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Pepper spray keeps protesters behind the gates of New Orleans City Hall.

HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS:

In what has become an ongoing power struggle between the haves and the have-nots in the predominately African-American city of New Orleans, a unanimous vote by the City Council today approved the demolitions of the three remaining subsidized housing complexes which provided affordable housing to the city’s poor. The City Hall meeting was attended by thousands of protesters hoping to impress the need for the affordable housing structures to council members who now appear to have made up their minds supporting the demolitions before the meeting ever began. Protesters were largely held out of the meeting, and attempts to push through the closed gates at City Hall were met with pepper spray and tazers by NOPD officers. The NOPD later confirmed that pepper spray and tazers are not standard equipment for officers, but rather confined to SWAT officers with specialized training. When asked why SWAT officers were present at a City Hall meeting, the NOPD spokesperson replied that some protesters present “had only one goal in mind - to be disruptive and disobedient.”

This is the latest in a series of clashes between NOPD officers and protesters who oppose the demolition of the city’s few remaining subsidized housing complexes. New Orleans is currently experiencing a housing crisis the likes of which have not been seen since the Civil War. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged most of the existing housing in the region, particularly lower-income housing structures and neighborhoods, which lie on lower and therefore less expensive ground. Even the region’s wealthier residents moved down a rung on the financial ladder, having lost homes and income for months or years due to the closure of a city that runs the country’s third largest port. Most residents who owned homes and businesses could not recover damages from their insurance companies, due to a federal ruling that bailed out big insurance companies at the expense of individual homeowners. As a result, not only has the amount of available housing been greatly reduced, but rents have doubled or tripled as property owners attempt to make up for losses which their insurance failed to recover. And like most metropolitan cities in the U.S. these days, the cost of housing was already a major issue even before the region’s devastation. The same housing complexes now slated for demolition had a waiting list of over 8000 families trying to get approved for subsidized housing even before the storms ever hit. With 50,000 people abandoning dangerous FEMA trailers and over 100,000 families still waiting for their Road Home money, homelessness is at an all-time high in the city. Residents who were hit hardest by the storms’ economic devastation have had the least means of recovery, but rather than help them or the region’s economy by creating more affordable housing, elected officials (both local and federal) are pursuing the demolition of thousands of affordable housing units.The City Council’s vote opens the door for HUD to replace the 4500 subsidized apartments with fewer than 800 – an 82% reduction in public housing. Nor will the replacement housing be dedicated entirely to affordable housing efforts - some of the new units are expected to sell for over $400,000. HUD insists that the housing slated for demolition was damaged during the storms and is unsafe, but even local and national architectural preservation groups have repeatedly disagreed, stating that the majority of the structures are of solid brick, architecturally sound, and would almost certainly remain intact long past anything HUD would build as a replacement.

The Lafitte public housing complex, closed and boarded up after hurricane Katrina.

BEHIND THE DEMOLITIONS:

While a vocal minority of the city’s residents and organizations have spoken up to protest the demolitions, it is the silent majority who have allowed HUD (and council members) to proceed with their plans. As with most issues involving an entire sub-section of the population, the back story leading up to today’s council vote is complicated. And as with most issues involving large amounts of money but distressingly little compassion, the conflict will inevitably devolve to create a few winners, and many losers. The winners will end up with money furnished by federal grants to build the new structures, as well as income from higher rents. The losers will fall through the cracks of the country’s rapidly disappearing social programs, and mostly end up homeless. While some may stay in the city, relegated to areas like the now infamous 9th Ward, most will move into poorer, rural areas. And ultimately, that’s probably the goal.

Since the storms, the entire city of New Orleans has become a haven for the kinds of problems which inevitably accompany widespread poverty - crime, drugs, violence, and ever higher rates of corruption. Neighborhoods such as the Garden District and Uptown, historically wealthy and safe (at least for the general public), have had a firsthand look at what happens when the money runs out, and an entire city is left to police itself. Gangs forced out of their homes have enacted turf wars among what used to be middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. Schools, already struggling before the devastation, have been relegated to not much more than crowd control for local youths. Law enforcement, or what remains of it since over half of the force deserted during the storm, has faced frying-pan-or-fire decisions with little leadership, and morale (as well as crime intervention) have plummeted. And all of these problems have been further exacerbated by government inaction which has been at best laissez-faire and ineffectual, and at worst entirely corrupted.

Yet millions of people continue to call the region home, and not just those who can’t afford to move elsewhere. New Orleans is one of the few major metropolitan cities in the U.S. that still fosters a pervasive sense of community and personal history. Residents who love the city insist that there is nowhere else like it in the country, and refuse to abandon it into the hands of crime and corruption. Even the first year after Katrina, locals carried on traditions like Mardi Gras and JazzFest. They have rebuilt homes and businesses, donated time and effort to local organizations, and endeavored to bring the city which was so recently a top travel destination back to its former glory.

