Feds Drop the Other Shoe -- On Public Housing
The argument has raged in New Orleans since the flooding: HUD, the federal agency which runs the city's public housing (don't ask), has insisted on demolishing the existing housing projects, even the ones undamaged by the floods, because the feds claim to want a new model of mixed affordable and market-rate housing. Advocates for public housing have pointed out that many of the units are undamaged and could, if opened, help to solve the continuing crisis in affordable rental housing in New Orleans.
Today, the T-P reports, the Feds dropped the other shoe: the Bush administration, and its hooker-loving loyalist Sen David Vitter, came out against a provision that would mandate a one-to-one replacement policy for affordable housing units. That is, the provision would have required the feds to replace a demolished public housing apartment with either another unit, or a cash voucher (I thought conservatives liked vouchers) so that the number of affordable housing units in the city was not diminished. The Bush admiinistration and Vitter now oppose that provision.
Why do the words "class warfare" only enter the political discourse when the Republicans oppose actions which would disadvantage the advantaged? Why don't Democrats call this position what it is, a different kind of war on poverty, by depriving poor people of places to live?
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Common Sense should lead the fight in the House against H.R. 3121, the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is currently $18 billion in debt as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the thousands of homes that were damaged or destroyed in their wake. This bill’s title would lead you to believe that it “reforms” and “modernizes” the program by addressing the existing shortfall, but the truth is this bill would vastly expand the program to cover wind damage and expose American taxpayers to a long term liability of up to $19 trillion. It defies logic and common sense to expand a program that is already operating $18 billion in the red.
They are letting New Orleans die, plain and simple, surrendering it to the sea. The first casualty of climate change.
As usual, you got half the story....
The fact of the matter is that a large part of New Orleans should not be rebuilt. Hurricane Betsy, Hurricane Katrina...
This same HUD that you have vilified has just put together a program in concert with the city of Houston, where 50,000-120,000 displaced New Orleanians/S. Louisianians still live, to take up the slack when the FEMA money covering their rents runs out 11/1.
The old-style public housing doesn't work. It always ends up turning into a warehouse for lots of poor people, drug addicts, alcoholics, physically and mentally ill, ex-cons, and criminal gangs. Just like the Tenderloin in San Francisco. Society sets up a large housing unit then stuffs in it everyone who can't otherwise make it in society. It's a bad idea and it fails every time.
There are new concepts about mixed-use housing and overall planning requirements by which low-income housing for people who work for a living but don't make so much money can live alongside people who work for a living and make more. Throw in some seniors, people with health problems who cannot work, you get a housing situation that may be very successful. But the old poor people's housing "projects" failed every time.
Who would advocate to re-build (or re-populate) the slums of New Orleans? It doesn't make any sense. If there are no jobs in New Orleans, and no affordable housing for those who work, those people need to move somewhere else. Move somewhere where they can get a job and an affordable place to live. Is this a disaster for them and their families? Join the rest of us. Most people end up moving when they've lost a job - you move to wherever you can get a job. It's tough, but it's a fact. Exactly what is the benefit of living in the slums of New Orleans, other than cheap housing? Poor schools, no healthcare, no jobs, high crime, no future.
As for the sick, the lame, the old, those who cannot work, there's no reason to put them back into the middle of the high-crime disaster that was the public housing projects of New Orleans. You might as well demand that they be moved to Baghdad.
HARRY RESPONDS: This might or might not be true in the abstract. But people aren't living in the abstract. Undamaged housing units are undamaged housing units. Who told you there aren't jobs in New Orleans? What there isn't in New Orleans is affordable housing for working-class people to be able to take those jobs. I'm no more a fan of old-fashioned public housing projects than you, but this is a crisis, and perfectly habitable housing units stand vacant (until they're demolished), perfectly decent people (who had leases on those units--what ever happened to the sanctity of contracts?) can't return home, and businesses can't hire the workers they desperately need--all for the sake of your, or my, or the President's theory of how to reform the public housing situation in the future? Why don't we make your town the guinea pig for what I believe conservatives used to call "social engineering" like that? New Orleans has its hands full with the problems created by one federal agency, without the others piling on.
