MayDay NOLA,(maydaydc.mahost.org) a housing advocacy group, is entering the tenth day of the St Bernard housing project occupation in New Orleans. The group is protesting plans to raze and then rebuild public housing developments and is calling on the Department of Housing & Urban Development and Housing Authority of New Orleans to call off the demolitions and negotiate with residents. HANO & HUD have responded by filing an injunction that alleges public housing residents and MayDay NOLA "have trespassed upon HANO property at the St. Bernard Housing Development, have committed vandalism, and have damaged HANO property."
"We don't know how they think that it's illegal for people to come back to their own property," Bill Quigley, counsel for the public housing residents and MayDay NOLA. The residents have not received eviction notices or any communication from HANO or HUD regarding their leases. "The residents have current leases and therefore have a legal right to enter their homes," says organizer Endesha Juakali of Survivors Village (survivorsvillage.com).
