Housing officials claim surplus (must see pic)

nola.com ^ | 12/18/07 | Coleman Warner

[TornadoAlley3]

Ted Jackson / Times-PicayuneSharon Jasper sits in the living room of her voucher-backed private residence. "I might be poor but I don't like to live poor. I thank God for a place to live but it's pitiful what people give you."

Sharon Jasper, a former St. Bernard complex resident presented by activists Tuesday as a victim of changing public housing policies, took a moment before the start of the City Hall protest to complain about her subsidized private apartment, which she called a "slum." A HANO voucher covers her rent on a unit in an old Faubourg St. John home, but she said she faced several hundred dollars in deposit charges and now faces a steep utility bill.

"I'm tired of the slum landlords, and I'm tired of the slum houses," she said.

Pointing across the street to an encampment of homeless people at Duncan Plaza, Jasper said, "I might do better out here with one of these tents."

Jasper, who later allowed a photographer to tour the subsidized apartment, also complained about missing window screens, a slow leak in a sink, a warped back door and a few other details of a residence that otherwise appeared to have been recently renovated.

[50sDad]

Give a man a log, and he's warm for an hour. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.

"Sell a man a fish, and he eats for today. Teach a man to fish, and you've lost a good, paying customer."
--------------The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

[50sDad]

Give a man a log, and he's warm for an hour. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.

"Sell a man a fish, and he eats for today. Teach a man to fish, and you've lost a good, paying customer."
--------------The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition