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William
P. Quigley,
Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a
Job at a Living Wage. Temple University Press, 2003
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Bulldozers
for the Poor, Huge Tax Credits for Wealthy Developers
By
Bill Quigley
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!
Affordable housing is at a critical
point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still
living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically
forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are
still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the
Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated
12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents
across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.
In Mississippi, poor and working
people are being displaced along the coast to allow
casinos to expand and develop shipping and other
commercial activities. Two dozen ministers criticized
the exclusion of renters and low-income homeowners from
post-Katrina assistance: "Sadly we must now bear witness
to the reality that our Recovery Effort has failed to
include a place at the table ... for our poor and
vulnerable."
The bulldozers have not torn down
any buildings yet and New Orleans public housing
residents vow to resist. "If you try to bulldoze our
homes, we're going to fight," promised resident Sharon
Jasper. "There's going to be a war in New Orleans."
Resident resistance is being
expanded by allies from a coalition of groups who see
the destruction of public housing without one for one
replacement harming all renters and low-income
homeowners.
Kali Akuno, of the Coalition to
Stop Demolition, explains why many people who do not
live in public housing are joining residents in this
fight. "In the past two years, New Orleans has faced a
series of social crises that have struck a blow to our
collective vision for a more just and equitable city,
not simply one that is more inviting to elites. Yet none
of these crises has been as uniquely urgent as this.
What is at stake with the demolition of public housing
in New Orleans is more than just the loss of housing
units: it destroys any possibility for affordable
housing in New Orleans for the foreseeable future.
Without access to affordable housing, thousands of
working class New Orleanians will be denied their human
right to return."
A federal court has refused to stop
the scheduled demolitions. Residents offered evidence to
show the three story garden-style buildings were
structurally sound and pointed out that the local
housing authority itself documented that it would cost
much less to repair and retain the apartments than
demolish and reconstruct a small fraction of them. The
New York Times architecture critic described them as
"low scale, narrow footprint and high quality
construction." HUD promised to subject plans for
demolition to 100 days of scrutiny--yet approved
demolition with no public input in less than two days.
The court acknowledged some questions about the fairness
of the process but concluded that if the demolitions
turn out to be illegal, residents can always recover
money damages later.
The U.S. House of Representatives
passed a bill that requires one for one replacement of
any public housing demolished, but Senator David Vitter
(R-La) has stopped the Senate version cold.
The Institute for Southern Studies
reports that the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, S.
1668, sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) had the
support of the entire state's delegation and the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development -- until
September, when HUD and Vitter suddenly withdrew their
backing. There's been much speculation over Vitter's
sudden about-face on the measure, especially since he's
been reluctant to disclose his objections in much
detail.
The Congressional Quarterly Weekly
offers partisan politics as one explanation for his
actions:
"...[P]olitical experts say the
senatorial flap is not unexpected, given Louisiana's
rough-and-tumble politics and Vitter and Landrieu's
chilly relationship. Landrieu is up for re-election next
year and has emerged as the GOP's top target among
incumbent senators, in part because of the state's
rightward shift in recent elections.
"The fact that Mary Landrieu is
widely identified as the most vulnerable Democrat coming
into the next election cycle, you certainly don't want
to give her big victories in helping the state," said
Kirby Goidel, a professor of political science at
Louisiana State University. "He probably feels safe
enough to hold it up as long as it's not too obviously
political and he has some policy-related cover. He's a
pretty hardball political player."
Republican interests are clearly
not served by the return of all African-Americans to New
Orleans. Louisiana was described before Katrina as a
"pink state"--one that went Democratic some times and
Republican others. The tipping point for Louisiana
Democrats was the deeply Democratic African American
city of New Orleans. Immediately after the hurricanes
struck, one political analyst said "the Democratic
margin of victory in Louisiana is sleeping in the
Astrodome in Houston." Tiny turnout by African-American
voters in New Orleans in recent elections has led white
Republican interests to calculate immediate new
political gains. Demolition of thousands of low-income
African American occupied apartments only helps that
political and racial dynamic.
But no one will say openly that
African American renters are not welcome. Supporters of
the destruction of thousands of apartments have come up
with a series of stated reasons for their actions, but
it clearly looks like political gain and economic
enrichment for contractors, lawyers, architects and
political friends are the real reasons.
Reduction of crime was supposed to
be the main reason for getting rid of thousands of
public housing apartments--yet crime in New Orleans has
soared since Katrina while the thousands of apartments
remain shut.
Every one of the displaced families
who were living in public housing is African-American.
