HANO urged to reopen complexes
Unflooded units are livable, protesters say
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
By Gwen Filosa
New Orleans Times-Picayune Staff writer
Duywan Ford and her family survived the following: Hurricane Katrina, the raging floodwaters that swallowed her 7th Ward neighborhood, evacuation in an inflatable swimming pool down St. Bernard Avenue, the nightmare shelter of the Superdome, and displacement from New Orleans.
The only thing the woman with two jobs, a winsome smile,
and the desire to return to her hometown can't figure out is
why her public housing apartment -- which didn't flood and on
Monday appeared in need of only a good scrubbing -- remains
off-limits.
"Nothing I can't come home and clean up. This is
livable," said Ford, 38, standing in her upstairs
apartment in the sprawling St. Bernard public housing
complex, which sits vacant and shuttered to former residents
more than five months after the deadly storm hit New Orleans.
Ford joined other residents and housing advocates Tuesday who
gathered at the complex to demand that the Housing Authority
of New Orleans reopen hundreds of available units to evacuees
who want to come home.
"Working people want to return," said local
activist Jay Arena, whose group Hands Off Iberville organized
Tuesday's event, which also drew the antiwar activist Cindy
Sheehan. "They want to return to public housing
developments."
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son was killed in the Iraq
in 2004, said the slow recovery in New Orleans is because of
President Bush's devotion of federal dollars to foreign wars
instead of disaster aid. "Everyone in America needs to
come down here and see how unsafe, how insecure he's made our
world," Sheehan said in front of the public housing
complex, which was home to about 1,300 families pre-Katrina.
HANO claims repairs
HANO remains at a relative standstill when it comes to
recovery and rebuilding from Katrina. It has spent thousands
of dollars on steel plates to seal windows and doors at
complexes, such as the B.W. Cooper, and "temporary"
chain-link fences, such as the security fence destined to
surround the St. Bernard, which will cost $292,000.
HANO says it has placed complexes under repair with the
intention of bringing back its leaseholders and that
complexes such as St. Bernard are not yet safe for residents.
HANO has welcomed 45 families at Iberville, the complex that
borders the French Quarter. The agency, which has been in
federal receivership for four years after rampant
mismanagement drew the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development to intervene, predicts 60 percent of its public
housing residents will return.
A total of 695 families have returned to these sites:
Iberville, Guste, Fischer, River Gardens, and some scattered
sites, HANO spokesman Adonis Expose said this week. Before
the storm, HANO managed 7,379 public housing rental units,
5,146 of which were occupied.
Bound by Houston lease
Though the floodwaters ruined first-floor apartments at the
complex, Ford is among the residents whose homes were spared
from water damage. The storm blew out her windows, but the
two-bedroom apartment appeared no worse for wear.
Ford said she recently found an 8th Ward house to rent. But
she is trapped in a yearlong lease on a Houston apartment,
which a public housing voucher covers. HANO told her to call
legal aid lawyers for advice on how to get out of the lease,
she said.
She signed the Houston complex's lease to get out of the FEMA
hotel program, checking out in October after two months.
"If I didn't sign a lease, I'd be stuck in a
hotel," Ford said.
For now, Ford is staying with her mother in New Orleans and
working two jobs in order to send money to her children in
Houston, who also remain in limbo.
With the self-assured confidence of an Olympic athlete, Ford
ticked off her list of storm-related obstacles, from housing
to missing the grandchildren from whom she is separated while
she works to help support them. She quoted a gospel song that
reassures her that faith pays off. She divides her time
between Houston and New Orleans to support her family.
"When people find out you're a Hurricane Katrina victim,
they think you're looking for a handout," said Ford, who
divides her time between working at Acme Oyster House and a
catering-type job for Tulane University.
Home to many families
Two days before Katrina made landfall, Ford planned to move
into a house in eastern New Orleans, having won the
"Section 8 lottery" that HANO set up to award
vouchers from the federally financed rental assistance
programs.
But on Monday, Ford surveyed the St. Bernard complex, which
sat beneath blue skies and sunshine. Her Foy Street apartment
has been home for a decade, and she enjoyed living in the
strong brick building, surrounded by neighbors.
"I love living here," Ford said, standing on her
balcony, where her grandchildren's red electric toy cars sat
unused.
On Monday the empty complex still held evidence that families
with children dominated the apartments: Abandoned tricycles
and toys remained on balconies and in courtyards. Ford's
corner apartment is steps away from a colorful playground
set.
A few blocks on Hamburg Street were nothing but gaping open
windows and kicked-in doors. The first-floor apartments,
filled with muck, stench and ruined possessions, were a stark
contrast to Ford's place, which smelled pleasant with fresh
air blowing in through the missing windows and despite a
refrigerator HANO has yet to remove.
"What about us? We're taxpayers," said Stephanie
Mingo, 43, a lifelong resident at St. Bernard. The single
parent of four children with one grandchild is living off her
retirement from the Orleans Parish School Board and is stuck
in Houston.
"I want everybody to come home," Mingo said.
"Just open this development. Ain't nothing wrong with
the second and third floors. Get the residents to come and
clean it out."
Gloria Irving, 70, came to New Orleans from her temporary
Houston home Tuesday in her cranberry-red electric
wheelchair.
She showed the scar from her recent double bypass surgery but
said she would help clean out her own ruined first-floor
apartment in the St. Bernard if given the chance.
"I got a ramp by my house," Irving said. "I
could ride up in there and pick up little stuff and throw it
out. People would help me. All I ask is, let us come
home."
. . . . . . .
Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3304.