I was wondering about the borded up but livable houses in New Orleans that Greg Palast filmed, and googled, and appararently there was a HANO Resident Advisory Board Consultation Meeting yesterday(?) and Common Ground has audio clips. I assume there will be further updates there.
from Common Ground's report:
6:30 pm Live report from the meeting by Matt Olson:
A very intense situation is developing as public housing residents and community leaders battle to have their voices heard at the HANO Resident Advisory Board Consultation Meeting.
People chanting "People First!" tried to amend the agenda to have the residents heard before HANO's presentations.
Common ground has 9 audio clips, including William Jefferson, who will have a run-off election in a few days.
Here's a partial approximate transcript of Dr. Marshall Truehill - native New Orleanian (2nd to last audio clip)
Three questions
- At the time Katrina hit, did residents of housing projects have legal leases? Yes.
- At the time Katrina hit, were rents paid? Yes.
- Were there any provisions in those leases that resident can be evicted after being forced from their homes by a natural disaster? No.
As someone has said tonight, it's not that residents are necessarily against improving the condition of the developments, but let that process continue after people have come home.
In Illinois, once in a while I go into rant mode when someone here makes a "they need to rebuild smart" disparaging comment. Then I interrupt with a description of the same boarded up or barred homes that the people from the meeting are asking to return to.
If it was going to be done equitable, and renters and low income housing given equal priority with rich folk, but -- when the housing situation is so desperate -- they have boarded up repairable housing. Some of those homes/appartments, speakers say, they could move back in to today. If there's clean up to do, they'll do it themselves. Those houses looked in better condition that what many people are (trying to) live in, it's criminal (IMO) to plan to tear down repairable housing. It's such a transparent land grab.
I'm four states away. I don't really know the score. Because I don't know the score, I'm going to listen to the locals about how they want help rather than acknowlege the talking points of land grabbers and opportunists.
So this is a shout-out to the people shouting.