"We Want Our Money" Rally and packet of materials

Organization:

Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition [1]

Date Published:

November 18, 2006

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215

Renters are not eligible for Road Home funds. Renters were the majority in New Orleans and they get nothing to make them whole or to reimburse them for their losses. This is a gross injustice and must be rectified. Don't renters need recovery?

NO Authority
The Blanco appointed board does not reflect the communities most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The board is made up of mostly-rich white people. The majority of the people still displaced by Hurricane Katrina are overwhelmingly poor or working-class black people.
PHRF Recommendations:

• Renter compensation for losses
• Decent affordable housing
• City Ordinance for rent control
• Funds for total Replacement of privately owned homes
• No waivers are granted on the low~income requirements of the HUD funds
• HUD enforce current statutes so that Governor Blanco and the LRA appropriate a percentage of its funds to the percentage of displaced people who are renters
• There be no demolition of any public housing units in New Orleans and that all of the public housing units be reopened immediately.

Join US

WE WANT OUR MONEY RALLY

Saturday, November 18, 2006 @ Noon State Capital
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Governor Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority are sitting on billions of tax dollars that rightfully belong to us and should be put to work rebuilding our lives and communities

We Demand:

Affordable housing

Total replacement of privately owned homes Compensation to all renters for their losses Rent control

For more information call504.30J.0215 or JVww.peopleshurricane.org

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 021 5
PHRF Press Statement Who WeAre

PHRF is working to build a People's movement - a movement of grassroots persons disproportionately impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the dehumanizing treatment they received from local, state, and federal officials. By grassroots, we are referring to those members of our community who are:

(1) surviving families of people who perished;
(2) surviving families of those who are still missing family members; (3) survivors of the Superdome and Convention Center;
(4) survivors of those left on the interstates and the Crescent City Connection; (5) survivors of sexual and law enforcement violence;
(6) renters and public housing tenants facing permanent displacement;
(7) low income displaced people/survivors of New Orleans and Gulf Coast Region and;
(8) displaced people that confront a host of unjust government decisions and policies, including eviction, gentrification, long-term or permanent displacement, lack of adequate resources and information needed to return home.

LRA has No Recovery and No Authority
The Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund is protesting this LRA board meeting because we challenge the undemocratic nature of the LRA's existence and the misleading nature of the LRA's Road Home Program

NO Recovery

The Louisiana Recovery Authority's Road Home Program is a complete fraud, which will not help New Orleanians return home. In fact, it will allow developers and speculators to permanently displace the low to middle-income homeowners. This program is especially devastating for poor and working class New Orleanians who rent. Governor Blanco's Road Home program doesn't give renters any money, and leaves homeowners with barely anything that they need to rebuild their homes and lives.

The Road Home Program advertises that Homeowners are eligible for UP to $150,000 grants to repair your home. The rub is the grant is based on the pre-Katrina value of your home - minus any insurance proceeds

- minus any FEMA grants
- minus penalties for not having flood insurance
- minus penalties for moving out of the state if you sell
= equals leaving homeowners with not enough funds to rebuild.

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2 New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 OZ·15
Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information Contact:
November.14, 2006 Kali Akuno, PHRF Director 504.301.0215
Monifa Bandele, Change the Game 917.407.3018

"WE WANT OUR MONEY" Declare organizers of mass march to Baton Rouge Office of Governor Kathleen Blanco
When: Saturday, November 18, 2006
Where: Capitol Mall, Baton Rouge, LA
What: Members of the statewide coalition People's Hurricane Relief Fund will be holding a demonstration to demand that Governor Kathleen Blanco overhaul the Road Home program and create a more democratically elected body than the LRA to oversee the recovery process.

Katrina hurricane survivors and advocates call the Road Home Program a fraud and an attempt for developers to permanently displace working class and poor New Orleanians. Current LRA grant policy prevents those with modest means from rebuilding because the maximum grant of $150,000 is based on the pre-Katrina value of one's home ... minus any insurance proceeds ... minus any FEMA grants; ... minus penalties for not having flood insurance; ... minus penalties for moving out of the state if the homeowner sells her/his property; thus leaving homeowners with not enough funds to rebuild "Governor Kathleen Blanco has hijacked over $10 billion fi·om the Federal Government. Congress appropriated this money to assist displaced people and to reconstruct New Orleans and other areas damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "-Viola Washington, Welfare Rights Organization.

