HUD Builds Katrina Hall of Shame
June 16, 2006
The Times-Picayune
New Orleans, LA
Of the many grains of salt President Bush has poured into our post-Katrina wounds, one smarts with a particular vengeance these days.
"It's important for New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to work together to develop a state recovery plan. Folks in Congress will want to spend money based upon a specific strategy," Bush said in late January.
"We've got to get comfortable with how to proceed. The plan for Louisiana hasn't come forward yet," he said.
Now, nearly 10 months after the hurricane and about five months since the president demanded a plan for our state, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released a plan for the public housing projects it oversees in New Orleans.
Would it be impertinent to remind the president that folks in Congress "want to spend money based upon a specific strategy?"
Litany of federal failures
While tens of thousands of New Orleanians languish far away from home, HUD proposes to reopen 1,000 units of public housing by summer's end.
By summer's end?
The federal government controls most public housing in New Orleans, yet it has done next to nothing to repair those complexes.
As for the 1,000 units, the St. Bernard housing complex alone contained 1,300 units. One thousand units is not many compared with how many such units are needed.
I shouldn't be surprised. This latest disaster is consistent with the confluence of federal failures: the porous floodwalls designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the callous incompetence of FEMA, to name the most obvious pair.
Key to the federal plan is the demolition of four complexes: St. Bernard in Gentilly, C.J. Peete in Central City, B.W. Cooper off Earhart Boulevard, and Lafitte near the Faubourg Treme. These sites will be turned into mixed-income communities.
Exactly what is wrong with these buildings?
"We want to redevelop these old, obsolete and just dangerous properties," said Scott Keller, HUD's deputy chief of staff.
When you consider that many houses in New Orleans are more than 100 years old, none of the public housing complexes can be criticized for their age.
As for these properties being obsolete or dangerous, high-density properties need not necessarily be either. In many places, New York City for example, such buildings are coveted.
Strategy of mass removal
As much as any other impediment, HUD's three-year timetable ensures that many of our people will never return home. Hardest hit by the government's slovenly pace will be the poorest and darkest of our citizens.
The federal role in their permanent removal is as undeniable as it is despicable.
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Lolis Eric Elie can be reached at lelie@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3330.