This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Residents of the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts can help stop the demolition of public housing in New Orleans.
Call US Representative Barney Frank to let him know that you support:
| TAKE ACTION NOW |
US Representative Barney Frank is the new Chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, which has oversight of HUD. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as the ranking minority member of the Financial Services Committee, Representative Frank has more than once called on HUD to respond appropriately to the Gulf Coast's massive housing crisis. But stopping the demolitions and bringing displaced New Orleanians back into their homes requires more than good positions. Frank must halt a process that has already been approved and launch a Congressional investigation. Frank needs to feel strong support from his constituents in order ensure that he takes the necessary actions.
On December 7, 2006, HUD announced plans to demolish four major public housing apartment complexes in New Orleans--BW Cooper, C.J. Peete, St. Bernard and Lafitte. These development clusters of mostly two-story and three-story buildings with six to eight apartments in each suffered little to no damage from Hurricane Katrina. Before the storm they were homes for over 4,000 low-income families.
Bill Quigley, who is one of the attorneys from New Orleans representing thousands of families who want to return to their apartments, recently explained:
In June 2005, HUD announced they were not going to let any residents back [into C.J. Peete, Lafitte, St. Bernard and B.W. Cooper] because they were going to be demolished. Over one hundred maintenance and security workers for the housing authority were let go. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago and all these decisions are being made in Washington DC.
The demolished buildings would make way for much newer and many fewer apartments which would be built by private developers. The demolition and private development would be financed by federal funds and federal tax breaks designed to help Katrina victims!
Nearly $100 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds were designated for the private developers. Another $34 million in Katrina Go-Zone tax credits were also donated to the developers.