Times-Picayune - Ejected public housing residents return to C.J. Peete

Ejected public housing residents return to C.J. Peete
Homecoming lacks utilities, permission
Times-Picayune Sunday, February 11, 2007
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer
With a generator on the fire escape and some modest supplies, Dianne Allen moved back into her home in a shuttered Central City public housing complex Saturday for the first time since Hurricane Katrina -- without the government's help or permission.

"We're ready to come home," said Allen, 47, who grew up in the C.J. Peete complex back when it was called Magnolia and long before the Housing Authority of New Orleans fell under federal control for squandering millions of dollars that were meant for maintenance and upkeep. "We'll have to reopen it ourselves."
Despite HANO's orders that C.J. Peete remain closed as it awaits the wrecking ball, Allen and at least four of her neighbors returned Saturday to the 2400 block of Washington Avenue, moving back into apartments they started cleaning months ago.
About 40 people cheered on the returning residents.
HANO has plans to demolish four complexes: Peete, the St. Bernard complex in the 7th Ward, Lafitte near Treme and B.W. Cooper in Central City, although it reopened dozens of apartments in that complex late last year.
The residents who gathered Saturday accused HANO of trying to sell their homes to the highest bidder.
Residents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against HANO last year trying to block the large-scale closing of public housing in New Orleans, where the average rent pre-Katrina was $85 a month, with utilities paid. Public housing residents' rents are calculated at 30 percent of their income.
U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle this week refused to dismiss the suit, ruling that only a trial can resolve the core dispute between the government and the residents.
The housing agency maintains that Katrina ended the useful lifespan of the four developments it wants to demolish. It says they had deteriorated and been rendered antiquated years before Katrina.

'Prudent to demolish'

In a report commissioned by HANO this year, a consulting agency concluded that C.J. Peete "suffers from high density, overpopulated units, deteriorated buildings and infrastructure, obsolete building components, hazardous building materials," mold that started growing years ago and too much lead dust to pass basic screening tests.
The same report estimated the cost of demolition and new construction at $74.3 million, while saying "modernization" of the old complex would cost $90.7 million. Even repairing the units' "immediate needs" would cost $24 million, the report said, and then they still wouldn't meet current building codes.
"It is prudent to demolish this 65-year-old property and rebuild new housing," said the report by U.S. Risk Management LLC.
In its place, HANO wants developers to build a mixed-income neighborhood with 460 units. The first phase would have 50 "affordable housing" units, at a development cost of $18.8 million. The second phase would add 410 units, with at least 147 of them available to public housing residents, at a cost of $138 million.
Most of the money would come from federal low-income housing tax credits. The plans for the new buildings include amenities such as central air conditioning, ceramic tile in bathrooms, carpeted living rooms and all major appliances -- features unheard of in C.J. Peete's pre-World War II buildings.
Immediately before Katrina, only 144 families lived in Peete, which once housed more than 1,300 families spread across more than 40 acres.
The complex opened in 1941 with 723 apartments in 55 buildings. By the mid-1950s, 680 units had been added, all of which have since been demolished. About 200 units in the original complex have been approved for demolition.
HANO, which is essentially run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, first said it would reopen units at Peete after Hurricane Katrina but later changed course, citing vandalism and widespread damage to the buildings, which the agency failed to fence off or seal after the storm, as it did those at Lafitte.
Lenny Harris, 54, said he has been staying in Houston since Katrina, driving back and forth to New Orleans, but is home now, having reclaimed his apartment Saturday. Harris said former residents plan to reopen dozens more apartments at Peete.
"They're trying to do things underhanded, " Harris said of HANO. "They don't tell us nothing. They figured the vandalism would mess (Peete) up so they could tear it down."
Burglars, copper looters and the elements have taken an additional toll on Peete since Katrina struck 17 months ago, but the residents who came home said they still want to return to it.
Their return is limited by a lack of basic services, however, making it unclear how long the protesters might actually be prepared to stay.
Dianne Allen said she previously lived at the complex with her two grandchildren, a 2-year-old boy and a 2 1/2-year-old girl, but she wasn't having them stay the night with her.
A small group of protesters moved into the shuttered St. Bernard complex last month, but a New Orleans police SWAT team flushed them out last week, arresting two activists for "criminal damage" to property after a 3 a.m. raid on the section they had lived in for 17 days.
Saturday's "reoccupation" resembled a block party rather than a political protest, as the Hot 8 Brass Band performed, and activists and residents danced on Washington Avenue. Multicolored balloons and crepe paper were hung along the buildings' ironwork, and people whipped out umbrellas to second-line in celebration.
But the residents said their protest was no laughing matter.
"We are here to stay," said Bobbie Jennings, who with her sister, Gloria Williams, took back one apartment. Before Katrina, they lived next to each other at Peete, but decided to share one unit for the protest. "I don't care what they say," Jennings said. "We are here till hell freezes over, till they open these units."
Several other public housing residents showed up in support of the Peete tenants, saying they can see the developers coming to raze their homes.
"They want the Lafitte because it's close to the French Quarter," said Odessia Lewis, who lived at that development before Katrina. "But it's my home. Why would you want to tear something down?"
Valerie Anderson, 44, who used to coach football down the street at a local park, said she rode out the storm at Peete. "The water didn't come in these apartments," she said of the 2400 block of Washington. HANO's consultants have said "the entire site" took in water, damaging plumbing and electrical wires.
During an informal news conference, Anderson shouted -- to cheers -- "Let my people in!"
. . . . . . .
The entire report on the proposed redevelopment of C.J. Peete is available on HANO's Web site, www.hano.org
Gwen Filosa can be reached at gfilosa@timespicayu ne.com or (504) 826-3304.