Hurricane Katrina: Housing Rights in the Aftermath

A compilation of demonstrations and evictions in the 1st 4 months after Hurricane Katrina. Also, we hear from Katrina Evacuees in New York City about the ordeal and injustice involved in navigating the governments system of relief.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Hurricane Katrina
• evacuees
• refugees
• housing rights
• public housing
• renters rights
• eviction
• New Orleans
• 9th ward

[DeedsResearcher]

@FluxRostrum, if you can just answer my questions, that will be adequate. While I live far from you (in the Northeast USA), I still have friends in the Knights of Columbus who are in the New Orleans area. None were anywhere near as badly affected as some of the people in this video. Yet, I feel I have a need to know, and this forum seems like a place to get the answers. Thanks!

[FluxRostrum]

@DeedsResearcher the way I saw it.. it seemed that the people who were evicted in Greatna were people who had been evacuated, who could not afford to get themselves home, who were sitting in a FEMA paid for hotel, who were waiting for FEMA to take them home when it was safe, who had no idea that there homes weren't ruined... FEMA could have given these people a bus ticket, instead the paid for them to live in hotels for months to keep them away from the city.

[FluxRostrum]

They were evicted so that the landlords could lease it to someone new (contractor) at 3 times the rent.

[DeedsResearcher]

@FluxRostrum Please excuse my ignorance of LA law, but it would seem that an eviction could only be done if the tenant broke the terms of the lease. As long as the rent is paid, the landlord cannot evict (unless some sort of felony is committed on the property).

Was the Gretna police chief the only honest landlord in Gretna? I'd hate to think so.

[DeedsResearcher]

@FluxRostrum But other than wind damage, there was no flooding in Gretna. That, according to a lady friend of mine who lived on Lafayette Street. She... and everyone else, evacuated before Katrina hit. She drove north, and then went east into (I think) Arkansas, where she stayed with friends until the storm was over. When she got home, she found wind damage to the roof, and nothing else.

[DeedsResearcher]

Inquiry: Why were there evictions in Gretna? I had a good friend who lived there and was not evicted. She told me there was no flooding in Gretna, so why the evictions? It's true that some houses (or shotguns) lost parts of roofs, and contractors had to be able to do their work unimpeded.

Can anyone answer this one for me?

Thank you.

[MannyBei]

Well done!

[MrNiggyPants]

housing rights?

lol

what more can the whitey give these people. Weve given all they need and they still cry and want more and expect everything be handed to them.

Hurricanes are a bitch. Build your own damn house you lazy niggers

[msedillo1]

I still know people to this day who got no help at all even though they did need it.

[msedillo1]

I Love you guys please take care. We are all going to be back home one day. FEMA did the same thing to me. My home was full of mud and sewer water all the way up to the ceiling and they told me it was fine and I could come back home and I didn't qualify for assistance. I had to send my pictures of my place in to them to get them to listen to me. Then it took almost ten months just to get any help.