250 Homeless people have set up camp at New Orleans city hall

[babylonsister]

Homeless camp at New Orleans city hall

By JOHN MORENO GONZALES, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 16, 3:45 PM ET


NEW ORLEANS - The homeless of New Orleans have left the city's shelters and gutted buildings to set up camp on the mayor's doorstep.

About 250 homeless people have erected pup-tents — the only affordable housing they say they could find since Hurricane Katrina — and created a colony of despair in a grassy plaza outside City Hall.

Mayor Ray Nagin's second-floor office faces the camp, and its residents rally almost daily with the chant: "Hey, Ray! How about a house today!"

Nagin has not met with the group, but he said in a statement that the city "is working with numerous agencies to address the homelessness" that worsened after the hurricane.

The mayor said many of the homeless in Duncan Plaza have refused temporary shelter and rental assistance, and he is concerned about unsanitary conditions and safety.

Julius Nelson, 32, leader of a group called Homeless Pride that formed in the plaza, said shelters are overflowing and rental assistance is useless in a city where the storm destroyed most of the inexpensive apartments. He feared Nagin's statement meant the mayor would break up the camp.

"You've got people all over New Orleans sleeping in abandoned buildings, in abandoned cars, everywhere," Nelson said. "You don't have any affordable housing. People don't even go to the crowded shelters. They come straight here."

New Orleans has 12,000 homeless people, up from 6,300 before Katrina, according to UNITY of Greater New Orleans, a group that helps the homeless.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_on_re_us/katrina... ;_ylt=Ap3H1mVaNPlCMdHqAoCSx8ys0NUE

[SharkSquid]

1. And what is it that the mayor is supposed to do?

Im unclear?

[babylonsister]

2. Maybe be a bit concerned with providing some roofs for these homeless

people, the number of them having doubled since Katrina? I'm sure they're not asking for the world, but a little help from local government doesn't seem to be too much to ask when you consider the tourist industry is close to up-to-speed.

Or nothing, which is what has been happening.

[EFerrari]

4. The locusts, including Nagin, shut down public housing

that was not touched by water.

Let's call this what it is: it's ethnic cleansing.

[SharkSquid]

8. Ethnic Cleansing

Of who? Black People? When are they going to come for Ray?

[EFerrari]

13. There's a caste system in NOLA. I don't know enough about it

to comment except that I know it exists.

[Greyhound]

28. The "paper bag test" has been prevalent since before the 19th century. n/t

[EFerrari]

43. I don't even know what that is. n/t

[KamaAina]

46. Hold a paper bag next to your skin.

Which is darker, you or the bag? The idea, if you can call it that, was to find a way to separate the races in a city that has tens of thousands of mixed-race people.

It figured into an episode of CBS' all-too-short-lived "Frank's Place". The intricacies of this system were being explained to an African American who had just come down from Boston. Shorty, the white chef, piped up: "That's the only test I ever passed!"

[EFerrari]

47. We sure are a creative race, us human beans.

[bread_and_roses]

17. "Of who?" You can't be serious.

If you are so ill-informed as to the demographics of NO pre-and post Katrina, ten minutes reading could enlighten you. And if you wonder at the factors behind that change, a few more minutes search is all it takes.

Such deliberate obtuseness as you display is suspiciously disingenuous.

[SharkSquid]

31. suspiciously disingenuous

How so, I was just down there a few months ago with work and the demographics looks the same as when I was there in 02. I know its not scientific at all but honestly I have abotu 3000 issues both political and non political going on in my life where the becoming intimately involved in the "ethnic cleansing" going on in NOLA is not on the top of my list. I was involved in the hurrican as it hit and in dealing with the immediate aftermath but I am sorry that I can not spend my entire life tied up and involved in the problems of EVERYONE else when the problems in Jacksonville and Florida seem to suck up most of my life.

But I dont even know why I am explaining myself to you...

[NOLALady]

36. If 02 and 07 demographics look the same to you,

you were not paying attention.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Where have you been?

Can't check your profile so I don't know if you were here in 2005 when many New Orleans residents were here and gave us a first hand report of what was happening in that city. Yes ethnic cleansing is an accurate description of what is happening.

[NorthernSpy]

25. you have no idea, do you?

Yes, there is a caste system in Louisiana.

No, Ray Nagin (spit) isn't exactly at the bottom of it.

[SharkSquid]

40. Us ignoramus' here in Florida

Dont think about the racial issues in Louisiana as a matter of course, sorry.

[NOLALady]

35. Ethnic cleansing of poor Black people.

Not all of the New Orleans Blacks (Ray Naquin) were poor. Also, Blacks like Ray are not a threat since he's really a Republican.

[EFerrari]

37. Greg Palast reported that the developers have been wanting

that land for years. His report on how the public housing was shut down got him arrested by Homeland Security. Or, maybe he was arrested because he reported that BushCo knew the levies breached and didn't tell anyone. So many crimes, it's hard to keep up with them all.

[pacalo]

14. Ding ding ding! You are correct, sfexpat.

How dare that new poster -- without a profile, mind you -- talk down to someone with a big heart who cares enough to pay attention to the facts. It is he/she who is clueless.

It is true that the white citizenry, particularly the blue bloods in the N.O. district, have had contempt for public housing for as long as I remember. The previous mayor, Morial, had a plan that had the white citizenry in the suburbs shivering: close down public housing & relocate the residents to the suburbs by providing low-cost housing. To be fair, what made the suburbanites uneasy is that, on any given day, the local news reported gun shots, stabbings, etc., in the "projects". I'm no sociology expert; I don't know whether Morial's idea would have been a success or a disaster, but I think his heart was in the right place: he wanted those residents to get the opportunity to live in neighborhoods as homeowners, to give them a sense of pride.

Common decency & common sense tell me that when people's homes are taken away from them, the government should do everything it can to give them another home (not a group-living, covered pavillion, but their own private living spaces) in an expedient manner. These people who are camping outside the mayor's office are doing the right thing. They've been ignored for too long & this may get the mayor off his behind.

[SharkSquid]

27. I put up a profile

I know I know how dare I open my mouth and ask a damn question...

You guys are abotu 40 lbs of self-righteousness in a 2 lb bag.

[NorthernSpy]

29. I don't see it...

Try again. There's no profile icon for you.

[SharkSquid]

30. Fixed

I figured out what was wrong.

[EFerrari]

3. His job. n/t

[SharkSquid]

9. And what is his job with respect to this?

That is where I am unclear?

[EFerrari]

10. I live in San Francisco. Our mayor ran on resolving homelessness here.

He said he'd make it his number one priority. If Gavin Newsom can prioritize homelessness, so can Nagin.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. His job is to reopen the undamaged public housing that residents

have been barred from since the Storm.

There is perfectly good housing that the former residents are not allowed to move back into. It has been boarded up and padlocked. The reason? It stands near the French Quarter on high ground, and rumors are that Big Real Estate is looking for an excuse to get the public housing torn down so that they can build expensive condos.

Instead of playing dumb, you need to do some reading up on the kind of corruption and ethnic cleansing that has been occurring in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast since Katrina.

[sandnsea]

20. Thank you Lydia

I wish John Edwards (or any candidate) would take cameras to these places. That would be acting like Bobby.

[Desertrose]

23. Next to the French Quarter...that explains a lot......

Ding Ding Ding!!!!!!


There is perfectly good housing that the former residents are not allowed to move back into. It has been boarded up and padlocked. The reason? It stands near the French Quarter on high ground, and rumors are that Big Real Estate is looking for an excuse to get the public housing torn down so that they can build expensive condos."

[SharkSquid]

26. Do you have some links

So I do not have to end up with all the conspiracy nut crap you get if you google?

If you are going to be so damn self righteous about me "doing the research" how about you help me out with some info since you clearly already have the information. We dont have a post-hurricane ethnic cleansing problem here in Jacksonville so my organic knowledge is a little rusty.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. I first learned of it on Democracy Now

Check their website. I've seen other references, too, but I don't keep catalogues of links.

[SharkSquid]

45. Gracias for the link

I will check it out when I get a chance.

[Richard Steele]

6. He's supposed to do his job, SS.

His job.

[SharkSquid]

39. You are such a wealth of information

DS

[EFerrari]

44. Do you have no search engines at your disposal?

Someone up thread gave you a great referral -- www.democracynow.org . Go there and search. Amy Goodman has been covering this issue extensively.

