Suit Claims New Orleans Plan Discriminates

[AnOhioan]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that a federal plan to demolish four public housing complexes is discriminatory and violates international laws that protect people displaced by natural disasters.

The suit was filed by several residents against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which was effectively taken over by HUD four years ago because of mismanagement.

After Hurricane Katrina, HUD laid out a plan to demolish four of the city's deteriorating complexes, reopen others closed since Katrina and give public housing residents more money to rent homes with vouchers.

But critics say the agency's plan will drive black families out of the city. Before Katrina, 5,100 families lived in public housing units in New Orleans; only 1,100 have returned since the storm

More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5915378,00.html

[NOLADEM]

1. Long Time Reader, First Time Caller

I live in New Orleans, and hoped to give my two cents on this. The plan to demolish these homes supposedly comes with the promise that they will be replaced with mixed development, a portion of which is dedicated to Section 8.

This HAS worked VERY well elsewhere in the city, and has turned low income neighborhoods into lower crime areas with much better mixing of classes, much in the way that some projects in Chicago have been changed. It will result in displacing many people until they are built, but as a New Orleans resident, I have to testify that the idea of densely populating ghetto style buildings with poverty results inevitable crime.

IF they do replace them with Mixed Housing it will be good for everyone, but not without a price. IF they do it as promised.

So, please dont judge the idea as without merit out of hand. IF they do it as planned, it may be a long run good for the city.

But do help these people by realizin that many of these projects are in PRIME real estate even though they may have flooded, and strangely, New Orleans is in the midst of a real estate boom! So be sure these people are allowed to come home to their old neighborhoods, whatever new form they may take.

Anyway, glad to be here.