Housing Woes in New Orleans Continue Nearly a Year After Katrina

[struggle4progress]

... BETTY ANN BOWSER: Before the storm, about 13,000 people, most of them African-American, lived in the city's 5,000 public housing apartments. Today, several thousand are back in 1,000 rehabbed units; another 1,000 will reopen next month.

But HUD says this is only a temporary solution. The agency plans to tear down 75 percent of the city's public housing because it's unfit for human habitation. That would make way for new neighborhoods like this to be built over the next 12 to 18 months, neighborhoods HUD says are the future of public housing.

Even before Katrina, HUD started the transformation in three old project areas of the city, putting up town homes on tree-lined streets with manicured yards, inside, wall-to-wall carpeting, central air conditioning, new kitchens, new baths. And the new neighborhoods are not just for poor people; they're to be offered to a mix of incomes ...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec06/housing_07-27.html