NABNYC I read all your old posts and have concluded that we have our work cut out for us in getting through to those socialist that welfare is not in anyone's best interests.
If those who freeload and leach of the system want even more benefits they should look to their own pocket books and assets first. If they have none they should look at their abilities and find out what is marketable.
Opportunity is plentiful for those willing to work for it.
HARRY RESPONDS: Did you get trapped in an airport bookstore and just copy down all the motivational slogans in the pretty frames? There are plenty of jobs in New Orleans, but the collapse of the rental housing supply--due to the flooding caused by the construction and design flaws of federally built structures--means no workers can afford to take those jobs, because rents have tripled. Yes, the market will take care of thhis--in five or ten years. Where's the suspended animation pill people can take in the meantime?
When it comes to the poor, the conservatives live in a fantasy world - pure and simple. Are there immoral, deceitful poor people? Sure, but then there are immoral, deceitful middle class, rich, etc. Yet ever since the Reagan Era the conservatives&co have done a good job of demonizing the poor refusing to accept the reality that there will always be some people who need government assistance for whatever reason. Many charities simply do not have the resources to provide all that help so that's why good government needs to step in. It's amazing so many people don't mind paying $9 billion a month for the fiasco in Iraq yet they don't want a penny spent on housing for some poor American citizen. Amazing!
I believe our democrat party has been taken over by the republican agenda and taken sides with their programs.
They as a unit have shown no outrage against Cheney's administration and his war " AGAINST the American people".
The democrats have now shown they care more about stopping American citizen's free speech by their bill to censor moveon.org.
They are now showing they have a dislike for Moveon.org and the American citizen's wishes to stop Cheney and Bush's war on Iraq and destrution of our democracy and freedom.
What in the H... happen to all the investigations into the corruption of Bush's administration that were going on.
Looks like it is less important then their cenosorship of MoveOn.org free speech..
This is the "great divide":
On the one hand, those who firmly and sincerely believe that if you're poor, it's your own damn fault and you're just a free-loader. They believe that wealth equals virtue, though I wonder what to make of Paris Hilton...
Then there are those (of the sane variety), who know that while hard work is a good thing and should be encouraged, whether one succeeds or loses in the game of life is the result of many factors--luck being one of them.
Yes there are welfare bums, but those who tar every poor person with that brush never seem to be concerned with the rich cheaters on the other side of the fence. They're the ones getting wealthy on the minimum-wage labour of the many.
There are way too many Scrooges in the US.
I must say that I find myself siding with wigwamwag. Just handing over money to the poor is nice idea, however in practice things such as welfare, which had the lofty goal of pulling the poor up from the bottom has had the opposite affect. I think that is why Bill Clinton and the congress at that time passed welfare reform. I too think that too much taxpayer money is being wasted by all government programs, military and otherwise.
The food stamp program was administered by the Agriculture Dept with the lofty goal of subsidizing US Farm products.
The current energy policy is designed lock, stock and $100/barrel to subsidize the oil companies.
The bankruptcy law is written to subsidize the banking industry.
The Prescription Medication Law is designed to subsidize the Drug Industry.
The war in Iraq now seems to be the chief means of subsidizing private security mercenaries.
To which welfare program did you refer?
Oh the poor agribusinessmen have never learned to be self reliant. The hapless oil men have lost their initiative. The drug co. execs can't be expected to rise up out of their pitiable circumstances without help. Oh what will we do with all these unemployed mercenaries? Helping them out now will just insure future generations of the same shitfless and lazy businessmen. Don't you see?
Across the nation the poor are under attack from this administration. Their rights to privacy are being taken away. And now more of their right to a decent place to live is being lost. Will this administration never stop its endless attack on the underprivileged? Will they finally own the entire country?
This is terrible. My Congress critters are about to get an ear full one more time today. I am sick and tired of this behavior in our country.
Go get 'em!
Class war is just another divisive race card label.
Why do not the people who cry constantly about the needs of the poor just empty their pocket books directly to them? More than enough charities have helped them. Charity begins at home. There is no substitute for hard purposeful WORK.
Please do not ask the government to bail those who are too lazy to work and pay their own bills.
