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Home Despot

Just as I was coming back from my second trip home, I read this in the Times-Picayune. It’s hard to believe how far these corporations and politicians will actually go in the face of this housing crisis. The devastation of the hurricanes, much like that of the Iraq war, have opened the door to the most aggressive and drastic ruling class agenda. Paul Bremer and the neo-cons tried to impose a free-market utopia on post-war Iraq. That continues blow up in their faces.

Post-Katrina New Orleans was seen as a similar opportunity for radical capitalist reshaping: “Demographic changes,” real estate booms, dismantling public social programs. In come the charter schools, out goes public housing.

Last Sunday we had a small action at a local Home Depot store.

All the gutting and remodeling obviously means big business for home improvement giants like Home Depot. The West Bank outlet was spared serious damage and they can’t meet current local demand. Opening another outlet in Orleans Parish is an obvious move. The location they settled on with federal of overseer of the New Orleans Housing Authority is the issue.

A young local organizer with NO HEAT led a crew of inside the store to explain this to the customers as the opening skirmish in the new campaign…

I’ll give more details soon but I just got an emergency phone call. The day laborers who have been camping in City Park being threatened with arrest this very moment. Gotta go…

Jeremy

Home Depot gets turf in public housing
Lease opens debate on agency priorities
Thursday, January 19, 2006

By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer

Home Depot will lease six acres of land inside a Central City public housing complex to install a temporary “tent-like” store, housing authority officials said Wednesday.

The big-box building supply chain wants to buy the entire site for a permanent store, near the corner of Louisiana and South Claiborne avenues, but it chose to sign a 364-day lease with HANO in order to immediately open for business, HANO said at its regular meeting.
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Because the lease is shorter than one calendar year, by a single day, HANO could legally strike the deal without holding a public hearing. Mirza Negron Morales, the Department of Housing and Urban Development official who acts as HANO’s one-person board of commissioners, approved the lease Wednesday.

Home Depot will pay $10,000-a-month in rent to the housing authority for the land, part of the C.J. Peete housing complex, which has about 20 vacant acres of land from demolition in recent years. Peete, formerly called the Magnolia complex, had 146 occupied units pre-Hurricane Katrina, out of a total of 538 units. It remains empty since the storm hit.

The retail chain approached HANO with the offer.

“It’s a temporary measure to get commerce in the area,” said Judith Moran, the HANO director in charge of the project. “They will definitely provide job opportunities for residents.”

The Home Depot announcement speaks volumes about the future of New Orleans public housing, which HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson predicted would dramatically change from a picture of faded brick buildings and concentrated poverty to “mixed-income” neighborhoods that no longer stigmatize the poor as the city’s unwanted.

At the same time Wednesday, HANO officials promised they are doing everything they can to return public housing residents to New Orleans. But the image of a corporate retail giant entering the picture of “affordable housing” stole the show.

As Wal-Mart emerged from the demolished shards of the former St. Thomas housing complex in the Lower Garden District to help finance a privately developed neighborhood that includes some poor families via HANO’s rolls, Home Depot appears a likely anchor for the Central City neighborhood once beleaguered by the troubled Peete complex. Peete is destined for major changes. HUD announced after Hurricane Katrina that it would replace the dilapidated brick buildings with a “mixed-income” development similar to that of River Gardens, the brightly painted neighborhood with the faux New Orleans architectural designs that developers built on the site of the former St. Thomas housing complex.

HANO will share in Home Depot’s gross sales from the temporary store if they exceed $16 million.

Critics speak up

While HANO officials said the deal is good for New Orleans because residents “badly need” building supplies, housing advocates called it an example of mismatched priorities.

“We need housing; we don’t need another Home Depot,” said attorney Laura Tuggle of New Orleans Legal Assistance, which represents poor people for free in housing disputes. “Why don’t you get trailers on that vacant lot? It blows my mind that we’re talking about a temporary lease for vacant land. It sends me such bad vibes of what will happen to residents.”

Jay Arena, a vocal activist with a group called Hands off Iberville, accused HANO of selling off “the people’s property” as part of a plan to “ethnically cleanse” New Orleans and keep black residents from returning.

After a few more barbs of that nature — one of which accused the panel of taking “bribes” — HANO’s administrative receiver Nadine Jarmon chose to reply.

