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U.N. experts, HUD disagree on housing
by The Times-Picayune
Thursday February 28, 2008, 10:10 AM
Two experts from the United Nations said thousands of black families would continue to suffer displacement and homelessness if the demolition of 4,500 public housing units is not halted, but federal housing officials in New Orleans countered that they have units available immediately for former public housing residents displaced by Katrina.
U.N.-appointed experts Miloon Kothari, the U.N. Human Rights Council's investigator for housing, and Gay McDougall, an expert on minority issues, urged U.S. and local government leaders to further include current and former residents in discussions that would help them return home.
"I think this is vindication of what public housing advocates have been saying from day one," said Monique Harden, co-director of the public interest law firm Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, who testified before Geneva-based U.N. experts.
"Recovery must mean the end of displacement for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast," added Harden, who returned to New Orleans last week. "What we have instead is recovery that demolishes affordable housing."
"The spiraling costs of private housing and rental units, and in particular the demolition of public housing, puts these communities in further distress, increasing poverty and homelessness," said a joint statement by the experts. "We therefore call on the federal government and state and local authorities to immediately halt the demolitions of public housing in New Orleans."
But local officials said the U.N. experts were too detached from the complexities of the post-Katrina city to claim that razing of the buildings was racist. For example, while the U.N. experts called for residents to be included in discussions about public housing, many of those residents appeared at a New Orleans City Council meeting in December to commend architects and developers for meeting with them regularly to solicit their thoughts on the design of modernized public housing.
City officials were riled, but mostly they planned to ignore the finding.
"The past model of public housing in New Orleans has been a failed one. Years of neglect and mismanagement left our public housing developments in ruin," said a joint statement issued by the City Council Thursday. "These are critical times in our city's history. We can choose to continue on the path of progress and positive change, or we can choose to maintain the status quo."
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also weighed in, calling the U.N. expert findings "misinformed."
"We do not want to relegate thousands of minority and low-income families back into the substandard conditions of New Orleans' public housing, conditions only made worse by Hurricane Katrina," said a statement issued by HUD's press offices.
Officials from the Housing Authority of New Orleans said the agency has 253 traditional units available in public complexes. Eligibility for those units is limited to people who were public housing residents in New Orleans when Katrina struck. HANO has been renovating some units in complexes across the city to provide housing for former residents until the rebuilding of public housing and mixed-income neighborhoods is complete.
The experts' comments did not entail an official U.N. resolution, but they came a day before a larger U.N. racism panel planned to discuss Katrina recovery efforts and public housing in New Orleans. Neither opinion carries legal or regulatory power.
The demolition of the housing developments appears all but assured. Early stages have begun at some developments, and only demolition permits remain for others. The council voted unanimously in December to raze the units.
. . . . . . .
Staff writer Gwen Filosa contributed to this report.
It's unbelievable, but the UN is actually calling a spade a spade. HUD should be renovating most of those buildings, not tearing them down. We New Orleanians think that a blank slate is a solution, but if you've seen what has replaced the former developments, you'd know that it's so much worse. Pres Kabacoff and other developers have renovated the former buildings in far less time and far less cost than any new-build; HUD is plain screwing this city, and HANO is just its mouth-piece.
We'll rue the day we decided to tear these down. Our Mayor and City Council can only see in black and white, and couldn't stand up to HUD when it really counted.
I would think after over 2 years we could talk about something other than what people want to get for free. Anyone not working today does not want to work!!!
NO MORE NEW TAXES!!
Excuse me, but last time I checked, the displaced people were safely placed in housing in other areas all over the country. What is so freeking racist about providing homes elsewhere? I have a new domicile, as well, and I don't blame HUD for my choice to live elsewhere. I have a roof over my head. Are they camping out in tents somewhere, as the residents of Mississippi had to do for months?
If they have no water or plumbing, nor a roof over their heads, we can start complaining. But I truly don't think anyone from former NOLA public housing is living in the swamps or in the parks.
Millions of illegal aliens are crossing our southern border every year as if they were just crossing a state line, yet all these people can't figure out a way to come back and make a living.
You heartless people don't understand! They are forced to pay their own utility bills! That used to be included in the $30 a month (or less)they paid to live in the projects!
the perceptions of most of the posters today do not square with the facts. and if you like to deal in fantasy, that's your biz. but if you are fond of facts then check the demographics of the entire population that receives help from government policies and procedures. that goes for college students, medicare, etc, etc. etc. we all benefit in some way from the policies and programs of local and federal government. and if you still cry foul and unfair, you must put away your arrogance and grow up. it's a big world made for big people not tots like most of the posters today.