Many concerned citizens have helped the poor in NOLA and the rest of the Gulf Coast with expecting a return. Major thanks would be nice, but all it seems to be coming from the poor and the bleeding hearts is demand for more freebies at taxpayer expense. It seems they are ungrateful and acting like they deserve unearned benefits. What some foolishly propose is further abuse of a system that is already too socialist.
You have got to be kidding.
We are all paying Bush's bills, Blackwater's bills, Haliburton's bills and our great grandchildren will STILL be paying those bills.
Bush never had to do a real days work in his life
We could solve ALL social issues in this country with barely HALF of what is being squandered by this misadministration
... Because all poor people are poor because they are lazy ... riiight!
First off, most of the poor work harder than the rich, they just don't get the same kind of money for it. Many of the poor work more than one job trying to survive. Poverty is expensive. The poor are forced to buy cheap, crappy goods which need to be replaced and end up having to spend more in the end. The poor are forced to survive on credit (legalized usury), which simply drives them deeper and deeper into poverty. Poverty also increases health problems, particularly in a nation where medical and dental treatment are readily affordable only for the rich. Dental care is considered "cosmetic" by our government, an idea as irrational as it is mean since rotten teeth infect the entire body.
You would miss all those lazy people you'd just as soon see die as eat, when the toilets at your office became so filthy they were unusable and when all the other services that that the rich take for granted stopped being available. A society is as strong as it's weakest links. And human beings living in community have a responsibility to one another. Try BEING poor for six months and you might sing a different song.
WigWWag, evidently you have been 'blessed' into a comfortable situation with your life. Consider yourself very lucky. Because no matter how HARD someone has worked in their lives, a lot of a person's current situation depends on circumstances and luck.
Have you bothered to take into consideration that in the US that 'poverty' is a term to describe a family of 4 or more living on an income of less than $30,000/yr? Do you know that there are many many EMPLOYED people that meet that criteria? Most of the 'dirty jobs' that keep this country running fit in that category. Do you know how many senior citizens live on much less than that? Do you know that the term 'single mother' is NOT just a woman that has had a child out of wedlock but includes a mother having to support her children alone because of being abandoned by worthless husband? Do you know most women still do not make as much as men in many of the same jobs? Do you know that many of those women put their careers on hold to raise a family and how hard it is to return after years out of the workplace? Do you know how many grandparents are raising grandchildren whose parents are incarcerated or unable to care for them? Do you know how many families live on less than that amount because of a disabled or severe illness of a family member? Do you know how many families are having to care for an elderly family member and support their children on less than that. Do you know how many military families live pretty close to that amount?
It is a sad commentary for this country when there is a national outrage over a millionaire sports figure being cruel to 12 dogs and merely a murmur as to the cruelty being dealt to tens of thousands of citizens of the state of Louisiana and Mississippi after a combination natural and a manmade catastrophe 2 yrs passed. Black and White and Red and Yellow and Brown.
Get an education, get a good job, and use your common sense. That would include NOT living in an area below sea level that should have NEVER been developed. Be a professional and stop complaining. Face the situation and admit to your past mistakes of judgment. The whole foundation of NOLA’s welfare housing has failed for good reason.
This spending issue is not about Bush or broken levees or even wages. The bottom line is that no one should be forced via the government taxes to support anyone who is too stupid or lazy to fend for their own circumstances as a part of being responsible and self-reliant.
Bad decisions on the part of the individual should not be the fiscal responsibility of the community via government bailouts. It a person has too many kids; it was not the fault of their neighbors. Nor should the childen be their neighbor's burden. If need be, get your self fixed and put your kids up for adoption.
No more money should be doled out for any welfare or public housing. There are banks that can make loans and jobs that can be gotten. It will take work now on the part of the individual to make his or her own life better. People who abuse the system and live off its blind generosity have bled the government for a very long time. Just the thought of diminishing cash to some freeloaders could cause stupid hate based riots where they demand more free benefits. Someone needs to show them how the cow eats the cabbage in the form of instant karma. The free meals at the gravy train has been strained.
Any fool can tell you that it is risky to live in NOLA. It floods often even without a hurricane. Living and rebuilding there is plainly foolish. Public housing may work in the bluest of the blue states but the rest of the US does not want to be burdened by the tonnage of socialistic welfare to the undeserving.
HARRY RESPONDS: I think you have a firm grasp on what any fool can tell you. Next time we need to know what a fool knows, we know whom to call.
Many thanks from this tax-paying American Refugee from the City that Care Forgot and the Presidente left for dead.
Thanks for the Corps of Engineers building the levees wrong and causing this heinous crime against humaity.
Thanks for Bush lying about help on the way while me and my friends ran for our lives.
Thanks for Bush lying in Jackson Square.
Thanks for getting us in a war without end amen.
Perhaps the phrase ' class warfare' is only used if a proposal aids the rest of us or nicks the wallets of the plutocrats because only the rich cling to the concept of classes. This may stem from their perception that the amount of acquired wealth determines every aspect of life. This belief is accompanied by the notion that "more is better". Only in America is the notion that the acquisition of wealth and power is a sign that the person is in good with Jesus so widely believed. Odd that John Calvin is twisted to justify the behavior of the selfish and greedy power weilders of today.
Is Bill Gates selfish and greedy? Warren Buffet? Is he greedy? Both of these men have pledged billions to helping those less fortunate. But more important, they created businesses that employ hundreds of thousands of people. Many of which they turned into millionaires themselves.
These and other businessesmen are rich only because they provided a good or service that benefited others. Not because they walked all over the poor. Unfortunately, Jesus apparently had no training in basic economics and I guess that is why his followers even to this day have no understanding either. You are not selfish and greedy just because you are rich. Where did you get that notion?
Also, just because one person gets rich does not mean others got poor as a result. Wealth is not a zero sum game. The perverbial pie does indeed get bigger.
Why are these simple concepts so hard to grasp by so many?
But what of the
Shock Capitalists?
Yes, indeedy-- if Jesus had had a grain of sense, He'd have preached the Gospel of trickle-down economics instead of that lame Beatitudes crap!
Luckily, John Calvin eventually came along to explain that wealth and virtue walk hand-in-hand. Now, THAT's the JC we should be worshipping!
Bill Gates greedy, yes, and I have first hand knowledge of this. Witness the number of anit-trust suits against Microsoft. Warren Buffet, yes by proxy. That they are giving back at the end of their lives will not undo what they have done during their lives. It is not charity, it is dispensation.
The only purpose wealth serves to an economy is as a source of investment capital. That is how the "pie" gets bigger. Of Bill Gates billions in Microsoft stock, none of that is being employed in capitalization for growth. Virtually the entire net value of the world's equity markets does no good to anyone in terms of economic growth, apart from one time shot of cash raised from an IPO, and providing motive to create a company which can be taken IPO.
It is, at any freeze frame of the economy, a zero sum game. Growth lifts all boats only if the increased profits and opportunity it creates is shared. For the last thirty years, it has not been shared, and in fact the middle and lower classes have been getting proportionally less of the pie even as it grows.
The "concept" that appears to be hard to grasp is that capitalism is not magic and will not create equitable results as a natural outcome.
"it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24
It bothers me to realize that 'proper society' seeks to place labels on everything & everyone in order to make 'polite' conversation & give the appearance to be 'above' such situations or to remove the 'human element' from the discussion. We hear 'homeless' and envision drunk lazy derelicts rather than individuals such as runaway teens, those facing financial problems or disabled veterans. We hear 'poor' and envision mobs of illegitimate children, lazy uneducated substance abusers, rather than the throngs of hard-working self-sacrificing individuals fighting the system. We hear 'the hungry' and envision con-artists looking for a handout, rather than desperate individuals looking for a lifeline. Oh, I forgot, we no longer have 'hunger' in the US...it has been relabeled 'substanance deficient' or something like that by the powers that be. 'Hunger' was just an ugly word, I guess.
IMHO using a label is an attempt by a speaker to obtain power by words. A way of distancing oneself from any responsibility, understanding or duty to others of society who are different or in different circumstances. Life is full of circumstance, some we bring on ourselves and some are thrust upon us and each individual handles the circumstance in their own way. What the difference is that we, as humans should care...at least that would separate us from the animal kingdom.
