BREAKING: National Community Groups Storm & Takeover New Orleans Housing Office : Miami IMC

After a three-hour standoff, surrounded by police, the National Guard and the SWAT team the residents and activists gave up their occupation of the building and held a national press conference. They put out the message that housing is a human right, not only in New Orleans but throughout the country, and that communities faced with displacement will not go down without a fight. The action was also a move to claim dignity for public housing residents from New Orleans, most of whom are African-American, who have been criminalized, disregarded, and robbed of their homes.

Below is an account of the takeover from Ms. Yvonne Stratford, LIFFT leader, and Tony Romano, Organizing Director of the Miami Workers Center.

Ms.Yvonne

People from New York, from Chicago, from Miami, and California, we all went into the HUD office. We were looking for the director of HUD. They said he wasn't there. They said he was out of town. So we decided we wanted to see the second in charge.

A lot of people around here don't have places to go. They need housing down here. We said we were going to stay down here until 5 PM. We were occupying the place. They told us that if we left we wouldn't be arrested. We decided that since the media was there we could hold a press conference and tell people about what is going on instead of getting arrested, so we did.

We were demanding to get the housing back. I wasn't scared. I didn't back down. I would have gone to jail. People are getting displaced everywhere. You know, you get tired, and when you get really tired that's when you got to take a stand.

Tony Romano

This was a national action of groups from around the country. We are calling for justice for public housing residents in NOLA. We all stormed the HANO office. The key objective was to meet with the man in charge. He has played a strong role in keeping public housing residents out of public housing. All the military was there. This is the beginning, this is part of a national movement of public housing residents, not just for justice in NOLA, but through out the country. After a three-hour standoff we held a press conference.

We see today as victory even though we didn't meet with the head of HANO because of the unity and the message that got out. Housing is a human right and this wont go down without a fight.

Community Groups Storm HUD office in New Orleans

Several community organizations, including Power U Center and the Miami Worker's Center from Miami, took over the US HUD administrative office in New Orleans today, Friday August 31, 2007 at around 12:30pm. The groups are in New Orleans to commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The groups and residents are demanding that HUD open St Bernard's Parish housing project, which serves low-income Black residents. Two years after the area was evacuated in the post-Katrina floods,the housing project remains empty. Residents and groups have been prevented from rehabilitating and filling the vacant units, and the federal government has refused to do so.

US military vehicles, including armed Hummers, have surrounded the 25 people encamped inside, who refused to leave the building unless HUD officials acquiesce to community demands.The community effort to open St. Bernard's Parish is symbolic effort of the dislocated Black community of New Orleans to return to home. Residents such as former public housing residents have been met ignored, criminalized and otherwise excluded from the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Denise Perry, executive director of Power U, is in the building and available by phone: 305-491-7764.

Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development

Blog
Report from New Orleans
Aug 30, 2007 at 08:15 PM

Ms. Yvonne Stratford, leader of LIFFT, and Tony Romano, Organizing Director for Miami Workers Center, are in New Orleans attending the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They are a part of the National Right to the City Alliance delegation that also includes Denise Perry, Director of Power U Center for Social Change, and Travae Gibbons, youth member of Power U. Below is an interview conducted with Ms. Yvonne and Tony by phone on the evening of Thursday August 30.
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Why are you in NOLA?

Ms. Yvonne: For the two year anniversary and the People’s Tribunal organized by the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund.

TR: Because there isn’t real justice the people here felt they needed to put the US government on trial to find out the truth. And bring true justice. They called together nine judges form around the world who are hearing evidence everyday for three days and will ultimately make a ruling on what happened.

How many people are there?

TR: It feels like 1000.

Why is it important for people from Miami to be there?

Ms. Yvonne: Their fight in NOLA is related to our fight in Miami. We are fighting around housing and corruption and the government. It is unjust how the government in NOLA and in Miami are running things.

TR: We are here because we understand that New Orleans is strategic for the overall fight in this country. What happens in NOLA will impact the rest of the country. This is the biggest example of gentrification that is happening in this country. It is clear when you come through here that all of the public housing is on very valuable land. The crooked politicians and developers have been trying to figure how to get that land for a long time. Katrina made it easy for them to make that grab. The people are faced with a huge challenge to reclaim their land.

What is it like there?

Ms. Yvonne: It looks bad down here. You can see that they aren’t working fast enough. Houses are still twisted to the side you see just foundations. One lady I met, her house was all torn up. She had to go the Grand Hotel all the way up on the fifth floor to avoid the water. She was eventually rescued not by the government but by other people who had gotten a boat and were just trying to help out.

TR: It is incredible. While the level of devastation is massive the spirit to organize and resist is high. There is also a high level of consciousness that there is huge fight nationally to connect our land and housing struggles nationally.

How are people resisting gentrification?

Ms. Yvonne: When we first got here we missed a big march but we ran into the two women we met in Atlanta at the US Social Forum. They took us to their house and fed us till we couldn’t move. They live in Iberville projects. They had to take those projects back by force. The government hadn’t fenced them up yet so the people just took them. A lot of projects are still empty though.

TR: Complexes that we have seen are in mint condition, the structures are still fine. Many of them don’t need to be gutted because it was built before sheet rock, so they don’t have mold growing in them. The buildings are still fine. But because of the prime territory the government and developers don’t want to let people back in. Survivors Village (an organization of displaced people form the projects) are on a mission to find their people and rebuild the community. They are organizing and strategizing to make sure that land isn’t turned over to the developers.

What is the relationship between Miami and New Orleans?

Ms. Yvonne: When we tell people about Miami, about the housing problems, They are just as concerned about the housing issue. They are closing down project housing. It is the same thing in Miami, it is all here: all the same corruption, treating them with no respect and no dignity. It really is about respect and dignity down here. People weren’t just hurt physically their spirits were also hurt.

TR: Tonight national housing groups along with NOLA housing groups are getting together to discuss a national housing platform and program. We support them in taking back the housing here. We have to look at how we can take back housing in Miami. It is very much connected. We are working on developing a national program a platform and a coordinated plan of action around low-income housing.

How do you feel being there?

Ms. Yvonne: I feel great to meet these people again, to be a part of this thing. This will be a part of history. By me coming here and seeing it I know what we may have to go through in Miami. No matter how bad it is, though, everyone’s spirit is up.