The Fight to Save New Orleans' Public Housing

17 January 2008 - 2:00pm

With homelessness rates doubling after hurricane Katrina, activists in New Orleans have filed lawsuits and faced pepper spray and tasers in their fight to save public housing units from being demolished.

"Since Katrina, the homeless population of New Orleans has doubled to more than 12,000 people. Despite what the New York Times on Dec. 2 called an 'acute rental shortage,' HUD plans to spend $762 million to demolish public housing and replace it with only 744 new units of affordable housing. HUD will spend an average of $400,000 for each new mixed-income unit, while statements by HANO’S own insurance company have shown that many of the multiple-unit buildings to be demolished could be repaired for less than $10,000 per building."

"In late November, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) had approved $30 million in contracts to demolish the B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, Lafitte and St. Bernard projects. Public housing residents, lawyers, religious leaders and activists who attempted to stop the demolitions met police head on. But their efforts succeeded in delaying some demolition and gaining significant national support."

"The St. Bernard housing projects have stood empty since the forced evacuation during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Although the sturdy brick apartments suffered only minor water damage and could have been rehabilitated, HUD and the city of New Orleans fenced off the row houses and kicked out former residents who attempted to squat in their own homes. Residents began immediately protesting their displacement."

"On June 14, 2006, HUD and HANO announced demolition plans. And on June 26, a group of African-American public housing residents filed a class-action lawsuit, citing the agencies’ obligation to 'provide nondiscriminatory access to safe, affordable housing' and to keep contractual commitments to residents with leases."

"As protests continued on the ground, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), publicly requested a moratorium on the demolitions until more research is done into one-for-one replacement and the immediate needs of displaced residents. The Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2007 would require a plan for replacement before demolitions begin. But as of December, the bill was held up in committee and lacked the key support of Louisiana’s Republican Sen. David Vitter."

"Despite the opposition, on Dec. 20, New Orleans’ City Council voted unanimously to approve the demolitions without formally meeting with residents."

Full Story: First Came Katrina, Then Came HUD

Source: In These Times, January 16, 2008

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Water Damage to Masonry Structures

Submitted by dubephnx1 on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 17:55.

In regards to the Projects Buildings being demolished in New Orleans, All condolences and best wishes go to those who will have to relocate.

The biggest single issue for the demolitions has been determined to be Residential Safety. Remember that these buildings were flooded out from the basements through the upper portions of the first floors. Please also note that brick masonry, when saturated with water, will deteriorate quickly, in building life-span terms, meaning that the masonry brick will crumble after a short time, usually within a 1-10 year period. Add in that masonry brick is a major carrier of mold, when activated by water saturation, and you begin having health problems along with the building collapsing problems and fears, at the same time.
It is my understanding that the City of New Orleans had structural and additional analysis' performed on these particular buildings, and HUD also had similar studies done. These Reports combined to affirm that the brick structures were water-proofed on the exterior sides of the walls, which is standard construction procedure, but were not water-proofed on the interior sides of the exterior walls,which is also standard, as flooding of the level of those in New Orleans are very rare. But it is the fact that the interior sides of the brick walls had been saturated, and satureates for a long period of time, and that the water permeated into the brick walls, and that when brick masonry is saturated, especially in bearing walls that hold up several floors and weight of a building, these lower walls have to be replaced. Since it is impossible to hold up the upper floors of the Project Buildings designated for demolition, in order to replace the lower bearing walls, and alternative ways to add strong enough secondary walls were either more expensive than demo-rebuild, or would take up all of the interior liveable spaces of the basements through the first stories of these buildings, The City, along with HUD, in the Best interests of the Residents of these Multi-Family Housing Buildings, have proceed with the best way to make sure the Residents and their Families do not die in a future building collapse, and not have to incur health problems ffrom moldy conditions that will extend throughout all of the bricks in the brick-masonry buildings.

New Orleans Public Housing

Submitted by nolabyte on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 13:38.

As someone who recently moved to New Orleans and has watched the controversy unfold, it's important to appreciate the context here in the city, as well as the national context. I was living in Baltimore when they imploded the public housing high rises, and now I'm here in the midst of what's happening in NOLA. It's important to note that the four projects that are to be demolished are all going to be replaced by rental and some first time homebuyer housing, not condos or hotels. In fact two of the projects are located in Central City, New Orleans highest crime neighborhood. All will be replaced with less dense housing--at least 2/3 of it public and workforce/affordable. It's not something that's happened in response to Katrina--the driving force is a program and model called HOPE VI which has been around for 15 years. The positive thing about HOPE VI is that it comes with money for social services like day care, early childhood education, recreation, job training, etc. which used to be provided with public housing decades ago. Government has done a horrible job, so is privatization necessisarily bad? It seems that everything that HUD, HANO or FEMA does itself is a nightmare. It's also important to focus on the positive--it seems every day I'm learning about hundreds of affordable homes that have been built by nonprofits, with more in the pipeline. I just heard about two new complexes that have opened for low income elderly folks. And three apartment buildings that have been bought and rehabbed by private developers with rents for people with low incomes. It's happening too slowly, but it's happening. So, grab a hammer and a bunch of friends or your checkbook and keep it movin'. The city is definately in shock (and I look forward to buying the book and checking it out) and is being subjected to a grand experiment. However, indications are that the future is going to be better, not worse. Things were pretty bad here for low income people, still are awful. But I think it will get better.