Marchers are also protesting the lack of any assistance given to renters. Instead there is an attempt to demolish 5100 units of public housing and waive aspects of the HUn Block Grant Program that provide protections to low-income renters. "A resident return program with the guiding principles of justice and equity is needed. This includes renters along with homeowners. Renters should be able to return to a City where there is affordable housing; not housing priced out of the range of the majority of New Orleans' working people. Those who had homes with paid off mortgages should have their homes replaced" -- Malcolm Suber, PHRF.

PHRF Demands:

2. That the LRA be disbanded and a representative institution or body is created to oversee and govern the recovery and reconstruction process;
3. That renters are compensated for their losses and be provided with resources to aid with moving
costs, deposits, and rent assistance;
3. That all of the public housing units in New Orleans be reopened immediately;
4. That there be no demolition of any of the public housing units in New Orleans;
5. That rent gouging cease and decent affordable housing be made available; and
6. That funds for the total replacement of privately owned homes be made available ##

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215

NO Authority

The Blanco appointed board does not reflect the communities most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The board is made up of mostly-rich white people. The majority of the people still displaced by Hurricane Katrina are overwhelmingly poor or working-class black people.

PHRF Recommendations:

• Renter compensation for losses
• Decent affordable housing
• City Ordinance for rent control
• Funds for total Replacement of privately owned homes
• No waivers are granted on the low-income requirements of the HUD funds
• BUD enforce current statutes so that Governor Blanco and the LRA appropriate a percentage of its funds to the percentage of displaced people who are renters
• There be no demolition of any public housing units in New Orleans and that all of the public housing units be reopened immediately.

Join US

WE WANT OUR MONEY RALLY
Saturday, November 18, 2006 @ Noon State Capital
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Governor Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority are sitting on billions of tax dollars that rightfully belong to us and should be put to work rebuilding our lives and communities
We Demand:

Affordable housing

Total replacement of privately owned homes Compensation to all renters for their losses Rent control

For more information call 504.301.0215 01' JVWJV.peopleshuI'ricane.org

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215

PHRF Press Statement Who We Are

NO Recovery

the pre-Katrina value of your home - minus any insurance proceeds
- minus any FEMA grants
- minus penalties for not having flood insurance
- minus penalties for moving out of the state if you sell
= equals leaving homeowners with not enough funds to rebuild.

People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2 New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215
Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information Contact:
November14,2006 Kali Akuno, PHRF Director 504.301.0215
Monifa Bandele, Change the Game 917.407.3018
"WE WANT OUR MONEY"
Declare organizers of mass march to Baton Rouge Office of
Governor Kathleen Blanco
When: Saturday, November 18,2006
Where: Capitol Mall, Baton Rouge, LA
What: Members of the statewide coalition People's Hurricane Relief Fund will be holding a demonstration to demand that Governor Kathleen Blanco overhaul the Road Home program and create a more democratically elected body than the LRA to oversee the recovery process.
Katrina hurricane survivors and advocates call the Road Home Program a fraud and an attempt for developers to permanently displace working class and poor New Orleanians. Current LRA grant policy prevents those with modest means from rebuilding because the maximum grant of $150,000 is based on the pre-Katrina value of one's home ... minus any insurance proceeds .•. minus any FEMA grants; ... minus penalties for not having flood insurance; ... minus penalties for moving out ofthe state ifthe homeowner sells her/his property; thus leaving homeowners with not enough funds to rebuild "Governor Kathleen Blanco has hijacked over $10 billion from the Federal Government. Congress appropriated this money to assist displaced people and to reconstruct New Orleans and other areas damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "-Viola Washington, Welfare Rights Organization.

