Day 922: Baby Out With Bathtub

Meanwhile, back in New Orleans, media outlets and many folks miss the point entirely thanks to this flub on the part of the United Nations. 

“Thanks for nothing, UN,” says Eli. 

I’m not in favor of keeping the projects up, but not for the same reasons as most critics.  I want our nation to put its head together and find a better solution for housing the poor than warehousing them, which is essentially what projects do.  They didn’t start out like that, but are what they turned into.  The problem will not simply go away if the projects are torn down, regardless of whether former residents prefer to live elsewhere.   A first step is to acknowledge poverty as a state of being and not urban blight, and its consequences on individuals and society.  Our poor need dignifed, affordable and temporary housing as a base from which to move onwards and upwards with their lives.  Furthermore, it’s not as easy as offering them keys to places in mixed-income housing developments as:

a) In New Orleans, there is as yet no evidence that these developments will indeed replace the bricks, and

b) evicting folks from colonies and introducing them to such developments is only warehousing with makeup on, unless it is accompanied by good schools, job incentives and the acceptance of and support from the surrounding community.

Conservative opponents of public housing pat themselves on the back and point at the mess-ups by liberal housing activists and, now, the United Nations to further their own agenda.  Before they sway us in a wholesale fashion, let’s not forget the long history of racism, discrimination and disenfranchisement that underpins the nature of government-assisted housing in New Orleans (and the rest of America), way before and after the flood of 2005.  We’re not off the hook yet.  To quote Eli,

Legitimate concerns include the cozy relationship between HUD Secretary Alfonso Jackson and the private developers, the acres upon acres of preexisting empty lots owned by HUD and HANO that have yet to see any construction, the affordable housing crisis, the upcoming displacement of tens of thousands due to formaldehyde contamination of FEMA trailers, the homelessness crisis, and so on and so forth.

Just as the UN panel did not offer any evidence to support retaining existing public housing, neither do HUD and HANO in the way of showing us the alternative.  In the absence of such action, this is nothing but political stance-taking on both sides when those who need housing are left out in the cold.  While the “right to return” is a nebulous sentiment, the lack of affordable housing for those who wish to live and work in New Orleans is a legitimate cause for concern, regardless of what side of the political fence you are on.  How will this city move forward if its workforce has nowhere to sleep at night?

This is why I often turn spiteful and want folks in the aforementioned situation to tell New Orleans to stuff it and move to another city.  Somewhere they are not part of an economic agenda and their children don’t have to undergo such treatment, will get better healthcare and educations out of the deal and, by the grace of goodness, turn to careers other than the short-lived one of crime.  Oh, all of these things are related?  You think?