Re-Open 3000 New Orleans Apartments!' Tell Your Congressperson to Pass the Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery Act of 2007

Author: 
(from list serve 'baygulfsupporters@lists.riseup.net')
Date Published: 
March 18, 2007

Call Your Rep Today for Justice in NOLA Housing

Affordable housing remains one of the biggest challenges facing Katrina reconstruction in New Orleans, especially with drooling developers eager to gentrify the area.  To stand in solidarity with displaced residents, call your congressional reps today and tell them to vote YES on HR 1227, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (introduced by one of my home state heroes, Maxine Waters).  Below is an email from some of the folks I worked with in NOLA last summer, detailing what's at stake with this legislation.


RE-OPEN 3000 NEW ORLEANS APARTMENTS!
Monday, 3/19 Tell YOUR Congressperson to Pass the
Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (HR 1227)

To All Supporters of Social Justice in the Gulf Coast Reconstruction!

This bill is a direct result of the grassroots organizing, actions and
civil disobedience in the eighteen months since Katrina, and it needs
your support and immediate action NOW. Right now, fewer than 200,000
of 454,000 pre-Katrina residents have returned to New Orleans. Right
now, more than 200,000 Black residents remain displaced. Right now, in
spite of the courageous work of returning residents and volunteers,
the city is a shell of its former self.

Now low-income neighborhoods are caught in a game of
which-comes-first. They are told there are not enough schools,
hospitals and services to support their return. Then they are told
there are not enough people in the neighborhood to support having
schools, hospitals and services. The housing crisis keeps many from
returning to demand, and assist, the rebuilding of the city's
infrastructure.

Fortunately, we have an opportunity to change this.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-D) has introduced a bill HR 1227: "to
assist in the provision of affordable housing to low-income families
affected by Hurricane Katrina."  This bill, also known as the Gulf
Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007, was passed by the House
Financial Services Committee and will be discussed on the floor this
Tuesday, March 20.

Specifically, the bill provides for
a)    increased flexibility of existing federal funding;
b)    better oversight of the Louisiana Recovery Authority;
c)    re-opening 3000 public housing apartments by August 1, 2007 and
maintaining pre-Katrina levels of federal housing assistance; and
d)    assistance to landlords and communities who assisted evacuees.