Marchers are also protesting the lack of any assistance given to renters. Instead there is an attempt to demolish 5100 units of public housing and waive aspects of the HUD Block Grant Program that provide protections to low-income renters. "A resident return program with the guiding principles of justice and equity is needed. This includes renters along with homeowners. Renters should be able to return to a City where there is affordable housing; not housing priced out of the range of the majority of New Orleans' working people. Those who had homes with paid off mortgages should have their homes replaced" -- Malcolm Suber, P HRF.
PHRF Demands:

1. That the LRA be disbanded and a representative institution or body is created to oversee and govern the recovery and reconstruction process;
2. That renters are compensated for their losses and be provided with resources to aid with moving
costs, deposits, and rent assistance;
3. That all of the public housing units in New Orleans be reopened immediately;
4. That there be no demolition of any of the public housing units in New Orleans;
5. That rent gouging cease and decent affordable housing be made available; and
6. That funds for the total replacement of privately owned homes be made available ##

Action Alert

*Reminder - Make your calls this week!*

Take Action to demand that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco create a democratic program that guarantees all of Louisiana's displaced persons a road home.
Governor Kathleen Blanco has hijacked over $10 billion from the Federal Government. Congress appropriated this money to assist displaced people and to reconstruct New Orleans and other areas damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

To control these funds, Blanco created an extrajudicial body, accountable fundamentally only to her, called the Louisiana Recovery Authority (lRA). The LRA is wholly unrepresentative of Louisiana's population, particularly of New Orleans, in both its race and class composition. The lRA is a who's who of Louisiana's rich and powerful. The LRA represents the interests of major developers, who are intent on preventing the return to New Orleans of its Black working class majority and turning it into the Las Vegas of the South.

Governor Blanco and the LRA are offering nothing to renters, who constitute the vast majority of those displaced. Their Road Home program is focused exclusively on homeowners. Under the LRA renters get nothing to make them whole or to reimburse them for their losses. This is a gross injustice and must be rectified.

fet, even for most homeowners Blanco and the LRA program )ffers very little. The Road Home Program advertises that 10meowners are eligible for up to $150,000 grants to repair {our homes. But the size of each grant Is based on the pre¬<atrina value of the homeowner's property minus what has 31ready been received from insurance companies, minus any =EMA grants; minus penalties for not having flood insurance, 3nd minus penalties for moving out of the state if the 10meowner sells the property. The equation leaves 10meowners with barely enough funds to reconstruct a room in :heir former homes, especially given today's inflated :onstruction costs.
~ather we need a resident return program based on the :>rinciples of justice and equity. The program must include "enters as well as homeowners. Renters should be able to "eturll to a fairly-priced housing; not housing priced out of the "ange of the majority of New Orleans' working people. Those Nho had homes with paid off mortgages should have their lomes replaced.

We must not allow Governor Blanco to get away with ethnic cleansing and thievery.

Take Action

Call, Fax, or Email Governor Kathleen Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority and demand the following For all those affected and displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita:

1. That the LRA be disbanded and a representative institution or body Is created to oversee and govern the recovery and reconstruction process;
2. That renters are compensated for their losses and be provided with resources to aid with moving costs, deposits, and rent assistance;
3. That all of the public housing units in New Orleans be reopened immediately;
4. That there be no demolition of any of the public housing units in New Orleans;
5. That rent gouging cease and decent affordable housing be made available; and
6. That funds for the total replacement of privately owned homes be made available.

Sample Letter:

Dear Gov. Blanco and Mr. Kopplin,

I am seriously concerned about the process for recovery in devastated New Orleans. I am particularly worried about the make-up of the LRA board and the exclusion of renters from its currently proposed programs. Furthermore, I doubt that the formula developed to provide grants to homeowners will be enough to really assist poor and working class people in rebuilding their homes. I recommend that The LRA be disbanded and a representative institution or body be created to oversee and govern the recovery and reconstruction

process; that renters are compensated for their losses and be provided with resources to aid with moving costs, deposits,

and rent assistance; that all of the public housing units in New Orleans be reopened immediately; that there be no demolition of any of the public housing units in New Orleans; that rent gouging cease and decent affordable housing be made available; and that funds for the total replacement of privately owned homes be made available.

Thank you,

"'Your Name'"

Get Involved
For more information contact the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund at 504.301.0215, or visit www.peopleshurricanerelief.org [2]