The quote of note is a whole 'nother article.
New Orleans public housing residents take back their homes
by JusticeforNewOrleans.org
Public housing residents took action Saturday to take back their homes, despite the efforts of HANO (Housing Authority of New Orleans) and HUD authorities to stop them. Residents rallied at the Florida, St. Bernard, C.J. Peete and Magnolia sites, forcing their way through locked and boarded doors to begin gutting and repairing apartments.
At the Florida development, residents led by the New Orleans Survivor Council and volunteers from Common Ground forced open doors with crowbars and removed flood damaged property. Tenants were visibly joyful at being in their homes for the first time since Katrina.
To date, HANO has not announced any plans for re-opening or rehabilitating public housing, leading to growing anger and frustration among residents.
5,000 Public Housing Units in New Orleans Are to Be Razed
By SUSAN SAULNY
NEW ORLEANS, June 14 — Federal housing officials announced on Wednesday that more than 5,000 public housing apartments for the poor were to be demolished here and replaced by developments for residents with a wider range of incomes.
The announcement, made by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson, provoked strong criticism from low-income tenants and their advocates, several of whom noted that thousands of public housing apartments had been closed since Hurricane Katrina. But local officials have for months said they do not want a return to the intense concentrations of poverty in the old projects, where crime and squalor were pervasive.
Acknowledging the immediate need for housing here, Mr. Jackson also said 1,000 apartments in several public housing complexes that were only lightly damaged in the storm would be opened over the next 60 days. Federal housing officials also said they had raised by 35 percent the value of disaster-housing vouchers for displaced residents who wanted to rent market-rate apartments, because the city's housing shortage had caused rents to increase.
The demolition, which is scheduled to begin over the next several months, would be the largest of its kind in the city's history and would erase the sprawling low-rises of the St. Bernard, C. J. Peete, B. W. Cooper and Lafitte housing developments. The four developments were damaged in Hurricane Katrina to varying degrees and have been off-limits — along with most of the city's public housing — to residents ever since.
The four developments represent more than half of all traditional public housing in the city, where only 1,097 units have been opened since the storm. Before the hurricane, the city had close to 8,000 units, although not all were habitable.
The latest iteration of the Negro Removal Program, which is more commonly called "redevelopment". The destruction of 5,000 units of public housing will lead to the massive displacement of thousands more families and individuals. By the time the new units have been developed and made ready for occupancy, the right of return vouchers issued to the former residents won't be worth more than the paper they were printed on.
Existing modular housing, for example, could be installed and made ready for occupancy in less than one quarter the time and for far less money that it would require to design and build stick built replacement housing for these residents. In addition, many of them could be easily trained and employed to assist with the installation of these units and receive training certifications from the Laborers Union that would provide them with vertical and horizontal income and job mobility.
There are broad array of business options that could be easily implemented that would provide ongoing jobs and income for these public housing residents. The new housing units, for example, will need to be painted. Why not allow the residents, acting through their local residents' council and with the assistance of the housing authority, form a painting company that would paint the new units. The work could be done under the supervision of journeyman painters who would be paid a prevailing wage. Activities of this sort would give these residents enough experience and confidence to consider hiring themselves out either as a company or as individuals.