What's A Few Displaced Negroes?

Well to me that seems to be the attitude that the powers to be
in Washington are courting when it comes to the low-income
victims of Hurricaine Katrina. This situation of affordable housing
for people of little means is on the verge of becoming a major issue
in this country. Miami and Los Angeles are also battling housing
issues for their low income and homeless.



WASHINGTON — In the 17 months since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Sharon Jasper has shuffled from place to place, including a cot at the Superdome and temporary housing in Houston. On Tuesday, she and nine other displaced residents of New Orleans' public housing projects came to Capitol Hill to tell their stories, as the House Committee on Financial Services examined the loss of affordable housing because of the storm.

"As a New Orleans resident, a mother and a grandmother, I am looking out for the families that need shelter and a place to live," Jasper said before the hearing at a news conference sponsored by the Advancement Project, a Washington-based civil rights group that filed suit in June against federal and local housing agencies. "Why not bring us back home?"

The lawsuit charges that by failing to repair and reopen undamaged or minimally damaged public housing, the agencies are discriminating against low-income African American residents. The St. Bernard complex, where Jasper lived, suffered minor flooding and some mold damage from the storm. But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans plan to demolish it and similar complexes to build mixed-income apartments.

More than 4,000 mostly black families who lived in public housing have been unable to return to New Orleans because of the demolition plan, according to the lawsuit's supporters.Julie M. Andrews, another displaced resident, told the House panel of her concerns about racial and economic disparity in the redevelopment of New Orleans. "At this time, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are being further oppressed by the vicious plot to eliminate the low-income people of New Orleans, most of who are people of color," she said. "It is an abomination to attempt to replace one race of people with another for the sake of economic gain."



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