“I would respect a lot more of you if you lived in our residences,” Jarmon said, her voice breaking with emotion. “I talk to my residents every day. This is a transparent agency. There are no bribes. That’s why we took over this agency.”

HANO has been in federal receivership, through HUD, for about four years, after mismanagement took a widespread toll on the public housing complexes and its residents.

Jarmon, who lives in New Orleans full time, rode out the storm with other HANO officials at the agency’s Gentilly offices, where they were stranded for three days before being rescued by boat.

Yet activists Wednesday chided HANO. Several were visibly puzzled by the one-person board of commissioners, as Negron approved a host of “indefinite” contracts for repairs and security services. The EBE Fence company will install a $276,000 chain link fence at B.W. Cooper and a $292,000 fence at the ruined St. Bernard complex.

No voting takes place at these meetings, since HANO is under federal guidance. HANO takes public comment, but in the end, decisions are not up for discussion, such as the Home Depot deal.

“You are part of the conspiracy to keep poor black people from returning to the city,” activist Malcolm Suber told the panel. “You are making no efforts to address the critical need we have in the city. You act today as if public comment means nothing.”

Since Katrina’s landfall Aug. 29, HANO has made strides in repairing its homes and caring for its residents, Jarmon said Wednesday.

But critics said the agency isn’t moving fast enough, or fairly.

Lucia Blacksher, an attorney with Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, said HANO repeatedly violates an agreement it made to provide eligible public housing residents apartments at the River Garden community. Such residents, among the most vulnerable storm victims, were turned away post-Katrina despite being on a priority list for the homes, she said.

“You guys have one of the most important jobs in the city, especially now,” Blacksher said Wednesday. “We have an agreement (to include the poor at River Garden). I spend 80 percent of my time trying to get you guys to comply with it.”

Residents gone

Prior to Katrina, HANO provided housing to 49,000 people — some 14,000 families — through either Section 8 vouchers or public housing before the storm.

HANO predicts that 60 percent of its pre-storm public housing population plans to return to New Orleans. It is not taking new applications for housing now, but instead is working to bring back its clients. Repairs are needed at Iberville, which hedges the French Quarter, and at C.J. Peete, as well as at Lafitte in the 6th Ward and at B.W. Cooper, between Earhart and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards.

But HANO has welcomed residents back to Iberville, where 45 units were occupied as of this week, which is about 7 percent of its pre-storm population. Cooper, which is vacant and sealed off with metal doors to ward off vandalism or squatting, had 300 of its 576 units spared from flooding and is currently under construction. HANO is dealing with mold removal, general cleaning and other repairs in order to bring the units up to compliance.

Of the city’s ten conventional complexes, three were flat-out devastated by the floodwaters while only two — River Garden Uptown and Fischer in Algiers — escaped flooding.

St. Bernard, Florida and Desire were flooded and may require complete demolition, HANO said Wednesday.

About 600 public housing families have returned to their homes at Guste, Fischer, River Garden and scattered sites, while more than 1,000 who cannot return home have received federal housing vouchers. About 300 have signed leases on homes, HANO said.

More than 2,000 Section 8 families have returned to the city and received the same federal vouchers, and of that lot, more than 450 families have signed leases.

Pre-storm, HANO also managed 7,379 public housing rental units, including more than 700 scattered sites in New Orleans. Of that total, 5,146 units were occupied and many of the vacant homes were flagged for demolition.

HANO’s Gentilly office was ruined by the storm. HANO recently set up offices at 833 Howard Ave. An office handling Section 8 clients is located at the Christopher Park Homes Community Center, 2000 Murl St.

For more information, visit the housing authority’s Web page at www.hano.org.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Jeremy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “”

Wei Says:
May 10th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Hi Jeremy,

I’m a disasters researcher from Melbourne Australia and I am planning to do some exploratory work on the Informal sector/economy in New Orleans. In particular, I am interested in why people revert and rely upon the informal economy in times of crisis. Generally, the most vulnerable will use it to survive, ensure livelihood security and build resilience.

Just wondering if you can shed some light for me, given your recent experience in the area, with the people on the ground. I plan to spend some time in the US over July/August to do some volunteer work down south and talk to people about how they coped.

Can I talk to you about your experience?

Kind regards,

Wei

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