NEW ORLEANS, LA — On June 14, 2006, the United States Housing Department of Urban Development (HUD) and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) announced demolition plans for four of the city’s largest public housing units: St. Bernard, B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, and LaFitte projects.  HUD planned to spend an estimated $762 million to destroy the nearly 4,500 units and replace them with “mixed-income housing,” spending an average of about $400,000 on each new unit, although HANO reports have revealed that it would cost less than $10,000 each to repair the existing units.

According to local residents and community activists, representatives from HANO and HUD issued this announcement without personally meeting with any of the residents from the public housing units. The news came as a devastating blow for those who would be forced from their homes without a guarantee that new housing would be provided.  For the evacuees who planned to return home, this came as a reminder of a view that seems to linger among many of the displaced and their advocates - that the poor and African American populations are not welcome in New Orleans. 

“HUD sells the demolition as a way to improve people’s lives, but the underlying reason is much different,” explained Jay Arena, former Tulane professor and a member of the Coalition against Demolition. “This is a clear violation of international human rights.  This is how the United States judges other countries, based on principles that provide people with basic rights.  The government is supposed to facilitate people’s return to their homes after natural disasters but this case is the direct opposite.  This is a way to purge the poor form the city.  It is deeply wrong and deeply racist.”

U.S. Census reports have confirmed that prior to Katrina, about 37 percent of New Orleans residents lived below the poverty level.  Among those 37 percent, most were identified as African Americans and were housed in one of the city’s ten public housing units.  After Katrina, although some of the units suffered only minimal damage, many of the apartments, such as B.W. Cooper, were locked and residents were not allowed entry. 

Several months later, rather than returning to their homes, Katrina evacuees were told that the housing units were being torn down and that supplemental housing was not yet available or even guaranteed.  “Everyone has the right to come home,” explained Sharon Jasper, former resident of the St. Bernard complex. But they didn’t want us to do that.  We asked for one for one replacement and they wouldn’t do that either. They don’t want us here.”  The demolition plan called for the tearing down of over 5,000 apartments and a replacement number of 750 new apartments.

In addition to concerns about the availability of new housing, many residents fear the “mixed-income” housing will be too expensive.  Today, some of the same apartments whose monthly rent was as low as $300 pre-Katrina have received minor renovations and are being rented for nearly four times that amount. 

Shameekee Miller, a former resident of St. Bernard explains, “At first my rent was like $300 a month and then they added central air and heating, slapped some fresh paint on the wall and new tile, and now the rent is $1200 a month.”  She went on to say that although rent has increased, her salary has not and she can no longer afford to live there.  Miller is now a resident of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

One can only speculate as to whether or not HUD’s demolition plan is actually a way to rid New Orleans of a mass society who has lived in what Shelley Stevenson Midura, the council woman who proposed the demolition resolution, has allegedly described as a “warehouse for the poor.”  HUD has responded to criticisms with claims that the demolition and renovations will economically integrate New Orleans.  Government agents and HANO officials stated that the public housing units were infested with criminals and drug addicts and the demolition might potentially reduce crime. Others argue that advocates and not the residents themselves are opposed to the change.

Advocates say that the housing crisis in New Orleans is part of a larger societal problem.  “I am not a resident of the public housing units but I understand their concern,” Arena said.  People think the housing crisis in New Orleans has nothing to do with them, but it does.  Public housing is connected to a series of other issues.  We need a political movement for working class people to bring justice in this country.  Addressing and changing this would open the door for us to redirect our priorities and address things such as tax breaks for the rich, U.S. imperialism in other countries, and the billions of our tax dollars spent in a useless war.”

Candi Johnson is a master’s student in mass communication in the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi. The After Katrina Newswire is a project of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism at USM (www.usm.edu/afterkatrina). This story can be reprinted with this credit included.