Date Published:
January 17, 2007
My Family Album! by Craig Morse (story behind photograph )
Last
Monday, January 15th, 2007, Martin Luther King Day, citizens re-entered
the St. Bernard housing projects and began to gut those homes. These
Priniples of Public and Affordable Housing are the work of Musa Eubanks
and are making the rounds of the neighborhood organizaitons. Musa has
developed this principles in collaboration with the residents of the
4th planning district.
The efforts of MLK
day did not seem to bridge neighborhoods, so I’m posting these
principles not only to spark an much needed discussion, but to
illustrate how much we as New Orleanians care about housing, and how
concerned we are about the shortage of housing and the high renets. – Alan Gutierrez
Principle: All
pre-Katrina residents have the right to return to New Orleans and be
able to live in affordable, sustainable, quality public and/or private
rental housing in their own neighborhood regardless of race, religion,
gender or level of income.
- All public housing
units that were not heavily damaged by Katrina’s winds, rain or levee
break flooding should be cleaned and reopened for former residents as
quickly as possible.
- Programs must be created to provide all
pre-Katrina residents of affordable rental housing the ability to
return to New Orleans and continue to live in affordable housing. These
programs are crucial to “right to return” and must be implemented
immediately.
- Any redevelopment of public housing, both
on-site and off, should occur in a carefully-phased approach to ensure
that all residents will continue to have a place to live within their
neighborhoods during the redevelopment.
Principle: 100%
of all pre-Katrina residents of private rental housing and 100% of
residents of public housing have the right to participate as equals in
the recovery planning process.
- Extra effort
should be funded to insure participation in the recovery planning
process through outreach. For outreach to residents of public housing,
access to the HUD/HANO database should be provided.
- All
neighborhood voices should be brought together to plan for the future
of public housing and private affordable rental housing.
- Neighborhood consensus building is key to ensuring the future of public and other affordable rental housing.
- Strengthen
existing Community Development Corporations to allow residents to have
a prominent role in the development of new public and affordable
housing in their neighborhoods.
Principle: Reject
wholesale demolition of public housing in District 4. Retain and
rehabilitate existing structurally sound public housing stock.
- Before
any demolition is allowed, documentation from engineers and architects
must verify, through a transparent process, that it would be more
costly to renovate than to demolish and rebuild units that are of equal
or better quality than the existing ones.
- Whenever possible, preserve the historically significant existing public housing stock.
- All
new on and off-site public and affordable rental housing construction
will be built to the highest standards and be elevated to at least mean
sea level. This new housing must be sustainable, using solar energy,
geo-thermal and other energy efficient technologies along with the
latest hurricane, termite and mold resistant building materials.
- Provide
opportunities for home-ownership of both on and off-site units such as
lease-to-own apartments, grants for first-time home buyers, etc.
Principle: Build new and renovate existing public and affordable rental units for a mix of income levels and household types.
- Develop
new public and affordable rental housing on and off-site to accommodate
a diverse mix of incomes and family types. This mix of income levels
will include a guaranteed minimum of 40% of all units reserved for
subsidized public housing, 30% affordable “workforce” rental units, and
30% home ownership and market-rate rental units.
- Ensure high
quality design for new construction through the creation of design
guidelines developed and maintained by a neighborhood design review
board.
Principle: Ensure for connectivity between public housing and the surrounding neighborhood.
- Work to erase the distinctions between public housing and the surrounding neighborhood.
- At
existing public housing sites, integrate prevailing neighborhood street
and pedestrian patterns and plan for on-site parking at 1 car per unit.
- Identify
financial, physical planning, human and social services and other
issues, and initiate community dialogues with public housing residents
and adjacent neighborhoods.
- Develop neighborhood-focused
retail and related services, where needed, to ensure walkability and
ease of access by all members of the community.
Principle: Development of social service programs that enhance quality of life and ensure the success of public housing developments.
- Provide
on site or in the immediate neighborhood, health clinics and community
policing substations. Investment in housing must be supported by
additional investment in quality education, day/after school care,
elder programs, parks, public services and other quality of life
programs. Facility management and maintenance must be provided on-site.
- Plan
new public and affordable housing and adjacent neighborhoods with
densities that support retail and services, parks, schools and the
other elements that create viable, vibrant neighborhoods.
- Develop
public open space landscape improvement including site lighting,
on-site passive and active recreation space, supportive landscape and
community gardens using green principals and water conservation.
Preserve and enhance existing tree canopy.
Update: This is incorrectly attributed .
It
was the work of many people and started with Dr. Marshall Truehill and
Goody Clancy’s and then added and edited by the District 3 and 4
Planning Team.
I attributed Musa because it came via him in
email. He did stress that he wanted to share attribution. I’m sorry if
that was not apparent in this post. His name is up there because it’s
attached to his login, that is automatic.