I just phoned the offices of my Senators from TN as well as Sen David Vitter. I expressed my support for the Landrieu bill and requested that they support it. And to Senator Vitter I expressed my outrage at his crime against humanity in his opposition.
(I did not mention his crimes against nature:)
Everyone reading this post should do the same right now, call your senator's office.
It is not a hard thing to do.
It doesn't take much time.
You can find their phone numbers here:
http://www
And if your calling you might send a shout-out to Mary Landrieu too.
Tell her I said thanks.
Mr Shearer I live near N.O. in Hattiesburg MS. Here is some more information about the plight of the poor in N.O. The famous Lafitte Houses which are beautiful public housing projects located near the French Quarter and undamaged by floodwaters have been declared uninhabitable by the city. Bars cover windows and doors have been welded shut to keep residents from returning.
If that isn’t bad enough there are guys who look for all the world like comic-book ninjas running around carrying automatic weapons and making sure nobody tries to come home. They’re employed by Blackwater U.S.A., mercenaries working for the Department of Homeland Security. These hired goons cost taxpayers $950 per man per day, run amok wherever they go, and are apparently accountable to no one. The residents of the housing projects now live in small FEMA trailers crowded together in a situation which has been described as prison-like. Their crime was living on valuable real-estate and being poor.
It would be easy to say this is about race but it’s more about money. Those townhouses with beautiful wrought iron work right next to the French Quarter are valuable while their cash-strapped residents evidently are not.
Shock Capitalism.
Communism dead, socialism is popularly discredited, but "class war" is alive and well. The right has successfully practiced "class warfare" for over a decade.
I think that the Dems don't use the word "class war" for two reasons: They don't want to be accused of being Communists
milo9: You (and Shearer) are right, of course. The only "ism" left is capitalism, and by any definition, capitalism implies market competition, and competition implies losers ("victims").
In the past, whenever I've heard conservatives use the term "class warfare," it's been closely followed by the phrase "redistribution of wealth," which is the Republican's wicked euphemism for raising taxes on the wealthy. Robert Novak screams at Al Hunt, "Do you want to redistribute the wealth in this country?!?" And instead of saying, "Damn right," Hunt reflexively backs off his point, succumbing to the smear attack.
The real problem with the so-called "under class"--the demographic truth that tends to break one's heart and cause one to lose confidence in democracy--is that so many of these miserable citizens don't bother to vote or (eeek!) vote for Republicans. It's true. Same goes for union members.
Until the bottom or near-bottom economic class recognizes itself for what it is, little can be done for them from the "outside." We need a revolt from the disenfranchised, not a pipe dream that they're merely "evolving Republicans" in flux.
Don't get me started.
I think if you give a damn about social justice we're are started on the road that ends in a well-visited place, social unrest and violence.
This is from a transcript of President Bush's post-Katrina speech in August of 2005.
"The folks on the Gulf Coast are going to need the help of this country for a long time. This is going to be a difficult road. The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented, but there's no doubt in my mind we're going to succeed.
Right now the days seem awfully dark for those affected; I understand that. But I'm confident that with time you'll get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet, and America will be a stronger place for it.
The country stands with you. We'll do all in our power to help you."
I guess he must not have meant "all in our power" the way I thought.
What he meant to say was, "...We'll do all in our power to help screw you in ways you couldn't possibly have dreamt of."
SCREWBAR-ed
But didn't they invent the drink "Screwdriver" in New Orleans?
He lied.
He went to Jackson Square in New Orleans
to lie
because the rest or the country (you, unruliest of women) shamed him
into it.
Bush & Co. are Shock Capitalists
with Shock Troops
who guard these very housing projects right now to keep dispirit former residents from even RECLAIMING THEIR BELONGINGS.
http://ris
It is high time we stopped this crime.
It is time to move from bourgeois naivety to bourgeois nievete.
écrasez l'infâme
from the
back hand path
What RATE? The rate before the HOUSING BUBBLE BURST or the rate after the bubble burst?
Convenient price drop in housing, huh!
Salient point.
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