But without the assistance of local and federal governments, progress has been slow, and residents at their wits’ ends to rebuild their home are willing to try just about anything. Thus the perfect setting for a little corruption and a lot of demolition has emerged. You can bet that a few, select someones are making a whole lot of dough off of rebuilding residential structures at retail market value where only subsidized housing existed before. HUD floods local media with statements to the effect that public housing “experiments” in New Orleans have failed, and should be replaced with more economically versatile “mixed income” neighborhoods. And so a public which, perhaps rightly, associates violence and random crime with impoverished neighborhoods is willing to see the subsidized housing go. The problem, of course, is that realistically the new neighborhood will probably be anything but versatile. Those who can afford more expensive housing are unwilling to have cheaper, subsidized housing programs in their neighborhoods - and these are the people who can afford to grease the wheels of City Council. Ultimately, the same classism at work in the overall city will prevent new, wealthier neighborhoods from sharing housing with the poor. This leaves the residents of the public housing complexes with nowhere else to go. And perhaps most importantly, leaving people with nothing to lose is exactly the situation that nurtures such widespread crime in the first place.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts… - Shakespeare

If Shakespeare was right and all the world is really a stage, then New Orleans may be merely the opening act for a tragedy of epic proportions to follow. The U.S. is currently experiencing and economic, political, and social downturn that is perhaps unprecedented and, more importantly, severe enough to attract the attention of the entire world. We are the only industrialized nation that fails to provide our citizens with even basic healthcare, we have millions of citizens who cannot afford food or housing, we are a target for the kind of terrorism that is clearly sophisticated enough to evade our best military efforts, and we are losing the respect and perhaps more importantly the cooperation of nations which have historically been our allies. When terrorists attacked New York in 2001, the whole world offered an outpouring of compassion and assistance to the victims. When Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, even our local governments didn’t provide the most basic aid and assistance. Whether the difference is racism, classism, politics, or time, there is no doubt that the rest of the world is watching to see what happens when a major U.S. city loses the support of its nation. Future acts of terrorism may indeed be economic rather than political in nature - because regional economic devastation now clearly appears to be the weakest link in our country’s emergency action plan.

Other reasons you should care:

• HUD is a federal program, which means it’s spending your tax money to demolish and rebuild the structures unnecessarily. To be more specific, $762 million of your money is helping HUD tear down over 4,600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units – an 82 percent reduction. Can you think of anything you’d rather do with that money? We can.
• Journalists investigating the situation have uncovered major corruption in associated federal programs - the corruption is not limited to New Orleans.
• Crime follows poverty - people who have been pushed out of their homes in New Orleans will move to other cities, and their problems will follow. Don’t think for a moment that the New Orleans City Council doesn’t realize this.
• Communities of Faith are publicly denouncing the decision - including the Christian Unity Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Faith in Action Evangelistic Team, First United Baptist Church, Mennonite Disaster Services, New Orleans Interfaith Worker Justice, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Total Community Action Faith Collaborative, and others.
• “Big Government” is making all the rules - only it’s not so big. All of the decisions regarding the HUD demolitions for New Orleans are made by a committee of one - Mr. Donald Barbara. So much for checks and balances.

• This is your future - New Orleans, located in what is typically considered a “pink” state, is one of the few U.S. cities with a remarkable balance of diversity; conservatives and liberals, natives and immigrants (both documented and undocumented), caucasians and minorities, suburbanites and rural families, secular and parochial communities, “old money” and working-class people all live in a relatively localized area at the foot of the Mississippi river. As U.S. demographics change in the coming years, our communities will become more racially and economically mixed, and more cities will reflect the diversity that is currently present in New Orleans. How we deal with issues in light of these changes will determine the course of our nation’s future - it is no small matter; not to New Orleanians, and not to you.

Support The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act

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Citizens of four New Orleans public housing complexes were finally allowed their day in court, 24 hours before the scheduled demolition of four public housing structures that have become vital housing for families who were displaced by the effects of hurricane Katrina. Civil rights attorney Bill Quigley, who readers might recall was arrested at a city hall protest on the issue recently, was present at the hearing. He and other attorneys for the families currently living in 4500 subsidized apartments successfully argued that New Orleans City Council must approve the demolition of three of the four structures before HUD can continue. The fourth structure’s demolition will continue as scheduled; the official reason for the continued demolition was that the decision to demolish this structure “had occurred before Hurricane Katrina.” Apparently Katrina was so powerful it changed situation for three of the structures, but not powerful enough to change the fourth. At any rate, the decision is being considered a success. At least, it is by the 3/4 of residents who won’t be homeless on Christmas.

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