would return to the city if they had the means, a home to return to or the ability to restore their home, and work available. There is a high risk that affordable housing and public assistance housing in New Orleans will not be restored in the city's effort to gentrify New Orleans to a whiter and more wealthy community. This story had been all but overlooked in national media during the past year.

 

Around the first anniversary of the storm and flooding, every news source in the world seemed to be telling some specific version of the story and showing how much work there is to do to restore New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region and how much injustice continues to reign.

 

Even though national attention will surely slip away again, you can stay informed. Consider the following:

 

News Sources:

Louisiana Weekly: One of the oldest newspapers in the country specifically for African Americans, Louisiana Weekly is available online and includes many articles about the housing situation and other issues important to the restoration of New Orleans.

 

The Times-Picayune. New Orleans' local newspaper, which like all local papers may be biased, but keeps the front line story about New Orleans and the residents on the front pages every day.

 

New Orleans IndyMedia: NOLA IndyMedia is an online news source where readers publish their own stories.

 

Katrina Information Network: KIN is an information and action clearinghouse that shares expert viewpoints and action from the communities that have been devastated by Katrina. Its web site includes a newsroom section.

 

New Orleans Voices For Peace: This is a grassroots organization that supports peace activism and hurricane relief work. They have primarily an anti-war message; however, their site also includes a lot of information on restorative work around the Gulf Coast region. You can also participate in providing content to New Orleans Voices For Peace; just sign up here.

 

Google News: Go to Google News and search for "New Orleans public housing" or "New Orleans affordable housing" or whatever your topic of interest and see what you can find.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.