Most all are headed by mothers and grandmothers working
low-wage jobs or disabled or retired. Thousands of
children lived in the neighborhoods. Race and class and
gender are an unstated part of every justification for
demolition, especially the call for "mixed-income
housing." If the demolitions are allowed to go forward,
there will be mixed income housing--but the mix will not
include over 80 percent of the people who lived there.
This absolute lack of any realistic
affordable alternative is the main reason people want to
return to their public housing neighborhoods--or be
guaranteed one for one replacement of their homes.
Absent that, redevelopment will not help the residents
or people in the community who need affordable housing.
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has
his own reasons for pressing ahead with the demolitions.
HUD has approved plans to turn over scores of acres of
prime public land to private developers for 99 year
leases and give hundreds of millions of dollars in
direct grants, tax credit subsidies and long-term
contracts. One of the developers described it as the
biggest tax-credit giveaway in years.
There may be crime in the projects
after all--even if the residents are gone. Consider the
following examples.
Investigative reporter Edward T.
Pound of the National Journal has uncovered many
questionable and several potentially criminal actions by
HUD in New Orleans. Pound reported that HUD Secretary
Jackson worked with, and is owed over $250,000 from an
Atlanta-based company, Columbia Residential. Columbia
Residential was part of a team that was awarded a $127
million contract by HUD to develop the St. Bernard
housing development. Columbia was also awarded other
earlier contracts for as yet undisclosed amounts under
still undisclosed circumstances.
Pound also discovered that a
golfing buddy and social friend of Secretary Jackson was
given a no-bid $175 an hour "emergency" contract with
HUD within months of Katrina. The buddy, William
Hairston, was ultimately paid more than $485,000 for
working at HANO over an 18 month period.
A review of the dozens of no-bid
contracts approved by HUD in New Orleans shows millions
going to politically connected consultants, law firms,
architects, and insurance brokers.
What is scheduled to happen in New
Orleans is happening across the United States. It is
just that New Orleans offers a more condensed and
graphic illustration. The federal government is
determined to get out of housing all together and let
the private market reign. A
2007 report of the Urban Institute confirms that in
the last decade over 78,000 low-income apartments have
been demolished by HUD.
That is why locals are receiving
support and solidarity from residents and housing
advocates in Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Minneapolis,
and New York.
Destruction of housing for the working poor is also a
global scandal as corporations and governments push
entire neighborhoods out. In India, traditional fishing
villages destroyed by the tsunami are being forcibly
moved away from the coast and the land where they lived
is being converted to luxury hotels and tourist
destinations. The International Alliance of Inhabitants,
which opposes the demolitions in New Orleans, points out
poor people's neighborhoods are also being taken away in
Angola, Hungary, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela, and
Zimbabwe.
Poor and working people in New
Orleans and across the globe are living on property that
has become valuable for corporations. Accommodating
governments are pushing the poor away and turning public
property to private. HUD is giving private developers
hundreds of millions of public dollars, scores of acres
of valuable land, and thousands of public apartments.
Happy holidays for them for sure.
For the poor, the holidays are
scheduled to bring bulldozers. The demolition is poised
to start in New Orleans any day now. Attempts at
demolition will be met with just resistance. Whether
that resistance is successful or not will determine not
only the future of the working poor in New Orleans, but
of working poor communities nationally and globally. If
the U.S. government is allowed to demolish thousands of
much-needed affordable apartments of Katrina victims,
what chance do others have?
Bill Quigley is a human rights
lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New
Orleans. Bill is one of the lawyers for displaced
residents. You can contact him at
Quigley@loyno.edu.
Go
also to:
http://law.loyno.edu/faculty/bio/quigley;
http://law.loyno.edu/%7Equigley/
Source:
Counterpunch
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Watch this Video of Attorney Bill Quigley getting
roughed up and arrested. What has become of the law in
the U.S.? This New Orleans officer's action here seems
arbitrary, capricious and extremely violent without
cause or defense. Charges seems to be in order against
this arresting officer, NO? Someone needs to be fired
immediately.
WDSU Video
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The U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development plans a wholesale redevelopment of the
city's public housing by tearing down the old
barracks-style buildings and replacing them with
mixed-income neighborhoods. A federal judge and Congress
have refused to stop the demolitions. About three dozen
protesters gathered at the City Council chambers to
demand that the council's members step in. But when the
council took no action, the protesters broke into chants
and shouts and forced Arnie Fielkow, the council
president, to call the session into recess. In the
ensuing chaos, a sheriff's deputy grabbed and shoved
civil rights lawyer Bill Quigley up against the wall,
where he was handcuffed. Quigley has led a legal fight
against the demolitions.
NYTimes
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updated 11 December 2007 |
