As public housing residents and supporters in the New Orleans area, we demand that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and landlords stop using alleged hurricane damage to public housing projects as a pretext for cutting off section 8 payments to its residents. Our association knows full well that the agencies in charge of these housing complexes are using allegations of storm damage to the complexes as a pretext for expelling working class African-Americans, in a very blatant attempt to coopt our homes and sell them to developers to build high-priced housing. In this way, they are taking HUD secretary Alfonso Jackson's statement that this disaster will result in a "whiter New Orleans" and turning it into a reality, and we say no to this ethnic cleansing.
pictures from forest park tenant takeover of management office | List of demands from tenant organizations to landlords | audio: Interviews and testimony from Housing Authority Hearing Oct. 19th | audio: Interview with Momma D, community activist