NOLA: Ownership Society for Whites, Seizure Society for Blacks?

[barbaraann]

From the White House website:

Expanding Homeownership. The President believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America's vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. In June 2002, President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. The President also announced the goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families before the end of the decade. Under his leadership, the overall U.S. homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2004 was at an all time high of 69.2 percent. Minority homeownership set a new record of 51 percent in the second quarter, up 0.2 percentage point from the first quarter and up 2.1 percentage points from a year ago. President Bush's initiative to dismantle the barriers to homeownership includes:
American Dream Downpayment Initiative, which provides down payment assistance to approximately 40,000 low-income families;
Affordable Housing. The President has proposed the Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, which would increase the supply of affordable homes;
Helping Families Help Themselves. The President has proposed increasing support for the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunities Program; and
Simplifying Homebuying and Increasing Education. The President and HUD want to empower homebuyers by simplifying the home buying process so consumers can better understand and benefit from cost savings. The President also wants to expand financial education efforts so that families can understand what they need to do to become homeowners.


From the LA Times:
Law Enforcement May Forcibly Remove New Orleans Residents
By Scott Gold and Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writers

NEW ORLEANS -- Authorities pushed their evacuation efforts, threatening forced removals, as they sought today to remove the last people remaining in this city devastated by broken levees and Hurricane Katrina.

Floodwaters continued to recede, but the drying out process is expected to take weeks at least. Meanwhile in Washington, the federal government considered new relief efforts including a plan to give each victim of Katrina a debit card worth $2,000.

Late Tuesday night, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin issued an order giving law enforcement agents the right to forcibly remove people from their homes if they decline to leave peacefully with rescuers.
The order says officers can "compel the evacuation of all persons .... regardless of whether such persons are on private property or do not desire to leave," New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon DeFillo said.
...http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-090705katrina_lat,0,4778765.story?coll=la-home-headlines

During the Katrina coverage, I have seen large homes and even a mansion under water. I WANT TO KNOW IF THOSE HOMES WILL BE SEIZED/BULLDOZED. Does anyone know who owned the huge mansion that was underwater?

[bloom]

1. On renters

On Democracy Now today...

DAVID GLADSTONE: In my experience, the culture of New Orleans is sold in the French Quarter, but it's produced elsewhere in many of the neighborhoods that have been devastated by the storm and flooding. And in order to get the real cultural producers back in the city, I think they need to – we'll need to feel safe that this won't happen again, and they'll also need to have adequate housing, which raises a big issue in my mind, because most people in New Orleans are renters. And most of the people who are poor and African American are renters. And the private sector cannot come back in and build housing and charge market rates and have people afford it, able to afford it. So there's going to be – need to be a rather large-scale public – either public works program in New Orleans or some kind of subsidies. I hear companies like Bank of America advertise that they have three quarters of a trillion dollars that they want to invest in struggling communities. Well, why not in New Orleans?


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/07/1415225

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Personal Hurricane Accounts