Re: "the perceptions of most of the posters today do not square with the fact..."
Of course if you "check the demographics" you'll see that many more
people are receiving medicare, college aid etc. than live in gov't
housing. So what? What does an elderly person receiving medical
benefits from medicare (probably after paying employment taxes their
entire life) or someone getting help with an education have to do with
the generational occupancy of tax payer provided housing by young, able
bodied non-working individuals who ensure the continuation of such a
disgraceful "system" by producing nothing but illegitmate babies doomed
to failure.
Long before Katrina, the projects in New Orleans were in need of repair and replacement. You had generations being raised in these temporary housing. The city of New Orleans did not have a next step to put the tenants. If projects are reopen and allow tenants to move back, more generations will be raised in that same mindset. I do feel that everyone who want to return should have the opportunities, but at what cost to other citizens? With the upkeep these places will need, prior and post Katrina, it just does not add up. Who has that type of money? Can the city afford the same old thing?
So before this blog gets way off track, Is there a way to make these people earn there own keep, I'm not saying that it's wrong for the government for letting the affected people live for free in the complexes but if they live in those facilities they should be required to hold down a job. Now if there physicall unfit to hold down a job or they are elderly and not recieving social security.
But if they are "able" to work they should be required to have a job.
Where the hell does the UN get off saying it's racist!
"Two experts from the United nation"....that should say it all. These are the same people who simply stand by and watch the Sudan and Rowanda and the rest of the Africa go to hell and they come here and are "experts". About as expert and effective as Raving Ray.
I have a great idea. Why not have the UN foot the bill to buy the projects from HUD, refurbish them, then provide them as free temporary housing for the indigent until the new HUD units are available? The UN could then sell the original properties or donate them to the folks that inevitably would never want to leave. That or convert the housing into a giant asylum for all the homeless who need to be medicated and helped.
Since the day after the storm people have been stating clearly that if you are a person of need (elderly, indigent, insane etc) then coming back to New Orleans is probably not a good idea. Most people who were "in the system" were transfered to other cities so that they could immediately reenter the "system" in those communities. This was done to avoid having giant refugee camps springing up in the NOLA area and was clearly the right decision.
While love for the city is admirable, if you are in a position where to live here you either need significant government assistance or you will end up under the interstate; go somewhere else. For those that have not followed that common sense approach it is difficult to feel sorry for them.
Many of you don't realize that 90% of the people living in the projects were working and some even working two jobs, so they were not all living freely and sitting back waiting for the government or anyone to take care of them. HANO and any other agency were to accommendate all of New Orleans residence after the hurricane but, this was the easiet way for them to rid the lower/middle class out of coming back home. Why did they have to wait until a major hurricane came to decide to tear down a persons home they may have had for generations. if some of you even would have visited some of the residence apartments in those projects you would have been surprised of what you saw, they way of living were upscale, they kept their apartments in great condition and had beautiful living arrangements. So, lets not down grade them. have a heart and blame the mayor and city council for their lack of respect for these residence and many others. I never lived in a project but have friends who did and I enjoyed visiting with them in there place they once called home. So many want to quickly say because of the violence in New Orleans it came from residence who lived in the projects, if so in that case why was so much killing going on after the hurricane when the people who resided in the projects were not back in New Orleans. Tell me where did these people live before who were there killing (probably from the westbank, garden distict, kenner, metarie, etc). What the city officials want is a HIGH SOCIETY NEW ORLEANS, this will never become, because when you take the BLACK culture away you have no more New Orleans. This is my opinon, some words may be misspelled, so deal with it.
Big surprise, a socialist organization has a problem with the way things work in a wealthy, capitalist country. I had always dismissed the people who criticized the U.N. as New World Order/black helicopter-seeing wackos, until I took a tour of the New York complex. This organization's motives are clearly not to further the interests of the American people, even the American poor, who are not poor by third-world standards. I give them about the same amount of credibility as I would a Berkley coffee shop "intellectual".
The UN should keep their big prying noses out of NOLAs business. Who gave them the autority to interfear what goes on locally ia none of the damn UNs business!!
Personally, this goes way beyond glass houses. The United Nations is the worlds largest collection of human abusers to be found anywhere, and for them to lecture anyone is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy.
This corrupt bag of dregs which sat truly humanistic nations like the Sudan and Libya on the Human Rights committee when they voted the US off... is going to look down their wart covered noses at US?
