[News] Battle Over Discriminatory Housing Laws in New Orleans
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Sep 11 12:01:05 EDT 2009
http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty09112009.html
September 11-13, 2009
Alice Walker, Oprah Winfrey and Obama Have Been Drawn Into the Fight
The Battle Over Discriminatory Housing Laws in New Orleans
By JORDAN FLAHERTY
Rebuilding efforts in St. Bernard Parish, a small
community just outside New Orleans, have recently
gotten a major boost. One nonprofit focused on
rebuilding in the area has received the
endorsement of CNN, Alice Walker, the touring
production of the play The Color Purple, and even
President Obama. But an alliance of Gulf Coast
and national organizations are now raising
questions about the cause these high profile names are supporting.
The dispute focuses on the responsibility of
relief organizations to speak out against
injustice in the communities in which they work.
Since September of 2006, St. Bernard Parish has
been aggressive in passing racially
discriminatory laws and ordinances. Although
these laws have faced condemnation in Federal
court and in the media, rebuilding organizations
active in the parish have so far refused to take a public position.
Racial discrimination has a long history in St.
Bernard politics. Judge Leander Perez, a fiery
leader who dominated the parish for almost 50
years, was known nationally as a spokesman for
racial segregation. The main road through the
Parish was named after Perez, and his legacy
still has a hold on the political scene there.
Lynn Dean, a member of the St Bernard parish
council told reporter Lizzy Ratner, "They don't
want the blacks back
What they'd like to do now
with Katrina is say, we'll wipe out all of them.
They're not gonna say that out in the open, but
how do you say? Actions speak louder than words. There's their action."
The action Lynn was referencing is a blood
relative ordinance the council passed in 2006.
The law made it illegal for Parish homeowners to
rent to anyone not directly related to the
renter. In St Bernard, which was 85% white before
Katrina hit, this effectively kept African
Americans, many of whom were still displaced from
New Orleans and looking for nearby housing, from
moving in. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing
Action Center sued the Parish, saying the
ordinance violated the 1968 Fair Housing Act. A
judge agreed, saying it was racially discriminatory in intent and impact.
The story doesnt end there. St. Bernards
government agreed to a settlement, but the
illegal ordinance was followed by another,
blocking multi-family construction in the Parish.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan
found the Parish to be in contempt of court,
saying, The Parish Council's intent
is and was
racially discriminatory." An editorial in the New
Orleans Times-Picayune agreed, saying, This
ruling strips off the camouflage and reveals St.
Bernard's actions for what they really are: an
effort to keep lower-income people and
African-Americans from moving into the mostly white parish.
Relief Work Questioned
St. Bernard Parish was heavily damaged by
flooding in the aftermath of Katrina. Thirteen
percent of households lived below the federal
poverty line, and every home took in water. Many
organizations and volunteers have come through to
volunteer time and donate money, including United
Way, Salvation Army, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
An organization called the St. Bernard Project,
which was founded in 2006 by two transplants from
Washington, DC, has become one of the most high
profile organizations active in the region, with
millions of dollars in corporate and individual
donations and thousands of volunteers.
This has been a big couple of weeks for the St.
Bernard Project. On August 29, President Obama
mentioned them in his weekly address, saying,
The St. Bernard Project has drawn together
volunteers to rebuild hundreds of homes, where
people can live with dignity and security." Last
week, the touring production of the Broadway show
The Color Purple, produced by Oprah Winfrey,
announced that they will be raising money for the
organization, and that author Alice Walker will
be personally participating in the fundraising.
Last year, CNN named co-founder Liz McCartney its Hero of the Year.
But this national acclamation has only increased
criticisms of the work happening in the Parish.
Lance Hill, the executive director of the
Southern Institute for Education and Research at
Tulane University, first raised his voice on the
issue in 2006, after the ordinance was passed.
Hill is quick to point out that he is not against
rebuilding work in the Parish. However, he adds,
If they chose to rebuild homes that Blacks and
Jews would be barred from, at a minimum they have
a moral obligation to inform volunteers of the
policies of the Parish. To not do so is to
mislead volunteers and donors and to become complicit with racism.
Hill is also one of the signatories of an open
letter, released this week, which expresses deep
concerns over rebuilding efforts in the parish.
Regrettably, many relief and volunteer
organizations chose not to respond to the blood
relative law, remaining silent on this issue,
the letter states. With the benefit of
hindsight, we now know that St. Bernard Parish
officials interpreted silence as consent, which
has now emboldened this rogue government to
pursue other means to defy the Fair Housing Act.
Organizers say that the letter is intended to
pressure organizations to think about larger
issues of injustice as they work in the region.
It is time that we take a stand against housing
discrimination in St. Bernard and throughout the
Gulf Coast, the letter states. And make clear
what the moral imperatives are for all
organizations that seek to rebuild the Gulf Coast
as a fair and just society. Among the signers of
the letter are human rights organizations like
the National Economic and Social Rights
Initiative, regional groups like Moving Forward
Gulf Coast, and local initiatives like MayDay
Nola, which works on housing in New Orleans.
Zack Rosenburg, the cofounder of St. Bernard
Project, is angered by the complaints of Hill and
others. We are not an advocacy group and we're
not commenting on that, he told me, referring to
the laws of the Parish. Were helping people get
home. Rosenburg added that at least 30% of the
families they have worked with have been African
American, and he asked me to think about the
Black families who are living in FEMA trailers
and want to move home, before writing this
piece
try to build things up instead of pulling things down.
Lance Hill and other advocates claim that working
on relief without challenging systemic injustices
actually exacerbates the problem. They point out
that the number of houses rebuilt for African
Americans in the community perhaps two hundred
at the most, if you include all nonprofits
working in the area pales in comparison to the
thousands that have potentially been excluded by
the laws of the parish. The main reason that
these relief groups have had to
disproportionately rebuild Black rentals,
explains Hill, is because the Parish is tearing
down or blocking construction of affordable
housing faster than the relief groups can rebuild.
This is why this issue in St. Bernard has
troubled me so much, adds Hill. Exclusion is at
the core of the injustices of Katrina. The
deliberate efforts to prevent people from
returning and the denial that these policies and
practices were in place has been the central
issue. The exclusionary ideology that was
widespread in the white community in New Orleans became law in St. Bernard.
Organizers hope that the multiple levels of
pressure will ultimately challenge elected
officials in St. Bernard Parish to make the area
an example of rebuilding with justice for all.
Our silence doesnt help anybody, says Hill.
It destroys more than the relief groups can ever dream of building.
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New
Orleans, and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. He
was the first writer to bring the story of the
Jena Six to a national audience and his reporting
on post-Katrina New Orleans shared a journalism
award from New America Media. He is also
co-director of PATOIS: The New Orleans
International Human Rights Film Festival. He can
be reached at <mailto:neworleans at leftturn.org>neworleans at leftturn.org.
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