Black People : ETHNIC CLEANSING BY EVICTION IN NEW ORLEANS?

Isaiah

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jun 8, 2004
3,210
64
Eviction moratorium stalls ethnic cleansing in New Orleans

by Emma Gerould


As we pull up to the apartment complex in a neighborhood east of New Orleans, all Diane's belongings are being thrown from her second story window. A worker in a forklift hauls them to the street, dumping all she's accumulated in a lifetime on the curb. This is a common sight in New Orleans, where evictions are soaring and what little rights tenants have are being ignored.

Since Oct. 25, when the governor's moratorium on evictions was lifted, court clerks say that 100 evictions have been filed by landlords every day. In the past two and a half months, the landlords have simply been posting eviction notices on tenants' doors for a hearing three to five days later.

When the tenants do not show up for the hearing because they were unaware of the summons, the evictions are pushed through the court system. If the court rules in favor of the landlord, 24 hours later the landlord can remove all of the tenants' belongings from the unit. Landlords, under Louisiana state law, are not required to send a notice to the address where tenants have been relocated post-Katrina. Even if the landlord wanted to forward the eviction notice to a tenant's current address, FEMA has refused to release evacuees' information to the City of New Orleans.

On Nov. 22, a decision was reached after housing lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of Brenda Brooks, a New Orleans tenant and evacuee who was never informed of her eviction. Although the decision does not help Brooks with her eviction, the decision helps future tenants fight their evictions.

The decision, which is being called an eviction moratorium, extends the three-day summons to 45 days, which gives breathing room for tenants and housing organizers. In addition, landlords must not only post the eviction summons but also send the summons to the tenant's current address. That means that FEMA is court ordered to release the names and addresses of the evacuees to the City of New Orleans.

According to National Low Income Housing Coalition, 140,000 units were destroyed in New Orleans, many of them affordable housing. Since Hurricane Katrina, the housing market has risen dramatically, causing a housing crisis.

Tenants who want to move back cannot afford the high rents. "People cry to go home. They tell us there is no place to go, but there is housing for us," said Sam Jackson, a displaced resident. "They don't want us to come back. They want to kick low-income people out of New Orleans."

Some residents received Section 8 vouchers from Housing Authority New Orleans but cannot find landlords to accept them because they would rather benefit from the private market. Even landlords who accepted the vouchers in the past are now refusing to accept them. Many tenants want to come back but cannot because they can't find a landlord to take their voucher.

New Orleans Housing Emergency Action Team, aka NO HEAT, a coalition of local housing groups, activists and tenants, has formed to fight evictions and the rising rents and support New Orleans residents' right of return. Using a combination of direct action and legal strategies, NO HEAT aims at stopping evictions and the closing of public housing - whether in the courtroom or through direct action.

Jeremy Prickett, a housing organizer who works with Anti-Eviction Common Ground, a tenants' rights group under the NO HEAT umbrella, explains: "People with money and power are exploiting this hurricane and trying to shape New Orleans in their image. They are not talking about rebuilding New Orleans; they are taking about revitalizing it."

The Eviction Moratorium is a step in the housing fight that local activists are calling ethnic and class cleansing. "This city can't make it without minority groups. Minority groups built this city," Ralf Lewis, a New Orleans tenant, exclaimed as he showed us a notice to vacate.

Emma Gerould volunteered in New Orleans during the Thanksgiving holiday with Roadtrip for Relief, which brought volunteers to work with Common Ground Collective. Email her at emma@thclinic.org.



http://www.sfbayview.com/121405/ethniccleansing121405.shtml


Peace!
Isaiah
 
MANASIAC said:
You know Brother Isaiah this is not surprising.

I think the sad part is that American will react like this has never happened before, and will be all OH MY GOD.

Gentrification has been going on in this society since it's inception, however this case is out of hand.


Yeah, brother, that is true what you say about gentrification, but by HURRICANE????(smile!) WOW, the cold-hearted opportunism of this should OUTRAGE us all! If you go to that webpage, and see the women in those pictures, they look just like my sisters, my blood relatives... This thing is just awful...


Peace!
Isaiah
 
Well, you what brother, I saw a piece on the evening news last night, about a White Woman in Biloxi, Mississippi, who is facing gentrification from her community because the state has a law that if those floating casinos are ever destroyed by natural disaster, the casinos can and will be built on land provided by the state... That might not be entirely a correct interpretation on my part, but the woman stood with the reporter, and asked him, "what happens when someone's got money in one hand, and you aint got nothin' in yours???"

The plans for that part of Biloxi is to turn it into one of those quaint Florida communities where only rich white folks can move in... Million dollar homes in tightly-compacted, tightly-controlled areas, with all of the amenities the rich folks want... This hurricane, and others, is actually reveled in by the rich, because they can take over the land in the guise of "rebuilding" it... The don't want to rebuild the land, they want to "REDEVELOPE" the land to get as much dollar value out of it as they can... EF that poor folks aint got nowhere to live... Just serve dem drinks in the casinos, but we don't give a **** you live in the gutter somewhere...


Peace!
Isaiah
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top