If I had my way, this collection of spies and US haters would be given their notice to vacate the premesis and their building changed to section 8 Housing in New York City.
The US should get out of the UN, and tell the UN to get the hell out of the US. JMHO!
EnuffBS
what the hell is the UN doing in getting involved. these idiote are a real group of people that one with any brains would not let enter their house,,,,,,,period. I say go crawl back in the hole that you dug and...the US should cut any funding to these a---holes
There's no one living in them now, how are more people going to be diplaced. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Everyone is paying higher rent & housenotes these days, & most
of us in the metro new orleans area have crappy jobs, we're suffering
though it however. So should they, no more rent in public housing units
for $70.00 per month & free ulities, and own 55 inch flatscreens,
drive fancy cars, have gold teeth, and go get the hair & nails done
every week. Wake up, we live in a real world, not Barbie's!!!
Help like public housing should be for the elderly & disabled only!!!
Obviously someone at the UN has been misinformed. There are no guards at the city gate denying entry to anyone. Many people of all races, creeds and colors call this city their home. Opportunity awaits those who are willing to work. Rents, which were long depressed then spiked ridiculously, are coming to a level which is to be expected in a major metropolitan area.
No one is keeping anyone out. Those who can, through their own initiative, put together the resources can make a life in New Orleans. New Orleans, however, can no longer afford to support those who will not contribute to the rebuilding and the economic vitality of the city. New Orleans isn't going to tolerate warehousing its citizens in pits of poverty that bred crime and its attendant social ills. New Orleans cannot afford to return to the past if it is going to have a future.
The world watched in horror as our poverty was exposed and demanded
that New Orleans did something. Well, we are doing something by
revamping our city in a way that suits the many, many of us, of all
colors and races, that are working hard to rebuild. If you feel that we
have treated the people who lived here badly you are welcome to take
them in and provide for them if they refuse to provide for themselves.
This is not cruelty on our part, just a sober recognition that a city
in a crucial recovery, not just from the storm but from the decades of
neglect we have had here, cannot support those who cannot support it.
Lets put the UN Officials in the Projects! Problem solved!
Where has the UN been in the past 2.5 years? What has the UN done to help Katrina victims?
The UN props up the worlds despots. Look at the UN Iraq food for oil program.
That was quite eloquent 'bayoustjohn'. You have my vote should you ever run for office!
The day when we have to listed to the liberal minded United Nations is the day when we surrender our Constitution.
I STILL say, who invited these bozos to the party anyway? You would think between the genocide going on right now in the Sudan and Kenya, these UN schlubs would have better things to do than to worry about a bunch of people who are CURRENTLY PROVIDED HOUSING RIGHT NOW! (just not the particular house they want) What was it my parents said when I was a teenager? Oh, yeah: "As long as you live in our house, and use our money, you will abide by our rules."
bayoustjohn & mskittylou I enjoyed your comments, and agree with you both.
We left NO the year before Katrina, to retire in Tennessee, and
although we miss many aspects of LA, we don't miss the constant
bickering in the city. I worked with several friends whose parents grew
up in public housing in NO. They came from other countries, and lived
there until they could get out on their own. I realize that there are
people who are handicapped mentally or physically, aged, or otherwise
unable to work. That is what this housing is designed for, not for
generations of those physically able, but unwilling to work.
I agree that there were many hard working, mostly single parent
families trying to "make it" in difficult surroundings, and my heart
goes out to them. BUT, I think those people will take advantage of
their new surroundings, no matter where they are. Too many want to come
back for another free ride. Those are the most vocal, those that are
spotlighted by the news.
My closing thoughts: UN stay out of our business!
To Cookietwins
You said that THOSE FAMILIES HAVE BEEN LIVING THERE FOR GENERATIONS.
Well thats not what their intended uses were for. Do like everyone else
in America does get a job pay your own way and stop using the
government. The projects is not a god given right. All the projects
should be torn down Its time for people to work. Free hand outs are
over.
How may times did youride by the projects and see able bodied men
and women just hanging around drinking and smoking during the middle of
the day? Then you see someone on TV complaining that they've lived in
the projects all of their lives and they're complaining that they might
have to actually pay some bills now.
Read what's happening in Houston since the influx of project residents
after Katrina. Houston would gladly give the residents back to New
Orleans because many are refusing to work and just want government
handouts. What a joke.
