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For decades, New Orleanshas suffered from a public housing crisis. In that time, the ten public
housing complexes in the city have declined and become decrepit. In
fact, drugs, crime, gangs, filth and prostitution thrived in these
sub-human conditions, which were not fit to live or raise a family. A
bad situation became worse after Katrina and several of the complexes
were not reopened.
On December 20, 2007, the New Orleans City Council made a courageous decision to approve the demolition of four dilapidated public housing developments: St. Bernard, C.J. Peete, Lafitte, and B.W. Cooper. Before making the decision, the council had to endure hours of debate, streets protests and threats of violence. The demonstrators claimed that the demolition plans were part of a conspiracy to prevent poor African Americans from returning to New Orleans.
Such claims were ridiculous as the protesters conveniently overlooked the fact that the public housing developments would be replaced by mixed income neighborhoods and better living conditions.
The City Council vote affirmed a decision made by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Both the City Council and HUD agreed that the housing units needed to be demolished. It was a great step forward and as a result, the former public housing residents will be able to enjoy newer units and more livable conditions. In contrast to the hysterical rants of activists that
New Orleans was shunning poor residents, the plans call for more public housing units when the new facilities are constructed. HUD wants to demolish 4,500 units and replace them with 5,108 rental homes, an increase of 608 residences.
While
the vast majority of local citizens believe that the construction of
newer, less dense public housing with modern amenities offer better
living conditions for poor residents, the United Nations disagrees. On
Thursday, the U.N. Human Rights Council for Housing accused the federal
government and
New Orleans
officials of “forcing predominantly black residents into homelessness.”
The U.N. claims that the demolition of the units violates the
“internationally recognized human rights” of the poor residents of
New Orleans.
Such
a position is ridiculous since none of the individuals who were living
in the public housing developments were forced into homelessness. Other
living arrangements were made for the people affected; including giving
people vouchers for vacant units at other public housing developments
in
New Orleans.
Ironically, on the day the United Nations made their pompous
announcement about public housing, non profit groups were working with
the City of
New Orleans to alleviate a true homelessness problem in the downtown area at the corner of
Canal Street and
Claiborne Avenue.
The United Nations is unaware of the real conditions in
New Orleans and certainly has a skewed view of the public housing debate. Instead of weighing in on the
New Orleans situation, the United Nations should focus on the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur, the tyrants that are subjugating people worldwide, famine and
real human rights abuses that are occurring on a daily basis in communist nations such as
Cuba and
North Korea.
Instead of continually bashing the
United States
and giving dictatorships honored positions on Human Rights Committees,
the U.N. should start to focus on real problems and real solutions. In
New Orleans,
the public housing situation is improving and the human rights crisis
is being dealt with effectively. It is the height of arrogance and
stupidity to demand that the same residents move back to the same
apartments. The living arrangements did not work before Katrina and
will not work again. The fact that the United Nations does not
understand this reality says a lot about why this organization is
ineffective and irrelevant today.
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