[99th_Monkey]

5. More power to them! Other homeless encampments have been quite successful

I helped organize just such a "homeless uprising" in Portland. The city finally just gave them some land to set up their own 'shanty town' built with re-used lumber and recycled materials...they even have wind powered infrastructure now. they've been rocking since 2001. It's become a valuable "transitional" place for hundreds of homeless until they found something better.

http://www.dignityvillage.org/content/

[balantz]

7. More power to them!

May they succeed in addressing affordable housing.

That homeless city in Portland is great! I love Portland Oregon, lived around there in the eighties.

I was homeless for a spell here in Tucson a few years back, and not too far removed from it now. It is hard to be in such a situation.

[Cha]

15. That's what I was left

with when I read this.."I'm glad they have someone to lead and organize them so they'll be able to get resolution."

Portland, Oregon sounds like the best! Thanks for doing that, Impeachment_M.

[99th_Monkey]

34. It may be much more difficult, dealt with more harshly by "authorities" now post 911

but I certainly hope not. We had already been granted the land and begun construction when 911 happened. Given the harsh
treatment by police these daze of protesters and dissidents .. or even deranged people in public places, I shudder to think
of what kind of treatment homeless people are given currently. It's almost totally disappeared as even a big issue for
people, esp. in that you hardly ever hear Prez candidates even bring the subject up.

[Cha]

48. Yeah, Since this

government was directly responsible for making them "homeless" I see what you mean. Up a sharp incline..all the way!

[earth mom]

11. Let's get this to the greatest page!

[suffragette]

12. They should call it Bushville

Just like those before them called these Hooverville.

[Cha]

18. I guess..I couldn't

stand living in a place that I had to say his awful name. I freak out when I have to even say that word for a bigger shrub. I just call him asshole or whatever suits my mood at the moment.

How about something like..named after somebody who is a positive remainder of perserverence and inspiration?

[suffragette]

38. The name was originally given in derision

and blame to Hoover. I think the same applies to Bush. He deserves to have his name be synonymous with shame.
However, I understand your point and would be with you to have new adequate housing named in honor of someone like Carter, who has worked constantly to get people decent housing.

[Cha]

49. Yeah, the history of that would

make it *ville, but we can change that! I like your idea, "Carterville"! A lot!

[Baby Snooks]

21. They need to go set up a camp in San Francisco

Let Madame Speaker see the faces of the homeless of New Orleans and have them arrested and let everyone see her finally for what she is.

She is the face of the Democrats who have done absolutely nothing to help these people. Blame the mayor, blame the governor, but blame the Speaker of the House as well since she believes homeless people should be arrested for simply bothering people with their presence.

It doesn't take that long to build affordable housing and affordable housing complexes. Nagin is full of it. And he is pandering to the upper class that simply wants to gentrify New Orleans. Mainly the white upper class I should add. And Pelosi obviously is there to help him help them do just that. New Orleans is a symbol, really, of the gentrification of our country. The haves and have nots. And the haves wish the have nots would move elsewhere. Out of sight, out of mind.

[SpiralHawk]

22. "Send in the Blackwater Holy Warriors." - Commander AWOL Bush

"The Blackwater Boyos have the guns and muscle to shove some freedom and justice down the gullet of these noisy New Orleans proles, and to show them their place once and for all. Smirk. Smirk. Smirk."

"To maximize republicon crony PROFIT, and of course to exercise some good old Konzervative Kompassion, I hereby command Blackwater, Inc. to "Take Care" of the noisy homeless prole problem."

- Commander AWOL,
Uber Hero of the Skull & Boner Occult Division
Republicon Christofascist Homelander Marching and Snorting Society

[SharkSquid]

41. HAHAHA

So snarky

[NorthernSpy]

24. good spots for shanty towns: Bourbon Street, outside the Cabildo, Congo Square...

The authorities won't take the padlocks off those undamaged public housing complexes? Guess the leaseholders will just have to build themselves shacks somewhere else.

Might as well pick a good location.

[SharkSquid]

32. Come stay with me at the

Naval Base, there is room for 5 more in my room.

[EFerrari]

42. kick