DP-Index-nov07-lead6
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A section of
DOCPOST which is an
extract, executive
summary, index
rolled into one.
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December
2007
HURRICANE
KATRINA RECONSTRUCTION
/ REHABILITATION
HUD
Sends New Orleans Bulldozers And $400,000 Apartments For The Holidays
On
the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to
demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite
Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil
War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over
4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744
similarly subsidized units – an 82% reduction. HUD is in charge and
a one person HUD employee makes all the local housing authority
decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago –
all decisions are made in Washington DC. HUD plans to build an
additional 1000 market rate and tax credit units – which will still
result in a net loss of 2700 apartments to New Orleans – the
remaining new apartments will cost an average cost of over $400,000
each!
by
Bill Quigley. Countercurrents.org. 03/12/2007
New
Orleans Hurt by Acute Rental Shortage
More
than two years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is suffering from
an acute shortage of housing that has nearly doubled the cost of
rental units in the city, threatening the recovery of the region and
the well-being of many residents who decided to return against the
odds. Before the storm, more than half of the city's population
rented housing. Yet official attention to help revive the shattered
rental home and apartment market has been scant.
by Susan Saulny. The New York
Times. 03/12/2007
In
New Orleans, Plan to Raze Low-Income Housing Draws Protest
At
a moment when the shortage of low-income housing in the city is
causing significant hardship, the federal government is beginning
this week to tear down thousands of apartments in the city’s four
biggest public housing projects.
The
plan is producing sharp opposition, which has escalated to include
raucous demonstrations and, perhaps, threats of arson and other
violence.
Though
local and federal housing officials say the storm-damaged projects
were inhuman places to live and should not be rebuilt, some
protesters accused the government of a darker motive behind the
demolition plan. They contended that the government’s real aim was
to keep the poor, mostly female, almost entirely black residents of
public housing from returning to their city, to their homes.
by
Leslie Eaton. The New York Times. 14/12/2007
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