When the mexicans and others from Central and South America first began to swarm into my neighborhood and take over the businesses and buy up the property, I was angry and upset to see that "outsiders" were taking over New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. I have since then noticed that our Hispanic neighbors are usually far more courteous and proud of their achievements based on hard work.
Perhaps the UN would serve New Orleans better if the focused their attention to the corruption in City Hall led by the commuting Mayor and his cronies. The UN should be focusing on the Human Rights violations that we WORKING-CLASS and LAW ABIDING citizens endure daily with daily gunfire, drug-dealing, and general criminality enveloping our neighborhoods and lives.
When the concerns are truly placed on the GOOD, Hard-working people who are victimized daily by the criminals, lazy, and inconsiderate slouths who want everything given to them because they THINK we are all obligated to do and give to them, then I will care what the UN and other "experts" have to say. Live a day in OUR lives where we are forced to spend more and more money to just try to keep our roof over our heads due to the profiteers in office, food on our table, and to stay out of the crossfire of flying bullets in our once decent neighborhoods, then say something, otherwise, the UN and most "experts" have NO PLACE at all to say a word.
Where was the UN when New Orleans was under water for weeks? Where was the UN when we trickled back slowly to tear out our walls and throw away the contents of our homes which included things from ancestors which can never be replaced? Where was the UN when OUR people were calling for help from rooftops and trying to make their way through contaminated waters to safety? Where was the UN when the US government refused shiploads of medical, food, and other aid from Germany and other countries throughout the world?!!! Why should ANYONE care what the UN has to say?! They are a self-promoting, self-serving body of self-important politicians. We already have enough of those full of hot air types in our own local and national government. To bad we couldn't put them all in one place, contain them, and have a Hurricane like Katrina for them.
If you want to come home, do like most of us have had to do, come back, get a job (often in a completely new field, starting from the bottom-up); there were weeks I made $32.00 with no savings to rely on after the storm. My family and I had no unemployment benefits, we tore out our own walls and had to put our own belongings on the curb and we cried like everyone else at the sight of destroyed homes and lives, BUT we worked together and struggled to rebuild one day at a time. I am the youngest of the family and I am nearly 50 years old, but I put on a paint respirator everyday and work gloves and worked in muck and mold, and later dust and dirt as we got the contents out of the house and tore the walls all out. We were "lucky" yes, because we had something to rebuild, but those complaining the most about not being able to come back to New Orleans are those who have been on OUR tax dollars for nearly 3 years now! Those who could have either started new lives in some cities that offered far better opportunities than New Orleans has to offer us now. I understand wanting to come home, I know what it is like to sleep in a car, sleep on a floor and to not know if there is going to be home to return to. But if you want to come home to New Orleans or her surrounding areas, come home and CONTRIBUTE to the betterment of New Orleans (or wherever home is), or shut-up and stay away, because New Orleans; she deserves better than she's been given by the criminals, drug-dealers and self promoting profiteer politicians!
What is this "right to return" I keep hearing about? Does it mean right to return at the taxpayers' expense? Not on my dime.
I apologize for the typos [(M)exicans; ...better if the(y) focused their..., etc.] or grammar errors above, as I was typing fast as my emotions and memories just came flooding over me. I truly do feel for those who are struggling to rebuild their lives after Katrina or any disaster; however, I am losing patience with organizations and people who tell us what we SHOULD do, but they do nothing to help. What they SAY something?! I can say" "The World should be at peace", but words without the deeds to support them only equal empty words, and we have ALL had more than enough of those from our governmental leaders everywhere.
Everyone who WANTS to come back CAN come back! The government has given and coninues to give to those who needs the help. I can understand if you're still waiting on applied for and approved FEMA mondy but for those who are complaining about their ruined untouched houses or the tearing down the trashy projects, I say stop pissing and moaning. We've had enough of that! Why are they complaining about the projects being torn down? Look at the Fischer projects on the WB. Newer, better, and low cost housing for those who want and need it; But still the same old drug and murder problems. For those still getting rental assistance due to the storm. Just how long do you think you should be allowed to live for free in trailors and other alternate housing and not work? If you are working than it's time you start paying with your own money instead of using it to buy drugs, cars, TV's, Jewelry, expensive shoes, clothing, using your money to gamble and party and on and on.........
"For those still getting rental assistance due to the storm. Just how long do you think you should be allowed to live for free in trailors and other alternate housing and not work?"
They think they're entitled to it forever. It's a reward for faithfully supporting Democrat candidates in every election.
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