Posted on 02/12/2007 4:34:29 PM PST by Ellesu
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Monday that she wants to temporarily reopen the New Orleans public housing projects that have been closed since Hurricane Katrina, despite federal plans to demolish them and make way for new housing developments.
Blanco said the projects that can be repaired should be reopened to families who were driven out by Katrina floodwaters _ at least until the federal government gets closer to its goal of replacing them with new structures. Blanco said she got encouragement for the idea last week, when she met on Capitol Hill with the chairman of the House committee that oversees the U.S. Housing and Development agency, which controls the New Orleans housing developments and wants them pulled down.
If reopened temporarily, Blanco said, the apartment complexes could help relieve the housing problem in the city and allow displaced New Orleanians to return home.
"People are clamoring to get home," Blanco said.
But the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency, which controls the projects, plans to tear them down and replace them with "mixed income" housing developments.
"That's still the plan," HUD spokeswoman Donna White said.
About 1,100 families are living in two projects, called Iberville and Guste, and the agency is fixing up other apartments in those complexes so residents can return, White said.
HUD plans to demolish four other housing developments that were damaged in Katrina's aftermath, White said. The agency has not set a timeline for the demolitions.
About 5,100 public housing apartments were occupied in New Orleans before the storm, according to the city's housing agency.
The demolitions had been tied up by a lawsuit filed by former residents of the housing complexes who claimed that HUD's plans are discriminatory against the projects' black residents. A federal judge last week dismissed that argument, issuing a ruling that HUD has interpreted as a go-ahead to tear the buildings down, White said.
But Blanco could get support from Congress in seeking to reopen the projects. She met last week with U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House committee that oversees HUD, who the governor said was receptive to the idea of opening up some apartments if they're not too expensive to repair.
Legislation concerning the New Orleans projects would likely come to Frank's committee via a housing subcommittee chaired by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. A spokesman for Waters did not return a call for comment.
Steven Adamske, a spokesman for Frank, said the congressman is interested in opening up at least some of the apartments: "The general emphasis is, if there are habitable places that can provide housing for people, then we should work on that."
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On the Net: http://www.hud.gov/
Is anyone listening to this woman; since NO's corruption was so nakedly laid open to the public after Katrina?
"People are clamoring to get home,"
To the projects?
What kind of "home" is that???
Why...oh why.....does anyone pay attention to this corrupt twit? Yes, I'm serious.
Blanco, "New Orleans' murder rate isn't what it used to be!"
They should make those people stay in Texas, Florida, North Carolina or where ever else they evacuated.
New Orleans does not need public housing residents.
The Washington Dems are:)
http://www.knoe.com
Sen. Vitter's Angry Letter to Gov. Blanco
(February - 12 - 2007)
BATON ROUGE (TV8) - Governor Kathleen Blanco was also in Washington last week, and met with a number of democratic lawmakers in Congress.
However, she turned a cold shoulder to Louisiana's Republican Delegation.
Monday, Republican Senator David Vitter let Blanco know his dissatisfaction.
In an open letter to Blanco, Senator Vitter says, "he's disappointed Blanco didn't request any one-on-one time with members of Louisiana's G.O.P. Delegation... and that none were invited to the meetings she did take part in."
Blanco letter to Vitter
http://keelson.eatel.net/websites/la.gov/action.cfm?md=communication&task=addClick&msg_ID=3337&ID=e%28lmg%7Di%3Bg%7Ci%2C&redirect=http://www.gov.state.la.us/assets/docs/Vitter%20Letter-DC%20Response.pdf
Meemaw just wants to get some more 'Rat voters back from Texas, etc., before she stands for re-election in November.
Pave NO, get it over with.
She needs to get more poor, government dependent voters back into NO to maintain the Democrat's power there.
These are not folks that you want living next door....
Blanco is doing just the opposite of what needs to be done. She ought to demand that no projects be build or repaired hopefully the evacuees on the dole will have to stay where they are.
The fact that Blanco is still the sitting Governor tells me all that I want to know about LA. I don't give a rat's ass what happens to that state, and NOL can sink into the Big Muddy for all that I care. Ungrateful bastards!
Wow, that's a nasty letter from Meemaw. Shame on her.
HUD is a disaster. HUD cannot manage anything, is in total confusion and a waste - huge waste - of taxpayers money. HUD has too many bosses, is full of conflicting regulations subject to their own interpretations and lacks leadership. Nearly everyone is looking out for their own carrott and nobody takes responsibility. But, than again, that's true about most government agencies.
Slums just aint slums without people.
They need to reopen these slums in order to keep up the murder rate.
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