Survivors and Supporters Takeover 1,500 units of NO Public Housing

The Housing Authority of New Orleans has continued to bar over seven thousand families from entering their homes. The majority of which were not damaged by the storm. These families have been displaced for 18 months without access to basic households goods, critical documents, family mementos, and most importantly their housing. That all changed a week ago on MLK Day 2007 when over 500 survivors and supporters took back St. Bernard Housing Projects.
 
“You don’t want to go to war with New Orleans!” chanted residents of St. Bernard Houses alongside supporters from May Day New Orleans, Survivors Village, and the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund as they marched around the gated and locked St. Bernard Houses. At noon the protestors, who far outnumbered HANO and NO police, stormed the gates liberating 1,500 of the seven thousand units of NO public housing that had been held hostage by the city and state governments. “They had other plans for this housing, other than letting us back home…we will not let them gentrify New Orleans.”       

“These housing projects belong to us” said Endesha Juakali of Survivors Village and Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund.  “Residents of St. Bernard are legal lease-holders. As far as we are concerned, we are being illegally prevented from returning home”. Once inside, residents and supporters helped one another clean homes, cook food and set-up for what might be a long occupation. This is only the beginning." 

Survivors Village Public Housing Fact Sheet

Myth: Families who are attempting to return to public housing have no legal right to return.

FACT:  HANO’s actions amount to illegal eviction.  Every resident has a current, valid lease.  A lawsuit is being filed against HANO to force it to honor its lease agreements.

Myth: Most of the public housing was destroyed or severely damaged.

FACT:  Of the 7,300 homes thousands had NO DAMAGE, are immediately inhabitable, but are fenced off. The cement and cinder block construction makes them more durable than newer construction, and even the few that flooded do not need to be gutted like wood and drywall construction.    

Myth: People who lived in public housing shouldn’t be able to return to the developments.

FACT:  The U.S. Government published international guidelines on the rights of Internally Displaced Persons: the primary right is the Right of Return for ALL people, regardless of circumstance.  

Myth:  HUD and HANO have effectively worked to open public housing for New Orleans residents.

FACT:  Alphonso Jackson used hundreds of thousands of dollars for labor and materials to board up and fence in housing developments instead of doing the minor repairs that would have allowed residents to return.   Delay has caused thousands more dollars of damage.  Jackson should be prosecuted, not praised.  

Myth: Displaced public housing residents are better off where ever they have evacuated. 

FACT:  Many of the public housing residents who are still scattered across the country will lose their assistance on June 30th.  Being homeless in a strange city with no support system is not ‘better off’.  

Myth: Public housing allows people to remain unemployed while the government subsidizes their rent.

FACT: The majority of public housing residents hold jobs which don’t pay enough to support them or their children.  Friends and family rely on each other for free childcare and support.  

Myth:  If public housing residents are allowed to return to the housing developments, crime will increase.

FACT:  The crime is already back in New Orleans, but public housing is not.  Most residents are single, working mothers and their families. Crime preyed on these neighborhoods— it didn’t live there.